Richard Groenendaal

Richard Groenendaal

Personal information
Full name	Richard Marinus Anthonius Groenendaal
Born	(1971-07-13) 13 July 1971 Den Bosch, Netherlands
Team information
Current team	AA Drinks
Discipline	Cyclo-cross
Role	Rider
Professional team(s)
1994–1995	Concorde-American Eagle
1996–2006	Rabobank
2007–	AA-Drinks
Major wins
UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup (1997–1998, 2000–2001, 2003–2004) Cyclo-cross Superprestige (1997–1998, 2000–2001)
Medal record Representing  Netherlands Cyclo-cross World Championships 2000 Sint-Michielsgestel Elite Men's Race 1994 Koksijde Elite Men's Race 1995 Eschenbach Elite Men's Race
Infobox last updated on April 28, 2008

Richard Marinus Anthonius Groenendaal (born 13 July 1971) is a Dutch former professional cyclo-cross cyclist who rides for the AA Drink team. Groenendaal won the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in 2000 and the overall titles in the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup 1997–1998, 2000–2001 and 2003–2004 and in the Cyclo-cross Superprestige in 1997–1998 and 2000–2001.

Early career

Groenendaal's father Reinier was an Elite cyclo-cross cyclist and was Dutch Elite champion in 1985. Groenendaal began to ride as a junior in 1987. He was Dutch Junior champion in 1987-1988 and 1988-89 where he also won the Junior World Cyclo-Cross championships. The following season he joined the Amateur category which he stayed until the 1993-94 season when he turned professional. Early in his career he showed promise as a road rider by finishing in the top ten in the 1992 Tour de l'Avenir, the year he also took part in the Summer Olympics road race.^[1] At the start of Groenendaal's career he was often compared to his father Rein and one commentator in Belgium sometimes referred to him as Reintje. However, after two seasons, Groenendaal had stood on more international podiums than his father and the comparisons stopped.^[2]

In 1996 Groenendaal joined the newly formed Dutch cycling team Rabobank which he would stay with until the end of the 2006-2007 season when he choose to ride for an individual sponsor. Groenendaal's greatest achievements include winning the Cyclo-Cross World Cup in 1998, 2001 and 2004 and becoming Cyclo-Cross World Champion in 2000. Groenendaal attacked during the first lap and was chased by defending cyclo-cross world champion Mario De Clercq who was followed by Groenendaal's Rabobank teammate Sven Nys. Nys would not cooperate in the chase of his commercial teammate and as a result De Clercq never caught Groenendaal enabling Groenendaal to become World Champion.^[3] In the following season, Groenendaal dominated cyclo-cross with wins in the Superprestige series and the World Cup as well as being number one UCI ranked rider. Groenendaal also won the Dutch National Cyclo-cross championships. Groenendaal started as a big favourite for the World Championships but suffered a crash during the race and did not recover and as a result lost his Rainbow jersey.^[4] In the 2001-2002 season, Groenendaal lost the national cyclo-cross jersey to teammate Gerben de Knegt but did win the final World Cup of the season in Heerlen which made him a favourite for the World Championships which were taking place a week later. However, Mario De Clercq won ahead of Nys and Vannoppen. Groenendaal finished fourth and as best non-Belgian. Groenendaal won the first race of the Gazet van Antwerpen trophy of the 2002-2003 season with the Koppenbergcross ahead of Nys and Wellens. He also won a World Cup.

For the 2003-2004 season, Groenendaal suffered from a knee injury at the start of the season. At the end of the season, he recovered some form and won the Dutch national champions jersey. In an unexpected finale, Groenendaal took the 2003-2004 World Cup classification after the final event of the season. Groenendaal won the final world cup race where there were double points on offer in Pijnacker, while teammate and World Cup leader Sven Nys finished further back and lost the lead in the World Cup classification.^[5] Groenendaal kept up his form to win the final Gazet van Antwerpen race.

In the 2008 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships Groenendaal helped Dutch National teammate Lars Boom to launch his attack at the start of the final lap and win the gold medal. Groenendaal finished in twelfth place.^[6]

Major Victories

See also

• List of Dutch Olympic cyclists

References

External links

• Official Website
• Website of Sluitingsprijs Oostmalle
• Complete palmares (French)

UCI Cyclo-cross World Champions – Men's elite race
1950 Jean Robic 1951–1953 Roger Rondeaux 1954–1958 André Dufraisse 1959 Renato Longo 1960–1961 Rolf Wolfshohl 1962 Renato Longo 1963 Rolf Wolfshohl 1964–1965 Renato Longo 1966 Erik De Vlaeminck 1967 Renato Longo 1968–1973 Erik De Vlaeminck 1974 Albert Van Damme 1975 Roger De Vlaeminck 1976–1979 Albert Zweifel 1980 Roland Liboton 1981 Hennie Stamsnijder 1982–1984 Roland Liboton 1985 Klaus-Peter Thaler 1986 Albert Zweifel 1987 Klaus-Peter Thaler 1988 Pascal Richard 1989 Danny De Bie 1990 Henk Baars 1991 Radomír Šimůnek 1992 Mike Kluge 1993 Dominique Arnould 1994 Paul Herygers 1995 Dieter Runkel 1996 Adri van der Poel 1997 Daniele Pontoni 1998–1999 Mario De Clercq 2000 Richard Groenendaal 2001 Erwin Vervecken 2002 Mario De Clercq 2003–2004 Bart Wellens 2005 Sven Nys 2006–2007 Erwin Vervecken 2008 Lars Boom 2009 Niels Albert 2010–2011 Zdeněk Štybar 2012 Niels Albert 2013 Sven Nys 2014 Zdeněk Štybar 2015 Mathieu van der Poel 2016 Wout Van Aert