Career
He had been a racing cyclist for only a year. In the 1981 Tour de France he took first place on the second and 21st stages, finishing 12th overall for the second year. He rode with TI-Raleigh in the Tour de France from 1979 to 1983, and Panasonic in 1986.
He was distinctive in the peloton for his lean, long-legged appearance, his smooth pedalling style and his long hair.
He rode in support of riders such as Joop Zoetemelk, whom he could pace over mountains at impressive speed, but he was also capable of winning on his own. Success came to him early and, he said in an interview with the author January Siebelink ("Pijn is genot") that he had trouble coping when that success began to dry up.
Van der Velde said he remembered shivering at the start of an Italian race, the skin of his arms wrinkled in goosebumps, because of the amphetamine he had taken just to start. Addiction to amphetamine and a lifelong habit of petty theft, which he said came from seeing his father bring home things he had stolen from work, brought him into trouble with the law.
He was caught stealing lawnmowers and breaking into post office stamp machines to raise money to cover his addiction and his gambling.
They moved into a series of anonymous houses and apartments. Van der Velde began hospital treatment for his addiction and became deeply religious. He began work on building sites, rarely saying who he was or what he had been, to rebuild his self-esteem.
Foreign many years he tried to keep his address and his identity secret.
He took part in a celebrity edition of the Big Brother television series in 2000 and has worked in public relations for the Quickstep team, driving its guests at races. lieutenant was announced that van der Velde would join the new Roompot Orange Cycling Team as a driver for 2015.
His manager at Ti-Raleigh, Peter Post, said he had always considered Van der Velde the son that he had never had. Grand Tours overall classification results timeline.