Eef Dolman

The career of Dutch cyclist Eef Dolman was mixed with both glory and tragedy. After winning some amateur races in the Netherlands, Dolman was selected to compete at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. At the Games he won gold in the 100 kilometres team time trial on the road with his compatriots Gerben Karstens, Jan Pieterse, and Bart Zoet. After the Olympics he continued to win races in both the Netherlands and Belgium, earning himself a place on the Dutch team for the UCI Road World Championships in West Germany. At the championships Dolman won gold in the amateur road race, finishing ahead of Les West (GBR) and Willy Skibby (DEN).

In 1967 Dolman won the sixth stage of the Vuelta a España, in addition to becoming the Dutch national road race champion. His victory in the latter, however, was stripped from him after he admitted to doping. Despite heavy criticism from the press, he continued to race, winning the Dutch road race title in 1968. He rode in three further editions of the Vuelta, along with four editions of the Tour de France, finishing 32nd overall in 1970. The following year Dolman had the best result of his career when he won the Tour of Flanders one-day race in Belgium.

Dolman was forced to retire from cycling in 1973 due to chronic pain. In the mid-1980s he started to develop dementia, and spent the rest of his life in a nursing home. He was only 47-years-old when he died in May 1993.