# Lars Boom

Lars Anthonius Johannes Boom (born 30 December 1985) is a professional cyclo-cross and mountain bike racing cyclist from the Netherlands. He has also competed professionally in road racing, having raced between 2004 and 2019.
Born in Vlijmen, Netherlands, Boom has also previously competed for Rabobank and their junior and continental teams over two spells with the team, as well as Astana. Boom won the cyclo-cross world championships in 2008. He has also been the Dutch national cyclo-cross champion in his discipline from 2001 to 2012 – junior cyclo-cross champion from 2002 to 2003, under-23 champion from 2004 to 2006, and the elite champion from 2007 to 2012.

## Career
### Rabobank Continental (2003–2008)

During the 2005–2006 cyclocross season, Boom who just turned 20 years of age, scored several wins including a win ahead of Sven Nys in the Grand Prix Sven Nys as well as the win in the Vlaamse Druivenveldrit Overijse after Bart Wellens was disqualified for having kicked a spectator. Boom was beaten by Zdeněk Štybar in a sprint for the Under 23 World Championships but returned a year later to dominate the race and to win the Under 23 World Champion jersey.
For the 2006–2007 season, Boom asked and received special dispensation to ride the Dutch Elite Cyclo Cross championships and became Champion of the Netherlands. In addition to Boom's successes in cyclo-cross, he has achieved success on the road and has won several stage races such as the Tour de Bretagne. In September 2007, Boom became Under 23 World Time Trial champion beating Russian Mikhail Ignatiev. In November 2007, Boom won the Gerrit Schulte Trophy as the Dutch cyclist of the year for his two World Championship wins. In the 2007–2008 Cyclo-cross season, Boom won a World Cup event in Pijnacker, a Gazet van Antwerpen event in Loenhout and then became Dutch Elite National cyclo-cross champion for the second time. After that, he also won the World Cup races in Liévin and Hoogerheide. He went into the world championships in Treviso 2008 as big favourite and did not fail, he won the race and became the second rider after Radomír Šimůnek to win the world title in all categories (Junior, Espoir and Elite).
During the 2008 road season, Boom continued his progression on the road despite a successful cyclocross season. On his third day of racing on the road, he won the third stage of the Tour de Bretagne in Fréhel. Boom also won the sixth stage time trial. Boom then dominated the oldest stage race in the Netherlands – the Olympia's Tour. After competing in two stage races in Spain in which he won the first and won three stages in the second, Boom returned to the Netherlands where he won the Dutch national road race championships for elite riders. He would win the national time trial title several weeks later after which he announced that he intended on switching focus from cyclo-cross to road racing after the 2008/09 cyclo-cross season.

### Rabobank (2009–2014)

In 2009 Boom won the Tour of Belgium after a strong performance uphill, and in the final Time Trial. In his first Vuelta a España, he was part of a break of 12 riders in the 15th stage. He rode away on the final climb and took the stage, making him the first Dutchman to win a stage in a Grand Tour since 2005.
Boom started the 2010 season by winning the Dutch national cyclocross championships. This was only his second and last cross of the season he rode. In the prologue of Paris–Nice he bested time-trial giants Jens Voigt, Levi Leipheimer, Alberto Contador and David Millar. During the winter of 2010–2011 Boom made a short return to cyclocross, he won the World Cup race in Zolder and won for the fifth consecutive time the Dutch national cyclocross championships. In 2011 he was again the fastest in a prologue of a World Tour event: the Critérium du Dauphiné. Later that year he won two stages and the general classification in the Tour of Britain.
Boom won the Dutch Cyclocross Championship for the sixth consecutive time in January 2012, extending his consecutive streak record.
In 2014 Boom won the fifth stage of the Tour de France, a stage marked by difficulty due to wet conditions and significant sections of cobblestones. The stage was his first win of 2014 and came nine years to the day after the previous victory by a Dutch rider (Pieter Weening) in the Tour de France.

