Oliver Naesen

Oliver Naesen
	Oliver Naesen (2015)
To person
Date of birth	September 16, 1990
nation	Belgium
discipline	Street
Driver type	Classic specialist
height	184 cm
Racing weight	71 kg
To the team
Current team	Ag2r La Mondiale
function	driver
Team (s)
2014 ; 2014 ; 2015 ; 2016 ; 2017–	Cibel ; Lotto Belisol ( Stagiaire ) ; Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise ; IAM Cycling ; Ag2r La Mondiale
Most important successes
	Bretagne Classic – Ouest-France 2016 , 2018
	Last updated: December 12, 2018

Oliver Naesen (born September 16, 1990 in Ostend ) is a Belgian racing cyclist . He is considered a specialist in classic one-day races .

Career

Oliver Naesen only started cycling in 2005 at the age of 16. In the adult sector, he initially drove for smaller teams and studied sports science at the University of Ghent . After failing several exams, he gave up his studies and worked full-time as a delivery truck driver from 2012 to 2014. Naesen trained after work and achieved top positions, especially in fair races , including a total of 45 race wins in 2013. He then drove for the Continental Team Cibel in 2014 and was a. a. Fourth of the Ronde van Limburg . Then at the end of the season he drove as a trainee for the UCI WorldTeam Lotto-Belisol , which, however, had no need for another driver in 2015, he signed a regular contract with the Professional Continental Team Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise and ended his job as a van driver.

In June 2015 Naesen won the junior competition of the Tour of Luxembourg . He celebrated his first international elite victory at the Polynormande in France . At the end of the year he still won the Gooikse Pijl in Belgium. It was then announced that Naesen will join the Swiss team IAM Cycling for 2016 .

As the first three-week tour of the country, Naesen contested the Tour de France 2016 , which he finished in 83rd place. On the fourth stage he was awarded the red shirt number as the most active driver of the stage . His first UCI WorldTour victory came at the Bretagne Classic - Ouest-France 2016 . In the sprint of a two breakaway group, he defeated Alberto Bettiol from Italy from the Cannondale-Drapac team . Then he finished second in the overall standings of the Eneco Tour 2016 behind Niki Terpstra from the Netherlands . At the Tour de l'Eurométropole he was beaten sprint by Dylan Groenewegen , where he said he was hindered by this.

In 2017, after the breakup of the IAM team, Naesen moved to the French team AG2R La Mondiale , where he was supposed to improve the team's skills in the classics. He was third at E3 Harelbeke , sixth at Dwars door Vlaanderen and seventh at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad . A front placement in the Tour of Flanders was prevented by the involvement in the fall of Peter Sagan . After winning the Belgian road championship, Naesen supported his captain Romain Bardet especially on the flat stages of the Tour de France . At the BinckBank Tour he was fifth overall. In the 2018 season, his second win at the Bretagne Classic - Ouest-France in the pouring rain against the Dane Michael Valgren stood out as an outlier.