Kenny van Hummel
 |
|
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Kenny van Hummel |
| Nickname | Kamikaze Kenny |
| Born | September 30, 1982 Elden, Netherlands |
| Height | 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in) |
| Weight | 64 kg (140 lb) |
| Team information | |
| Current team | Vacansoleil-DCM |
| Discipline | Road |
| Role | Rider |
| Rider type | Sprinter |
| Amateur team(s) | |
| 2002–2003 2004 2005 |
Rabobank TT3 Van Hemert-Eurogifts Eurogifts.com |
| Professional team(s) | |
| 2006–2011 2012– |
Skil-Shimano Vacansoleil-DCM |
| Infobox last updated on 26 February 2012 |
|
Kenny van Hummel (born September 30, 1982 in Elden, Gelderland) is a road bicycle racer from the Netherlands, specialising in sprint finishes. He rides for Vacansoleil-DCM and used to live in Driel, before moving to Elden.[1][2] Van Hummel started cycling races at the age of seven, and one year later he became a member of cycling club "De Adelaar" in Apeldoorn. He had a successful youth career, and at 1998 joined the Rabobank youth team. He started road races and cyclo-cross races. In 2000, his second year as a junior, he came in fourth in the 2000 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships for juniors.
In 2004, Van Hummel changed teams to Van Hemert-Eurogifts. Van Hummel won a sprint in the ZLM Tour, and became second in the national championships for espoirs. One year later, Van Hummel won the Dutch road race championship for cyclists without professional contract, and won five criteriums.
In 2006, Van Hummel became a professional cyclist for Skil-Shimano. In that year he reached the podium in stages of the Tour of Belgium and the ENECO Tour, and won the Tour of North-Holland, which finished in a sprint.
2009 was a successful year for Van Hummel, especially the month of May. He won five races, the Profronde van Fryslan, Dutch Food Valley Classic, the Tour de Rijke and a stage in the Four Days of Dunkirk, and confirmed that he could win sprints as a professional. He became leader in the 2008–2009 UCI Europe Tour.[3] At the Dutch National Road Race Championships, Van Hummel was competing for the win all day. Koos Moerenhout escaped close to the end, but Van Hummel finished second by winning the sprint.[4]
Van Hummel was selected to join the 2009 Tour de France, after his team Skil-Shimano received a wildcard. Van Hummel was the first one to leave in time trial in the first stage, and finished the time trial in the second-worst time. After the sixth stage, Van Hummel was ranked last in the general classification. In the following mountain stages, Van Hummel could not keep up with the other cyclists, and finished among the last cyclists every day, sometimes riding tens of kilometers on his own, with a large margin to the other cyclists. His difficulties were increased by the fact that his team felt they could not afford to devote a domestique to assist Van Hummel (as is commonly done for other sprinters such as Mark Cavendish), as they could not afford to run the risk of having both riders disqualified. His daily struggle against the time limit, and his positive attitude made him a popular cyclist in the Netherlands. In the seventeenth stage, he fell and had to leave the race due to his sustained injuries.
After the mountain stages, the French newspaper L'Équipe named Van Hummel the "worst climber ever" in the Tour de France. The newspaper said that it never happened before that the same cyclist finished last in every mountain stage.[5] What they did not say was that some other riders already left the tour because of the heavy mountain stages.
Van Hummel will join Vacansoleil-DCM for the 2012 season, having signed a two-year deal.[6]
[edit] Palmarès
- 2007
- 1st, Ronde van Noord-Holland
- 2009
- 2nd, Grote Scheldeprijs
- 2nd, Ronde van Noord-Holland
- 2nd, Championship of the Netherlands (Road)
- 1st, Profronde van Overijssel
- 1st, 1st stage Four days of Dunkirk
- 1st, Batavus Pro Race
- 1st, Dutch Food Valley Classic (Veenendaal – Veenendaal)
- 1st, Tour de Rijke
- 1st, Ronde van Drenthe
- 2010
- 1st, stage 1, Tour de Picardie
- 1st, stage 2, Tour of Belgium
- Tour of Hainan
- 1st, stage 4
- 1st, stage 5
- 1st, stage 7
- 1st, stage 8 (result voided [7])
- 1st, stage 9
- 2011
- 1st Overall, Ronde van Drenthe
- 1st, stage 1
- 1st, stage 2
- 1st, Stage 8, Tour of Turkey
- 2nd, Tour de Rijke
- 1st, Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen
- 2012
- 3rd, Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
[edit] References
- ^ Kenny van Hummel Tweede
- ^ Kenny van Hummel
- ^ UCI Europe Tour : Van Hummel still in the lead UCI, 3 July 2009
- ^ (Dutch) Moerenhout Nederlands Kampioen Wielrennen
- ^ 'Van Hummel slechtste klimmer ooit' De Telegraaf, 23 juli 2009
- ^ Benson, Daniel (1 August 2011). "Kenny Van Hummel signs for Vacansoleil". Cycling News. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/kenny-van-hummel-signs-for-vacansoleil. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
- ^ http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-of-hainan-2-hc-1/stage-8/results
