Karsten Kroon

Karsten Kroon
	Karsten Kroon (2014)
To person
Date of birth	January 29, 1976
nation	Netherlands
discipline	Street
Driver type	Classic specialist
height	180 cm
Racing weight	67 kg
Team (s)
1999–2005 ; 2006–2009 ; 2010–2011 ; 2012–2014	Rabobank ; Team CSC / Team Saxo Bank ; BMC Racing Team ; Tinkoff-Saxo
Most important successes
	a stage Tour de France 2002 ; around the Henninger Tower in 2004 and 2008
	Last updated: December 4th, 2015

Karsten Kroon (born January 29, 1976 in Dalen , Coevorden ) is a former Dutch cyclist . He was considered a classic specialist . His greatest successes include two victories in Rund um den Henningerturm and a stage victory in the Tour de France .

Career

Before Kroon got his first contract with an international cycling team , the Dutch Rabobank Team , in 1999 , he won a. a. 1996 the one-day race Ronde van Drenthe , 1997 the Vlaamse Pijl and 1998 the stage race Ster der Beloften . His first win for Rabobank came in 2001 at the Grand Prix Canton Aargau .

His most important career successes were a Tour de France stage win and two victories in Rund um den Henningerturm : In the eighth stage of the Tour de France 2002 he won the sprint of a breakaway group that had already formed 108 kilometers from the finish. At Rund um den Henningerturm 2004 he prevailed against Danilo Hondo in a sprint of a five-man leading group . Two years later he moved to Team CSC and repeated the victory in the Henninger race in 2008 in a sprint of a group of nine against Davide Rebellin .

In the course of his career, Kroon also took part in the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España , and in all Grand Tours he wore the jersey of the leader in the mountain classification ; on the Tour of Italy 2000 even over 13 days. He achieved his best final result at the Vuelta 2007 when he was 52nd overall. In the road race of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and 2008 in Beijing . In 2004 he turned 52.

At the 2011 Vuelta a España , Kroon fell down a 30-meter-high embankment during the 14th stage, broke his arm and then had to give up.

After Kroon drove for the BMC Racing Team in 2010 and 2011 , he returned to Bjarne Riis ' team in 2012 , which was no longer called Team CSC but Team Saxo Bank , as captain for the classics in the Ardennes , but was able to up to these years no longer achieve any particular results at the end of his career after the 2014 season.

In 2015, Kroon began working as a commentator for the sports broadcaster Eurosport .

On April 24, 2017, Kroon publicly confessed to having used doping for "a short period" of his career . This was preceded by a report by the Dutch daily AD , which he admitted to doping during a conversation about being a commentator at the Giro d'Italia 2017 . They have waited with the publication because Kroon initially stated that he wanted to reveal himself.