Theo de Rooij

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Theo de Rooij (born April 25, 1957 in Harmelen) is a retired Dutch former bicycle racer and manager of the Rabobank cycling team - a position from which he resigned after the 2007 Tour de France. De Rooij was a professional rider from 1980 to 1990. He started his career in Belgian teams and the last eight years of his careers he served teams managed by Peter Post. He currently lives next to the Holterberg in Holten.

De Rooij won several stages in the Tour de Suisse, the Tour of Germany and the Ronde van Nederland. He took part in nine editions of the Tour de France. He was known as a tactical rider.

After his professional career he became a team manager, joining Peter Post's team. Later he would become manager of Jan Raas at the Rabobank. In these days this was a remarkable switch due to the rivalry between Post and Raas. Since 2003 he became the team director of the Rabobank team and Erik Breukink took over his position as a manager of the team.

In the 2007 Tour de France De Rooij had to make the decision to withdraw Michael Rasmussen from the Tour, while he was leading the general classifications. Rasmussen had won two stages and was only a few flat stages away from Paris, but had been chased by the press and anti doping agencies since his first win in stage 8. The reason for the withdrawal of Rasmussen by De Rooij was because Rasmussen would have lied about his location during a training prior to the Tour de France. Former rider and journalist Davide Cassani recognized him in Italy, while Rasmussen told the UCI and Rabobank he was in Mexico. When confronted with this accusation, according to initial press reports, Rasmussen admitted the facts to his team leader, which resulted in Rasmussen's removal from the team and the Tour.[1] Rasmussen himself denied that he had admitted any such thing, at the same time stating that Rabobank manager Theo de Rooij was a desperate man on the verge of a nervous breakdown.[2][3] Only one day later, at July 27, de Rooij informed Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, that he would resign from his job when the 2007 Tour de France ends.[4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Rabobank (July 25, 2007). "Team Rabobank withdraws and fires Rasmussen". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
  2. ^ Johansen, Thomas Møller. "Rasmussen til B.T.: Min chef er gal", www.bt.dk, 2007-07-26. Retrieved on 2007-07-26. (Danish) 
  3. ^ Staehelin, Jacob. Michael Rasmussen: Jeg er grædefærdig, B.T. Tour section, p. 3, July 26, 2007.
  4. ^ Jensen, Finn T.. "Theo de Rooij kaster håndklædet", tour.tv2.dk, 2007-07-27. Retrieved on 2007-07-27. (Danish) 
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