Personal information | |
---|---|
Full name | Michael Blaudzun |
Born | Herning, Denmark | 30 April 1973
Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) |
Weight | 66 kg (146 lb) |
Team information | |
Current team | Retired |
Discipline | Road |
Role | Rider |
Rider type | Time-trialist |
Professional teams | |
until 1994 | Herning CK |
1994 | WordPerfect (stagiare) |
1995-1997 | Rabobank |
1998 | Telekom |
1999-2008 | Team CSC |
Major wins | |
National Champion (1994, 2004) National Time-Trial Champion
|
Michael Blaudzun (born 30 April 1973 in Herning) is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer. Michael is the son of 1972 Summer Olympics track cycling bronze medalist Verner Blaudzun and a strong individual time trial rider who has won the Danish national championship in that discipline in 2001, 2003 and 2005.
After Michael Blaudzun won the 1994 Danish Road Racing Championship while riding for amateur team Herning CK, he was signed for the remainder of the 1994 season as a stagiaire at professional team Word Perfect. For the 1995 season, the Word Perfect team changed its name to Novell, and Michael Blaudzun turned professional for the outfit, riding for the team until 1997, by which time the team had once again changed its name to Rabobank. Blaudzun had a few wins in his time at Rabobank, but when he switched to German outfit Team Telekom in 1998, he only managed a handful of secondary finishes.
For the 1999 season, he switched to Danish Team home - Jack & Jones (later named Team CSC) based on his former team Herning CK. Blaudzun participated in the first ever Tour de France for Team CSC, in the 2000 edition, but he quit the race at the 12h stage. He would ride a further two editions of the Tour de France in 2001 and 2003.
Bjarne Lykkegård Riis, nicknamed The Eagle from Herning, is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer who placed first in the 1996 Tour de France. For many years he was the owner and later manager of the Oleg Tinkov associated Russian UCI WorldTeam Tinkoff–Saxo. Other career highlights include placing first in the Amstel Gold Race in 1997, multiple Danish National Championships, and stage wins in the Giro d'Italia. On 25 May 2007, he admitted that he placed first in the Tour de France using banned substances, and he was no longer considered the winner by the Tour's organizers. In July 2008, the Tour reconfirmed his victory but with an asterisk label to indicate his doping offences.
Paul Martens is a German former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2006 and 2021.
Tinkoff was a Russian-registered professional cycling team from Russia and previously Denmark. It competed in the UCI World Tour. The team was owned by former Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis from 2000 until 2013 and Russian banker Oleg Tinkov from 2013 until it closed in 2016, who provided the teams last sponsor, Russian Tinkoff Bank.
Kurt Asle Arvesen is a Norwegian former professional road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional between 1998 and 2011. Arvesen is from Eresfjord, Nesset. He won the Norwegian National Road Race Championships five times, as well as stages in each of the three Grand Tours.
Jens Voigt is a German former professional road bicycle racer and, upon retirement, became a cycling sports broadcast commentator. During his cycling career, Voigt raced for several teams, the last one being UCI ProTeam Trek Factory Racing. Voigt wore the yellow jersey of the Tour de France twice, though he was never a contender for the overall title owing to the mountainous nature of the stages of the race being better suited to climbing specialists. His career achievements include winning the Critérium International a record-tying 5 times and a number of one-week stage races, as well as two Tour de France stage victories. In September 2014, he set a new hour record.
Michael Rasmussen is a retired Danish professional cyclist who competed in road racing and mountain biking. His most notable victories include four stages of the Tour de France, one stage of the Vuelta a España and a win on the Italian classic Giro dell'Emilia in 2002. He also won the best climber classification in the 2005 and 2006 Tour de France.
Luke Justin Roberts is a sports director and former Australian racing cyclist specialising in both track cycling and road bicycle racing.
Team Jumbo–Visma is a Dutch professional bicycle racing team, successor of the former Rabobank. The team consists of four sections: ProTeam, Women's Team, Development Team, and Cyclo-cross.
Nicki Sørensen is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer, and was directeur sportif of UCI Professional Continental team Aqua Blue Sport. He competed in five consecutive editions of the Tour de France from 2001 to 2005. Riding as an all-round rider who rode well in hilly terrain, Sørensen was a valued support for the team leader without many wins of his own.
Allan Johansen is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer.
Lars Ytting Bak is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2002 and 2019 for the Fakta, BankGiroLoterij, Team Saxo Bank, HTC–Highroad, Lotto–Soudal and Team Dimension Data squads. From 2022, Bak will act as team manager for UCI Women's WorldTeam Uno-X Pro Cycling Team.
Matti Breschel is a Danish retired professional road racing cyclist, who competed between 2005 and 2019 for the Rabobank, Tinkoff–Saxo, Astana and EF Education First teams.
Brian Bach Vandborg is a Danish former professional road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional between 2004 and 2013. Over his career, Vandborg competed for Team CSC (twice), Discovery Channel, Team GLS, Liquigas–Doimo, SpiderTech–C10 and Cannondale.
Gerolsteiner was a German road bicycle racing team in the UCI ProTour. It was sponsored by the mineral water company Gerolsteiner Brunnen and Specialized.
Cervélo Cycles is a Canadian manufacturer of racing and track bicycles. Cervélo uses CAD, computational fluid dynamics, and wind tunnel testing at a variety of facilities including the San Diego Air and Space Technology Center, in California, US, to aid its designs. Frame materials include carbon fibre. Cervélo currently makes 5 series of bikes: the C series and R series of road bikes, the latter featuring multi-shaped, "Squoval" frame tubes; the S series of road bikes and P series of triathlon/time trial bikes, both of which feature airfoil shaped down tubes; and the T series of track bikes. In professional competition, cyclists have ridden Cervélo bicycles to victory in all three of road cycling's grand tours: the Tour de France; the Giro d'Italia; and the Vuelta a España.
William Walker (born 31 October 1985 in Subiaco, Western Australia) is a retired Australian professional road racing cyclist and Australian Champion who rode for the Dutch team Rabobank between 2005 and 2008 and Spanish team Fuji–Servetto in 2009. Walker was described as having a motor on par with Lance Armstrong, with a reported recorded VO2 max94. Walker was also heralded as Australia's next Cadel Evans.
Luigi Cecchini is an Italian sports doctor who is active in road bicycle racing. He is well known as a maker of training schemes that he writes for his clients as well as for the use of the SRM cycle computer.
Linda Melanie Villumsen Serup is a Danish-born road racing cyclist, who last rode for UCI Women's Team Team Virtu Cycling. Villumsen became a New Zealand citizen in 2009 and has ridden under a Kiwi licence from 2010.
Michael Valgren Hundahl is a Danish professional road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam EF Education–EasyPost. In 2018, Valgren won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the Amstel Gold Race.