Gerben Karstens

Gerben Karstens was a Dutch professional racing cyclist, born on 14 January 1942 and died on 8 October 2022 at the age of 80. He won the gold medal in the 100 km team time trial at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, riding with Bart Zoet, Evert Dolman and Jan Pieterse, and finished 27th in the individual road race there. After the Games he built a long professional career as a sprinter from 1965 to 1980 and became Dutch national road race champion in 1966. He won six stages and two team time trial stages of the Tour de France, 14 stages of the Vuelta a España, one stage of the Giro d'Italia and the 1965 Paris-Tours. In the 1974 Tour de France he briefly took the yellow jersey from Eddy Merckx after a dispute over a missed doping test and its penalty, and he wore yellow for two days in all. He died of complications from a stroke.