Michael Boogerd

Michael Boogerd (born 28 May 1972) is a Dutch former professional road bicycle racer. He was one of the leaders of a generation of Dutch cyclists in the late 1990s and early 2000s, together with teammate Erik Dekker and female cyclist Leontien van Moorsel.

Career

Boogerd was born and grew up in The Hague. In primary school, he was in the same class as later professional tennis player Richard Krajicek. He began his professional career in 1994, joining WordPerfect. In 1995 the team changed name to Novell, before Rabobank in 1996 became main sponsor and name for the team. Boogerd stayed with the team his entire career.

His speciality were hilly classics like Liège–Bastogne–Liège, La Flèche Wallonne and the Amstel Gold Race in the Ardennes week and the Lombardian races in the Fall, as well as mountain-stages. He has won two stages in Tour de France (1996, 2002) as well as the Amstel Gold Race and Paris–Nice. He has been Dutch Champion three times, in 1997, 1998 and in 2006. In addition to these major victories, Boogerd scored a large number of podium finishes in his favorite spring classics.

In the 1998 Tour de France, Boogerd finished 5th overall in the General classification, his highest finish ever in the Tour de France. Boogerd was also fined 1250 Swiss Francs for not wearing his national champion jersey in the prologue of that year. His main result in the 2005 Tour de France was on stage 15, where he finished 4th, 57 seconds behind stage winner, George Hincapie. Also in the Tour de France 2005, he was punished with twenty seconds at Stage 9 of the race. In the 2006 Tour de France, Boogerd's role was to support Rabobank team leader Denis Menchov in the Alps and Pyrenees. He rode exceptionally well helping his team captain to 6th overall and Michael Rasmussen to the Polka Dot jersey.

In the 2007 Tour de France Boogerd rode, again, very well. This time his teammate Michael Rasmussen was the leader of the race until the latter was fired after the last stage in the Pyrenees. On the Thursday before the start of this Tour, Boogerd infused himself with water in the early morning, before the UCI agents could arrive. His hematocrit level namely was 50, "on the edge of the edge". During the Tour, Boogerd and Thomas Dekker used cortisone (Diprofos) under a fake attest every day, and administered eight times 2000 entities of Dynepo.

Boogerd ended his career in 2007, with a 12th place in the World Championship road race in Stuttgart. His planned last race was the 2007 Giro di Lombardia, but a fall in the weeks before made him unable to participate.

After his active career, Boogerd has done freelance promotional activities for Rabobank, and is frequently seen or heard on TV during live coverage of major races, both on Dutch and Belgian television.

Boogerd was appointed team manager of Team Roompot, a UCI Professional Continental cycling team launching in 2015.

Doping

Allegations that Boogerd used performance-enhancing drugs were made since at least 2008, when Bernhard Kohl, who had finished third in the 2008 Tour de France but was stripped of that honor after testing positive for CERA, a variant of EPO accused his manager Stefan Matschiner. Matschiner, in turn, named a number of athletes whom he had supplied with drugs and blood transfusions, including Boogerd (whose name appeared in Matschiner's files). Until early 2013, Boogerd continued to deny. He finally admitted, in a television interview on 6 March 2013 (seen by nearly a million viewers), to having used EPO, blood transfusions and cortisone from 1997 to 2007. In October 2014, he was approached by the Belgian federation, allegedly to offer him to shorten his proposed ban in exchange for naming other dopers and he answered this: "The Belgian federation had the same proposal as the Dutch Doping Authority had. I will be suspended for a long period, or I will have to talk about other people. I refuse to do that. I rather be suspended for life". In January 2016 he received a two-year suspension and his results from 2005 to 2007 were annulled.

