Patrick Jonker was a professional cyclist for over 12
years.
He raced with big trade teams like ONCE, Rabobank and US Postal.
He was
born in Amsterdam, Netherlands but came to Australia when he was young. He holds dual ancestry and was actually the
Dutch National Champion in 1997.
He was also the Director of Sport USA Cycling's
U23 team.
Currently he is involved with bikestyletours.com offering
tours to the Giro and TdF, he is a product specialist for bikesportz imports
and also coaches with his company Cardiac Drift.
Patrick Jonker is an exceptional athlete but has many tales
to tell with his cycling.
His early days and schooling were in Amsterdam. Pat describes how big cycling is even for the
youngsters and how they learnt very early how to race
“school kids as young as 8-9 will ride in
echelons to school battling the strong westerly
winds just to save some time”
One of his interesting comments was
“its also
where we used to chase junkies who would
often try and steal our bikes, we would
chase them as hard as we could but could never catch them”
Wow imagine having some drug affected bloke steal your
bike and all of your mates would then try to chase them down!
When Pat and his family moved to Adelaide, they brought the cycling culture
with them
“my dad and uncle both raced at an elite level –
dad took me up Willunga hill often – if
the grapes were ripe then we would stop and eat some”
Pat started racing early with Port Noarlunga and South Coast
(which happens to be my club) he remembers his early days fondly
“we used to race crits around the Colonnades
shopping centre” Which is now a westfield at Noarlunga in
South Australia
He remember his early days of track racing in Adelaide after
the golden boast that the 1984 Olympics gave to track racing
“..track racing was booming, Hanson Reserve
(Stuart o’grady old hunting ground as a junior) we had just won gold in LA so
plenty of champions to learn from”
Patrick reflects on the importance of his family in his
early days and also why later in the interview we don’t see Pat continuing with
his post-racing career as a Dirtectur sportif.
“... with out family support its
very difficult - my dad never put
pressure on me to train just made it clear that cycling is a very hard sport
and you need to train very hard to have
any kind of success“
Patrick makes an interesting point about new arrivals in
Australia, he didn't play football and cricket and had a funny accent but this
was to our nations advantage
“(I) didn't fit into school very well
so ended up training a few
afternoons during the school
weeks . told the teacher I was training for the Olympics
he states with a smirk, I am sure
“well in a way I was”
Patrick remembers he favourite rides in Adelaide and why he
probably won the Tour Down under in 2004
“To Victor Harbor and back would have to be the
most traditional ride in Adelaide and also my favourite we would take the
longer way via Yankalilla and sometimes
even via Cape Jervis”
From his early days, Patrick and I spent some time
reflecting on his early days as a cyclist. He was one of the first AIS Road
Cycling scholars but being and Adelaide resident was totally familiar with the
denizen of track cycling Charlie Walsh
“It was great, basically what Charlie Walsh had put together
for the Track Program, Heiko Salzwedel did the same for the Road during the early 90s (that is) we had great bikes and were
fully supported at the AIS in Canberra
Pat mentions how important this program
was to him personally and to Australian cycling
“it was special being the first
AIS road scholarship holder to
turn Pro and ride the TDF many have followed since”
In the early days of federal government support of Road
cycling Cycling, Australia look overseas and selected the former East German
Coach Heiko Salzwedel.
Comments have been he was a
hard taskmaster, Pat retorts
“being an East German coach yes they were all very hard (but you) had to be, cycling is a
hard sport -- yep we did some mega KM’s”
Pat adds about some training in Heiko’s home turf
“most memorable were the
training camps in East Germany soon after the wall had come down, Cottbus was
our base and a few riders cracked there – not the most exciting place to train
and live but it made you tough.
He again comments wryly
“training for the 100km TTT in
Cottbus were memorable times”
I ask Pat about some classic amateur
races of the early 90’s the Milk Race and the Peace race
“Yes won two stages at the
Milk Race one of my favourite races , the Peace Race no I had turned Pro by the
time the AIS raced there.
This leads me to another line of
questioning for Pat,
You signed with your first professional
team Histor Laser Peter Posts team in August 93 and early you described yourself as
50:50 Aussie:Dutch, is this still the case?
“More Aussie, my kids were also born overseas but are also more Aussie than Dutch”.
I asked Pat about representing both
Australia in 1992 and 1996 and the being the Netherlands ITT champ in 1998 and
Philosophically and as true racer, Patrick replies
“For me it was
about the racing not so much being a
patriot during that time (I) just loved racing (and it)
didn’t really matter which country, planet Mars would have done as well”
I suppose “hand over the heart” politics
would say where do you allegiances lie, but I think and Patrick makes the
comment well
“Yep back then (I) must say being Dutch in a Dutch team meant more (income), so yes its true in
the end we don’t just race for fun……we are professional athletes who race for the money as well. So I did what needed to be done
financially not sentimentally”
I thank Patrick for his honest comment
and it comes back to a statement I have always made in life and its written in
fables and legends
“in the end you always pay the piper or the ferryman”
Pat makes the observation that back then
“when working in Europe you’re
better off with a euro passport”
I suppose an interesting anecdote is that Adam Hansen
holds a dual Italian-Australian passport and I can promise you I have spoken
with Adam and he is Aussie as, very special of course, but Aussie as!
