# Kenny van Hummel

Kenny Robert van Hummel (born 30 September 1982) is a retired road bicycle racer from the Netherlands, who specialised in sprint finishes. He competed professionally between 2006 and 2014, with the Skil–Shimano, Vacansoleil–DCM and Androni Giocattoli–Venezuela teams.

## Career

Born in Elden, Gelderland, van Hummel started cycling races at the age of seven, and one year later he became a member of cycling club "De Adelaar" in Apeldoorn. He had a successful youth career, and at 1998 joined the Rabobank youth team. He started road races and cyclo-cross races. In 2000, his second year as a junior, he came in fourth in the 2000 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships for juniors.
In 2004, van Hummel changed teams to Van Hemert-Eurogifts. Van Hummel won a sprint in the ZLM Tour, and became second in the national championships for espoirs. One year later, Van Hummel won the Dutch road race championship for cyclists without professional contract, and won five criteriums.
In 2006, Van Hummel became a professional cyclist for Skil–Shimano. In that year he reached the podium in stages of the Tour of Belgium and the ENECO Tour, and won the Tour of North-Holland, which finished in a sprint.
2009 was a successful year for Van Hummel, especially the month of May. He won five races, the Profronde van Fryslan, Dutch Food Valley Classic, the Tour de Rijke and a stage in the Four Days of Dunkirk, and confirmed that he could win sprints as a professional. He became leader in the 2008–2009 UCI Europe Tour. At the Dutch National Road Race Championships, Van Hummel was competing for the win all day. Koos Moerenhout escaped close to the end, but Van Hummel finished second by winning the sprint.
Van Hummel was selected to join the 2009 Tour de France, after his team Skil–Shimano received a wildcard. Van Hummel was the first one to leave in time trial in the first stage, and finished the time trial in the second-worst time. After the sixth stage, Van Hummel was ranked last in the general classification. In the following mountain stages, Van Hummel could not keep up with the other cyclists, and finished among the last cyclists every day, sometimes riding tens of kilometers on his own, with a large margin to the other cyclists. His difficulties were increased by the fact that his team felt they could not afford to devote a domestique to assist Van Hummel (as is commonly done for other sprinters such as Mark Cavendish), as they could not afford to run the risk of having both riders disqualified. His daily struggle against the time limit, and his positive attitude made him a popular cyclist in the Netherlands. In the seventeenth stage, he fell and had to leave the race due to his sustained injuries.
After the mountain stages, the French newspaper L'Équipe named Van Hummel the "worst climber ever" in the Tour de France. The newspaper said that it never happened before that the same cyclist finished last in every mountain stage. What they did not say was that some other riders already left the tour because of the heavy mountain stages.
Van Hummel joined Vacansoleil–DCM for the 2012 season, having signed a two-year deal.
Van Hummel joined Androni Giocattoli–Venezuela for the 2014 season, after his previous team – Vacansoleil–DCM – folded at the end of the 2013 season.

## Personal life

Van Hummel used to live in Driel, before moving to Elden.

## Major results
### 2000

    2nd Time trial, National Junior Road Championships

### 2001

    9th Paris–Roubaix Espoirs

### 2002

    2nd Ronde van Overijssel

### 2003

    4th ZLM Tour

### 2004

    1st ZLM Tour
    2nd Road race, National Under-23 Road Championships
    8th Rund um die Nürnberger Altstadt

### 2005

    3rd Grote Prijs Stad Zottegem
    4th Noord-Nederland Tour
    5th Beverbeek Classic
    7th Omloop van het Houtland
    9th Overall Olympia's Tour
    10th Omloop der Kempen
    10th Rund um die Nürnberger Altstadt

### 2006

    3rd Madison, National Track Championships (with Aart Vierhouten)
    5th International Grand Prix Doha
    8th Dutch Food Valley Classic
    8th Noord-Nederland Tour
    8th Ronde van Midden-Zeeland
    9th Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen

### 2007

    1st Ronde van Noord-Holland
    2nd Grote Prijs Gerrie Knetemann
    5th Schaal Sels
    6th Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne

### 2008

    4th Dutch Food Valley Classic
    10th Paris–Brussels

### 2009

    1st Ronde van Overijssel
    1st Batavus Pro Race
    1st Dutch Food Valley Classic
    1st Tour de Rijke
    1st Peperbus Profspektakel
    1st Stage 1 Four Days of Dunkirk
    2nd Road race, National Road Championships
    2nd Ronde van Drenthe
    2nd Scheldeprijs
    2nd Ronde van Noord-Holland
    3rd Arno Wallaard Memorial
    8th Münsterland Giro

### 2010

    Tour of Hainan
       1st Stages 4, 5, 7 & 9
    1st Stage 1 Tour de Picardie
    1st Stage 2 Tour of Belgium
    2nd Arno Wallaard Memorial
    2nd Dutch Food Valley Classic
    2nd Omloop van het Houtland
    4th Ronde van Overijssel
    5th Ronde van het Groene Hart
    8th Trofeo Cala Millor
    8th Profronde van Fryslan

### 2011

    1st Overall Ronde van Drenthe
       1st Stages 1 & 2
    1st Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen
    Tour of Hainan
       1st Points classification
       1st Stages 6, 7 & 9
    1st Stage 8 Tour of Turkey
    2nd Handzame Classic
    2nd Tour de Rijke
    7th Nationale Sluitingsprijs
    10th Scheldeprijs

### 2012

    2nd Overall Tour de Picardie
       1st Stage 2
    2nd Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen
    2nd Grand Prix d'Isbergues
    3rd Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne
    5th Handzame Classic
    5th Ronde van Zeeland Seaports
    5th Halle–Ingooigem
    6th Grand Prix de Denain
    9th Paris–Brussels

### 2013

    2nd Overall Arctic Race of Norway
       1st Stage 1
    2nd Handzame Classic
    3rd Overall Tour de Picardie
    3rd Ronde van Zeeland Seaports
    3rd Dutch Food Valley Classic
    5th Omloop van het Houtland

### 2014

    1st Stage 6 Tour de Langkawi
    1st Stage 1 Tour d'Azerbaïdjan
    1st Stage 10 Vuelta a Venezuela
    4th Grand Prix de Denain
    4th Grote Prijs Jef Scherens
    6th Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen
    8th Volta Limburg Classic
    9th Ronde van Zeeland Seaports

### Grand Tour general classification results timeline

| Grand Tour | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 |
| Giro d'Italia | — | — | — | — |
| Tour de France | DNF | — | — | DNF |
| Vuelta a España | — | — | — | — |
Legend :
| — | Did not compete |
| DNF | Did not finish |