Leontien Martha Henrica Petronella Zijlaard-van Moorsel (born 22 March 1970) is a Dutch retired racing cyclist. She was a dominant cyclist in the 1990s and early 2000s, winning four gold medals at the Olympic Games and holding the hour record for women from 2003 until 2015.^[1]

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Leontien van Moorsel

Leontien van Moorsel in 1991
Personal information
Full name	Leontien Martha Henrica Petronella Zijlaard-van Moorsel
Born	(1970-03-22) 22 March 1970 (age 54) Boekel, Netherlands
Team information
Discipline	Road & track
Role	Rider
Amateur teams
1992	KNWU AMEV Batavus A-selectie Nederland
1997	VKS
1999	Opstalan
Professional team
2000–2004	Hartol–Farm Frites
Major wins
Stage races Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale (1992, 1993) Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin (1991) Emakumeen Bira (2000) Trophée d'Or Féminin (2000) One day races & classics Olympic Road Champion (2000) Olympic Time Trial Champion (2000, 2004) World Road Champion (1991, 1993) World Time Trial Champion (1998, 1999) National Road Champion (1998–2000, 1992, 1993, 1998, 1999) National Time Trial Champion (1997, 1998–2002)
Medal record Representing the  Netherlands Women's Road bicycle racing Olympic Games 2000 Sydney Road race 2000 Sydney Time trial 2004 Athens Time trial World Championships 1991 Stuttgart Road race 1993 Oslo Road race 1998 Valkenburg Time trial 1999 Verona Time trial 1998 Valkenburg Road race Women's Track cycling Olympic Games 2000 Sydney Individual pursuit 2000 Sydney Points race 2004 Athens Individual pursuit World Championships 1990 Maebashi City Individual pursuit 2001 Antwerp Individual pursuit 2002 Copenhagen Individual pursuit 2003 Stuttgart Individual pursuit 1998 Bordeaux Individual pursuit

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Van Moorsel started her career in 1977.^{[dubious – discuss]} She won major races both on the track, and on the road. In the first half of the 1990s, she won the Tour Féminin twice, after fierce competition with Jeannie Longo.

Van Moorsel dropped out of cycling in 1994 with anorexia nervosa^[2] but recovered to compete at the World Championships in 1998, winning the time trial and coming second in the road race.

At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, van Moorsel won gold medals on the road (road race and time trial), and on the track (3 km pursuit). At the 2004 Summer Olympics, she fell in the penultimate lap of the road race and was stretchered off and taken to the hospital by ambulance,^[3] but nevertheless successfully defended her time trial title two days later.

She set a new world hour record for women of 46.065 km, in 2003 in Mexico City,^[4] which was not improved upon for almost 12 years, when UCI rule changes prompted a new succession of attempts.

Van Moorsel retired from professional cycling after the 2004 Olympics.

In 2017 Van Moorsel became director of the Women's Amstel Gold Race.^[5]

In September 2017, Van Moorsel was accused by sports physician Peter Janssen of using EPO in 2000 and 2001.^[6]

Van Moorsel married former track cyclist Michael Zijlaard in October 1995.^[7] They have a daughter.

• List of Dutch Olympic cyclists
• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists at a single Games