I asked Pat that was speaking Dutch and
asset and again I am sure he giggled at my ignorance
“As a Pro you need to be fluent in French; Italian and Spanish helps also but Dutch not
really.... they all speak English!”
We move on, with discussion of his grand tour
participations.
I asked Pat about his experiences in the Giro and Vuelta.
I rode the Giro for Oliverio Rincon who
finished 5th and the Vuelta for Peter Luttenberger who pulled out
“The Giro is very tough arguably the hilliest
and hardest Grand Tour and also the coldest wettest sometimes racing hours in
the snow and sleet. I Guess at the time the best part was getting to the finish
each day after spending most of the day wondering if you will ever make it to
the finish. There are many times you are actually hating the unbearable painful
situation you are in but hope (which
springs eternal) and optimism overrule the negative
thoughts and you really surprise yourself how much punishment"
He makes the observation
“ the human body can actually take far more
than we realize actually, so riding Grand Tours teaches you to overcome not
only your rivals and the punishing
mountain stages but far more importantly it teaches you how to overcome any negative thoughts that enter your mind when the going gets tough”
It seems that perhaps Patrick would make a wonderful
motivational speaker.
In 1996 Patrick came 12th in the General
classification but high standings eluded him in subsequent tours. Pat mentioned
also had success in many races
"I started off really well from day one as a pro in the stage races especially in the smaller Tours like the Dauphine Midi Libre Route Du Sud and other races"
But in 1996 he had a great tour
"(the 19)96 TDF, I had a great
Tour, making many of the early breaks, which gave me a head start, each time,
we hit the mountains. So once the big hitters came past me, I was never that
far behind at the finish . (but) during the
later Tours it became more difficult to make the early breaks"
I suppose this sums-up racing succinctly luck is so
important!
I did not want to dwell on possibilities and I will grill
Patrick about that later but I wanted to know how far and wide does cycling
takes you.
“I have raced all over Europe, North America
and Asia . We are able to travel
throughout the whole world really each
country has its own stage race even in Iraq where cycling used to be popular. (Even
in) Burkino Faso in
Africa (there is) also a big stage race"
So there are no limits on travelling the world and racing bikes.
I commented to Patrick about how many Australian’s based
themselves in Girona and Monaco and such and he states
“I lived in Girona, Spain in 1994-1995. A good friend lived at the foot of the
Pyrenees near Olot and recommended the area of Girona as a great place to train
and live so we did and it was
fantastic ….. offcourse being nomads we didn't stay there for too
long so I lived in, Belgium Holland and also Paris.
I explored the idea of the endless travel, And pat states
“Most of us are travellers” “we are a kind of gypsy on wheels, a nomads
on wheels, for me its never been a
problem”
On racing, I asked, what was Pat’s favourite races
“Dauphine Libre, Tour de Suisse, Tour du Pont,
Route Du Sud, Tour Down Under, Tour de
France, Giro d’ Italia , Liege Bastogne Liege and Milan San Remo and basically all the Hilly Tours—the
Olympics is special too offcourse ! “
Moving from Racing people might need to remember that Pat
was Director of the U23 Team USA where he coached Taylor Phinney to great
success. I asked him about his fondest memories.
“Yep we had a dream team Andrew Talansky Taylor Phinney Ben King
and Larry Warbasse all have gone
on to the Pro Tour and are doing very well.
Again the self-effacing and unassuming Patrick puts
forward the point
“with that much talent it was an easy job being
DS and guiding them to some great victories and I have many great memories one
of my best years on the road with some amazing talent –
With respect to
“Taylor Phinney, winning the world title in
the ITT was amazing being a part of that
victory and
making sure all went to plan on the day
With George “Talansky winning
some amazing races during the year in Italy and France and it was a great year
due tovery dedicated athletes, we worked
very well together”
I asked Patrick You’re not
involved in national level coaching anymore despite your success with Team USA
any reasons for this? He probably reflects on this at his age, the “cycling nomad
idea”l in the he interview and states
“Yeh, Would love to be DS for Team USA again or
an Aussie team but travelling constantly was taking its toll on my family
He quietly rightly
states
“family first”
Patrick to his credit
was candid about doping in the Peloton and of course in particular that he was
a ardent supporter of Lance Armstrong, on more than a cycling level and he also raced with US Postal in 2000.
