Michael Boogerd (born May 28, 1972 in The Hague) 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, even inspiring Dutch authors to write a book called "Michael & Erik" about this generation, and the two of them in particular.
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, which gave him a reputation in the Netherlands of being 2nd or 3rd more often than winning - a notion he dismissed in a 2007 interview looking back at his career.
In the 1998 Tour de France, Boogerd finished 5th overall in the General Classification, his highest finish ever in the Tour. 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.
He is known for gritting his super-white teeth. His nickname is the "Boogie-man". 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.
Read more about Michael Boogerd: Major Results
Famous quotes containing the word michael:
“Sometimes we have to go through the darkness alone, before we can see the light.”
—Adele Comandini. Edward Sutherland. Michael O’Brien (Charles Winninger)