Keetie van Oosten-Hage, Date of Birth, Place of Birth

    

Keetie van Oosten-Hage

Dutch cyclist

Date of Birth: 21-Aug-1949

Place of Birth: Sint-Maartensdijk, Zeeland, Netherlands

Profession: sport cyclist, track cyclist

Nationality: Kingdom of the Netherlands

Zodiac Sign: Leo


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About Keetie van Oosten-Hage

  • Cornelia (Keetie) Hage, known by her married name Keetie van Oosten-Hage, (born 21 August 1949) is a Dutch former cyclist from Sint-Maartensdijk, Zeeland.
  • She came from a family of cyclists, sister of Bella Hage, Heleen Hage and Ciska Hage, and aunt to Jan van Velzen.
  • She was the national pursuit champion 12 times consecutively and won the national road championship nine times, eight times consecutively.
  • She was the World Road Cycling Champion twice, first in 1968 under her maiden name of Cornelia (Keetie/Katie) Hage, then again in 1976 in her married name (shown here).
  • She is one of the great women competitors of all time in international cycling. On 16 September 1978, Hage set a world hour record at Munich with 43.082 km.
  • She improved the world 5 km, 10 km and 20 km records in the same ride.
  • She was Dutch sportswoman of the year in 1976 and 1978 and the trophy awarded each year to the Netherlands' best woman cyclist is named after her.
  • There were few international stage races for women in her period and no women's cycling in the Olympic Games. She retired, she said, because: I had won all the races there were.
  • They included six world championships and several Dutch championships and a big race in America.
  • There comes a point when it makes your ambitions less.
  • I was still winning, but I had done it all.
  • But I would love to have ridden the Tour Féminin. The Dutch cycling federation, the KNWU, gave her a job working with women coming up in her place.
  • She became what the federation called its coordinator from 1985. But it did not work.
  • There was a coach and I was the coordinator for a couple of years from 1985 but it did not work.
  • I would make all the arrangements but then the coach would be off after me to the KNWU and changed everything.
  • And that made me so angry.
  • I couldn't carry on like that, so I stopped. She considered becoming the coach or taking some other defined job within cycling.
  • But that would have involved taking a course and passing examinations, which did not appeal, and there were reports that the KNWU did not encourage her to do so. She taught handicrafts part-time at a college near her home in Kloetinge outside Goes, in Zeeland, and rode a bike a lot less, saying in 1990 that she missed that but not racing.
  • She gave away all the rainbow champions she won as world champion.
  • At the time they are nice to have, but then they are not so important and they mean more to other people, so I gave them away one by one.
  • Now, of course, I regret it, but it is too late.
  • I still have the medals, though. She rode 40 to 60 road races a year: Usually I won.
  • A lot of people said at least now you have gone it will give other people a chance and we can use different tactics and so on.
  • I can understand the other girls getting disillusioned because I usually won, and I suppose in retrospect that is not necessarily so good for the sport: She never enjoyed meeting journalists.
  • She said: Journalists always ask difficult questions.
  • It is quite a strain in a way, having your picture in the papers and things about you, and getting your picture on television.
  • It was not so bad, but I never enjoyed it.
  • Now there are girls here in Holland who go out of their way to seek publicity, and it is good because it draws attention to women's racing, but I could never go running after the reporters and so on.

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