I think some of these next
comments from Patrick Jonker a 12 year professional in the dark days needs to
be considered when judging the era.
I asked him about Lance Armstong
“Yep a tragedy for the sport and I think that era is an era to forget
He tries to put it in context
“ it was a jungle for a while”
"(in this era its)
hard to explain, really, It was
almost like competing in the Hunger Games
with little to no rules or rules that worked (really), anyway --- "
But looking to the
future
“that has all changed now thankfully”
But he makes the point
quite fairly
“ was it all just Lances fault ?? … no
off course not”
I explored the case presented by Bradley McGee about he
career being robbed
And Patrick commented about his career and agreed
“I think so but unfortunately we will never ever know !
many were duped”
"Gee how many TDFs would Cadel have won? A few I would say:”
“Brads article was spot on"
I put forward the proposition
that you were on US Postal can you say that no doping was visible to you
“... even while on the team and being a good
mate – he (Lance) never spoke to me
about enhancing performance artificially
(in a way he protected me I guess or didn’t trust me!)
He then
with thought adds
“but then again I didn’t ride on the TDF team”
“And had
I, then it most likely would have been a
very different story, I was never part
of the inner circle to be part of the inner circle I would have had to ride a
TDF with US Postal”
Then reflecting the “racer” in all rider’s of Patricks
calibre he then adds
“I didn’t (race in the Postal, TDF
team) which was a massive massive disappointment at the
time and pretty much career ending”
But then, with 20:20
vision that is always possible with the passing of time mentions
“maybe in hindsight it was a good thing !??”
The questions marks are all Patrick and I thank again
Patrick for being candid and honest
Surely many clean
cyclists must think, well Lance Armstrong took all the gear and he has a
private jet!
I presented to Pat, there is an issue in Australian Rules
footballers who have been placed into an uncompromising position because of
unscrupulous sports scientists and team management and reminded him of comments
by Laurent Jalabert who Patrick raced with at ONCE which were “he cannot deny
doping” “because he said that he trusted the team’s doctors and sports
scientists, but now he is not sure”
Patrick makes the very valued point “Athletes alone aren’t
able to beat the drug testing
system, if they try its often with the help of people more highly educated"
This point is particularly true and probably missed by
the cycling public riders don’t cheat alone, where is the accountability to all
involved including the manufactures.
I explored the point of
accountability more with Patrick and presented the position maintained by Neil Stephens. Stephens said
that he was unaware that Festina doctors were supplying EPO and he thought it
was vitamins and he had to receive the injections as apart of the team’s
medical policy. I asked if that’s possible
Patrick states
“Yep
that’s true too. There are instances when an athlete cant be 100% sure what the
Doctor is giving him and trust
is important !!!”
I then decided to put it straight up
Are you sure you never took wittingly or unwittingly and
he replied with confidence
“Yep I’m sure, I’m naturally almost illegal even today with
a Hct (hemocrit) of 49.7%. My haemoglobin is through the
roof also –
“ so you can’t
really see any room to enhance performance un naturally when naturally I almost
fail the blood test anyhow!
I allow Patrick the closing comments on this issue
"Oh look, unfortunately in the world of sport where
there is big money, you will find people willing to cheat its called the human nature or the
human race. I guess a combination of the best possible drug
testing system ( biological passport ) such
as what cycling has at the moment and combined
with IQ testing will ensure a clean future for the sport of cycling "
I think it wonderful comment that he feels that perhaps some cyclists need intelligence checking!
To finish this interview lets some-up some of the
wonderful things
Patrick is doing now !
Patrick is an ambassador for Ride to Reason (http://www.rideforareason.com.au/) , he
does this and is probably a reason why Lance Armstrong was defended so strongly
by Patrick and that’s
“ both my aunties died of cancer, my granddad
died young of cancer and my mum is a survivor. So in my spare time I
like to do as much as I can. Life can be
cut very short in an instant many people
forget that each day"
Very good points indeed!
He also is a rider
and ambassador for the Aboriginal cultural experience and fundraising tour
called cycling for culture http://www.cyclingforculture.com.au/
Here in Adelaide he has a bikeway named after him and a stage
of the new Adelaide Tour he feels
“it’s a great
honour to be recognized for past
achievements would be good if they put a sign up though”
Of course, Pat would love to list all his helpers in his
journey but goes back to the core of his being that is too
many to mention, Mum Dad, my wife and our wonderful kids .
On a final note I asked Patrick do you still have the
fire he states
“ despite all the problems of the past cycling
is still a very beautiful sport only we
must ensure history doesn’t repeat, but really simply cycling is fun and
healthy for you and I still
prefer early mornings, 6am,
its still quiet on the roads. So I go out for two hours hard"
Of course you do, we would expect nothing else!
Thanks Pat, your are tops!