Major results

1993

8th Omloop van het Houtland

1996

1st Stage 6 Tour de France

3rd Seraing–Aachen–Seraing

10th Brabantse Pijl

1997

1st Road race, National Road Championships

1st Profronde van Heerlen

3rd Brabantse Pijl

4th Overall Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré

7th Nokere Koerse

8th Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme

1998

1st Road race, National Road Championships

1st Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme 1st Stage 3

2nd Overall Route du Sud

2nd Giro di Lombardia

3rd Brabantse Pijl

4th Overall Tour of the Basque Country

4th Amstel Gold Race

4th Rund um den Henninger Turm

4th Flèche Ardennaise

5th Overall Tour de France

5th Liège–Bastogne–Liège

5th Tour du Haut Var

6th Road race, UCI Road World Championships

10th Grand Prix Eddy Merckx

1999

1st Overall Paris–Nice

1st Amstel Gold Race

1st Giro dell'Emilia

1st Gran Premio Bruno Beghelli

1st Stage 5a Tour of the Basque Country

2nd Overall Tour Méditerranéen

2nd Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme

2nd Liège–Bastogne–Liège

2nd Brabantse Pijl

3rd Breitling Grand Prix (with Erik Dekker)

4th Overall Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria

4th Classic Haribo

5th La Flèche Wallonne

6th Züri-Metzgete

8th Coppa Sabatini

9th Clásica de San Sebastián

10th Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 1st Stage 5

10th Overall Tour de Luxembourg

2000

1st Stage 7 Tirreno–Adriatico

2nd Amstel Gold Race

5th Gran Premio Industria e Commercio di Prato

6th Coppa Sabatini

8th Overall Tour de Suisse

8th Brabantse Pijl

9th Overall Tour of the Basque Country

2001

1st Overall Setmana Catalana de Ciclisme

1st Brabantse Pijl

1st Trofeo Alcúdia

2nd Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 1st Points classification 1st Stages 1 & 4

2nd Overall International Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt 1st Stage 1

3rd Overall Tirreno–Adriatico 1st Stage 7

3rd Giro di Lombardia

4th Road race, National Road Championships

5th Liège–Bastogne–Liège

6th Overall Volta ao Algarve

7th Overall Tour of the Basque Country 1st Points classification

9th Amstel Gold Race

9th La Flèche Wallonne

10th Overall Tour de France

2002

1st Peperbus Profspektakel

1st Stage 16 Tour de France

1st Stage 6 Ronde van Nederland

3rd Overall Tour Méditerranéen

3rd Overall Ster Elekrotoer

3rd Amstel Gold Race

4th Overall Tour of the Basque Country

4th Coppa Sabatini

6th Giro di Lombardia

9th La Flèche Wallonne

9th Brabantse Pijl

2003

1st Brabantse Pijl

2nd Amstel Gold Race

3rd Liège–Bastogne–Liège

4th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico

4th Züri-Metzgete

6th Road race, UCI Road World Championships

6th Overall Tour Méditerranéen

7th Overall Ronde van Nederland

8th Clásica de San Sebastián

9th Overall Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana

9th Tour of Flanders

10th Giro di Lombardia

2004

2nd Liège–Bastogne–Liège

2nd Giro di Lombardia

2nd Amstel Gold Race

2nd Brabantse Pijl

3rd Coppa Sabatini

4th Overall Tour Méditerranéen

5th Overall Ster Elekrotoer

6th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico

7th Road race, UCI Road World Championships

2005

2nd Amstel Gold Race

3rd Liège–Bastogne–Liège

6th Overall Tour de Pologne

7th Overall Tour of the Basque Country

2006

1st Road race, National Road Championships

1st Peperbus Profspektakel

3rd Amstel Gold Race

4th Züri–Metzgete

5th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico

5th Liège–Bastogne–Liège

8th Giro di Lombardia

2007

1st Peperbus Profspektakel

3rd Overall 3-Länder-Tour

4th Road race, National Road Championships

5th Amstel Gold Race

6th Liège–Bastogne–Liège

6th Brabantse Pijl

9th Tour of Flanders

10th Overall Tirreno–Adriatico

Grand Tour general classification results timeline

See also

• List of Dutch Olympic cyclists

External links

• at UCI
• at ProCyclingStats
• at Cycling Quotient
• at CycleBase
• at Olympedia