Kim churches

Kim churches
	Kim Kirchen 2008
To person
Date of birth	3rd July 1978
nation
discipline	Street
height	177 cm
Racing weight	68 kg
Team (s)
2000 ; 2001–2005 ; 2006–2009 ; 2010	De Nardi-Pasta Montegrappa ; Fassa Bortolo ; T-Mobile Team / Team Columbia-High Road ; Team Katusha
Most important successes
	La Flèche Wallonne 2008 ; overall ranking Tour of Poland 2005

Kim Kirchen (born July 3, 1978 in Rameldang ) is a former Luxembourg cyclist . His greatest career successes came in 2005 with the overall victory of the Tour of Poland and in 2008 with the victory in the classic La Flèche Wallonne

Career

Kirchen was initially active in the soccer club US Hostert before he started cycling in 1992. He became a member of the ACC Contern association and was able to win two races in the first year. In 1996 he became national junior champion. In 1998 he finished his secondary studies and joined the sports section of the army.

After Kirchen won his first international cycling race in 1999 with the overall classification of the Flèche du Sud , was Luxembourg champion in the road race of the elite and finished fourth in the U23 road race of the world championships , he received a contract with De Nardi-Pasta Montegrappa for the 2000 season , a GS III team , for which he won a stage of Okolo Slovenska .

From 2000 to 2005 Kirchen drove for the later UCI ProTeam Fassa Bortolo . During this time he won the overall ranking of the Tour of the Netherlands in 2002, the classic Paris-Brussels 2003 and the overall ranking and a stage of the ProTour race Tour of Poland .

Kirchen then switched to the T-Mobile team , where he achieved the greatest successes in the classic and ProTour competition La Flèche Wallonne in 2008 after leaving Cadel Evans and Damiano Cunego behind at Mur d'Huy .

In the Tour de France 2007 , Kirchen finished seventh. He finished the 15th stage in second and was declared the winner of this stage after the doping disqualification by Alexander Vinokurow .

The 2008 Tour de France also finished Kirchen in seventh place. After the 6th stage , Kirchen took over the yellow jersey from German Stefan Schumacher , with whom he was involved in a collision a few hundred meters from the finish. He lost the overall lead on the 10th stage .

Other special successes during his time with this team included two stage wins at the Tour of the Basque Country in 2008 and one stage win each at the Tour de Suisse in 2008 and 2009 . At Tirreno-Adriatico he missed the overall victory by four seconds in second.

Kirchen moved to the Katusha team for the 2010 season . During the Tour de Suisse 2010 he suffered a cardiac arrest , but was successfully resuscitated.

Between 2000 and 2008 he was elected Luxembourg Sportsman of the Year six times .

Others

Kim Kirchen is the son of ex-professional Erny, a great-nephew of Jean Kirchen . As a teenager he was in a cycling club with Fränk Schleck . He has been married to Caroline since 2007. On July 8, 2010, both parents of twins Liam and Mika.