A member of the all-powerful TI Raleigh team that dominated the pro racing scene during the late '70s and early '80s, Jan Raas was a prolific winner able to stand out in a team full of winners. His first major classic win came in 1977 in Milan - San Remo, a report on which you can find below. It was in his native Holland's only classic the Amstel Gold Race that Raas really shone, only a determined effort from Bernard Hinault in 1981 stopped Raas from achieveing an incredible six wins in a row.
TI-Raleigh was a Dutch professional road bicycle racing team between 1974 and 1983. The team was created and led by Peter Post. The team was successful in classics and in stage races. Riders included Joop Zoetemelk, Jan Raas, Gerrie Knetemann, Hennie Kuiper, Dave Lloyd, Urs Freuler, Henk Lubberding, Rene Pijnen, Johan van der Velde and Dietrich Thurau. The team was known for discipline; team time trials were a speciality. The team was sponsored by British cycling manufacturer Raleigh and Raleigh's holding company Tube Investments (TI). At the end of the 1983 season, the TI-Raleigh team split up because of tension between former world champion Jan Raas and team leader Peter Post[1], with seven cyclists following Post to the new Panasonic team and six cyclists joining Raas on the Kwantum team[2].
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