- Theo de Rooij
Theo de Rooij (born
April 25 ,1957 inHarmelen ) is a retired Dutch formerbicycle racer and manager of the Rabobank cycling team - a position from which he resigned after the2007 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 byPeter Post . He currently lives next to theHolterberg inHolten .De Rooij won several stages in the
Tour de Suisse , theTour of Germany and theRonde van Nederland . He took part in nine editions of theTour 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 andErik 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 withdrawMichael Rasmussen from the Tour, while he was leading the general classifications. Rasmussen had won two stages and was only a few flat stages away fromParis , 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 journalistDavide Cassani recognized him inItaly , while Rasmussen told the UCI and Rabobank he was inMexico . 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. [cite pressrelease|url=http://www.rabobank.nl/particulieren/sponsoring/wielrennen/tour_2007_in_english/tour_news/news/Rasmussen_out|title=Team Rabobank withdraws and fires Rasmussen|publisher=Rabobank |date=July 25 ,2007 |accessdate=2007-07-26] 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. [cite news
url=http://www.bt.dk/article/20070726/SPORT03/707260314/1039
title=Rasmussen til B.T.: Min chef er gal
accessdate=2007-07-26
date=2007-07-26
first=Thomas Møller
last=Johansen
work=www.bt.dk
language=Danish] [Staehelin, Jacob. "Michael Rasmussen: Jeg er grædefærdig", "B.T. Tour section", p. 3,July 26 2007 .] Only one day later, atJuly 27 , de Rooij informed Dutch newspaperDe Volkskrant , that he would resign from his job when the2007 Tour de France ends. [cite news
url=http://tour.tv2.dk/article.php/id-7722878.html
title=Theo de Rooij kaster håndklædet
accessdate=2007-07-27
date=2007-07-27
first=Finn T.
last=Jensen
work=tour.tv2.dk
language=Danish]References
*nl icon [http://www.rabobank.nl/particulieren/sponsoring/wielrennen/wielersponsoring/theo_de_rooij/ Profile]
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