Bert Oosterbosch

Bert Oosterbosch, 1978

Bert Oosterbosch, 1979

Bert Oosterbosch (born July 30, 1957 in Eindhoven , † August 18, 1989 in Lekkerkerk , now part of Nederlek ) was a Dutch cyclist and two-time world champion.

Bert Oosterbosch, known as “De Rooie” (“the red one”) because of his hair color, was a professional from 1979 to 1988. Almost the entire time he drove in teams in which Peter Post was the sporting director .

As an amateur, Oosterbosch became world champion for the first time in 1978, and in 1978 at the UCI Road World Championships in Cologne in the 100-kilometer team time trial . A year later he became professional world champion on the track in the single pursuit by beating Francesco Moser in the final . In 1981 he was third in the Derny European Championship. He was also three times Dutch champion in the pursuit.

Oosterbosch mainly drove road races . In 1980 he won the Tour of Luxembourg , in 1982 the Tour of the Netherlands , 1983 the Tour of Americas , 1984 the Three Days of De Panne and many smaller races, mainly in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. As a time trial specialist, he won 14 individual time trials in stage races. Oosterbosch took part in the Tour de France three times and won three stages. His victory in Bordeaux in 1983 was the 100th stage victory of a Dutchman in the Tour.

Bert Oosterbosch suffered from health problems repeatedly throughout his cycling career. He fell ill with meningitis twice . Because of severe knee problems, he had to end his professional career in 1988. A year later he returned to cycling as an amateur.

On August 13, 1989, Oosterbosch won a race in Bladel . Five days later, at the age of 32, he died in his sleep of cardiac arrest. There are speculations that this early cardiac death could have been caused by doping, since there were up to 30 unexplained cardiac deaths of racing drivers in those years. Bert Oosterbosch's family defends itself against these assumptions to this day.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Telegraph.co.uk: "Tour de France: Cycle of cynicism keeps rolling on" accessed on May 7, 2010 (English)
2. ^ Radsportseiten.net: "Bert Oosterbosch - Memo" accessed on May 7, 2010

Web links

• Bert Oosterbosch in the database of Radsportseiten.net
• Bert Oosterbosch in the Tour de France database(French / English )