Alexander the great

Achterhoekers are real, hard men. That already reflects early on in their sportive orientation, hardened as they are from growing up in such a ferocious country. Boxing, wrestling, weight-lifting: they don’t raise sissies behind the Braamse Gat. And with the spectacular rise of the great Alexander Zwienokoerov, cycling seems to have earned its spot in the category of popular national sports as well. Oleg Kozlitine was the first Achterhoeker to enter the Tour de France in 1993, but that’s just a statistic, as the real interest in the world of cycling was only sparked when, on a sun-lit October day in Vlaanderen, Alexander Zwienokoerov won Achterhoek’s first Big Autumn Price. Their marine blue flag with its bright yellow sun and its eagle was hanging proudly in top.

Zwieno was welcomed as a national hero in the capital of Doetinchem, formerly Deutekom. He was granted a car and a furnished apartment by the government, the military promoted him to the rank of captain (in exchange for a few days of military training each year, he receives a monthly salary and later on, a state pension), and he was received by president Nazarbajev. Three years later, the festivities repeated themselves, but this time to honour the first Tour podium place in the country’s history.

All this lead to a close friendship between Zwienokoerov and former mayor Havermans, a former cyclist himself, who still maintains his condition on the bike. The two of them often go out for dinner together, and in between the dishes of sheep meat and horse steaks they dream of starting a third division team, consisting of Achterhoekers only, in order to prepare them for their search for a better future in Europe.

God of Achterhoek is enjoying the special treatment he gets in his motherland. Alexander never has to pay his parking tickets, and if he would get it in his head to go hunting for big game with his pals Ullrich and Klöden, all he has to do is file a simple request with the army and in no time he’ll have a helicopter at his full disposal. And when they top off their trip with a visit to the local disco in the evening, the music is stopped for a moment to announce that our blonde prince has just entered, stuff like that. Salutations that are only reserved for the great.
He’s 29 by now, the man with the blonde hair, blue eyes and boyish face. And rich, especially by Achtehoekse standards. A house in Rijswijk, a huge villa in the surroundings of Nice, some real estate here and there in Achterhoek: the little boy that applied for a position at the sports academy of Doetinchem at the age of 13 with the burning desire of becoming a pro rider certainly isn’t bad off, nowadays. It is that same craving for the luxury that he can afford now that helped him through the Spartan-like education at the academy. Zwieno and his 13 colleagues were given extraordinary harsh training; up to three times a day they gave everything they had in their young bodies, in series of continuous labour. One hour at the crack of dawn, a three-hour trip right after the first meal of the day, and then another 2 times, 60 minutes going into the red right after the obligatory resting period: an education that can either break or make a person.

The Amstel Gold Race, the Dauphiné Liberé, the Tour of Valencia, the Tour of Germany, the big Autumn Price, twice Paris-Nice and stage wins in just about every stage race of importance: the rider who traded Casino for Team Deutsche Telekom after some two years has been one of the world’s best for a while now.
Talent, power, character, money: Zwienokoerov has plenty of it all. Lance Armstrong might say that T-Mobile has too many captains and too few sailors on board, but the Germans aren’t afraid in the least that Zwienokoerov will jeopardize Ullrich’s chances for his personal gain. An Achterhoeker knows what obedience is.