### Astana (2015–2016)

Subsequently, Boom announced that he would be leaving Belkin and joining Astana for the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
Coming into the Tour de France, Boom's notable results of the 2015 campaign were fourth in Paris–Roubaix and sixth in the Tour of Flanders. There was some controversy at the beginning of the Tour, as Boom's cortisol levels were too low in his blood per MPCC rules to participate in a cycling event, but the Astana management decided to field him anyway. Boom blamed his asthma inhaler for his low cortisol levels.

### LottoNL–Jumbo (2017–2018)

After two seasons with Astana, Boom announced in August 2016 he would be joining LottoNL–Jumbo.
In January 2018 Boom had a successful heart surgery to treat a cardiac arrhythmia. Boom returned to racing for the Paris–Nice in March.
In May 2018, Boom was expelled from the Tour of Norway for aggression against Belgian rider Preben Van Hecke. Video images showed some kind of incident where Van Hecke had to brake and Boom was upset about this. He overtook Van Hecke and punched him and attacked his helmet during the race. On 2 July, the UCI suspended him for a month, missing the Tour de France as a result.

### Retirement from road racing

In December 2019, Boom announced that he was retiring from road racing after being unable to find a contract for 2020, due to his Roompot–Charles team folding at the end of the season.
He was a directeur sportif for UCI Women's World Tour team Liv Racing for the 2021 season and for SD Worx in 2022.

## Major results
### Cyclo-cross
#### 2001–2002

    1st National Junior Championships

#### 2002–2003

    1st UCI World Junior Championships
    1st National Junior Championships
    1st Overall Junior Superprestige
       1st Sint-Michielsgestel
       1st Gavere
       1st Gieten
       1st Diegem
       1st Hoogstraten
       1st Harnes
       3rd Vorselaar

#### 2003–2004

    1st National Under-23 Championships
    UCI Under-23 World Cup
       1st Koksijde
       3rd Nommay

#### 2004–2005

    1st UEC European Under-23 Championships
    1st National Under-23 Championships
    3rd Overall Under-23 Superprestige
       1st Ruddervoorde
       2nd Hamme
       3rd Gieten

#### 2005–2006

    1st National Under-23 Championships
    1st Overijse
    Gazet van Antwerpen
       1st Baal
    UCI Under-23 World Cup
       1st Hoogerheide
    2nd UCI World Under-23 Championships
    Superprestige
       3rd Gieten

#### 2006–2007

    1st UCI World Under-23 Championships
    1st National Championships
    UCI Under-23 World Cup
       1st Hoogerheide
       2nd Nommay
    1st Heerlen
    Gazet van Antwerpen
       2nd Baal
    3rd Eeklo

#### 2007–2008

    1st UCI World Championships
    1st National Championships
    UCI World Cup
       1st Pijnacker
       1st Liévin
       1st Hoogerheide
       3rd Tábor
       3rd Koksijde
       3rd Hofstade
    Gazet van Antwerpen
       1st Loenhout
       2nd Niel
       2nd Essen
       3rd Oostmalle
    1st Mechelen
    1st Zeddam
    2nd Heerlen
    Superprestige
       3rd Gieten

#### 2008–2009

    1st National Championships
    UCI World Cup
       1st Pijnacker
       1st Nommay
       2nd Milan
    Gazet van Antwerpen
       1st Niel
       2nd Koppenberg
    1st Surhuisterveen
    Superprestige
       2nd Veghel-Eerde
    2nd Overijse
    2nd Woerden

#### 2009–2010

    1st National Championships

#### 2010–2011

    1st National Championships
    UCI World Cup
       1st Heusden-Zolder
    1st Leudelange

#### 2011–2012

    1st National Championships

#### 2012–2013

    2nd National Championships

#### 2016–2017

    2nd Surhuisterveen

#### UCI World Cup results

| Season | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Rank | Points |
| 2007–2008 | KAL 18 | TAB 3 | PIJ 1 | KOK 3 | IGO — | MIL — | HOF 3 | LIE 1 | HOO 1 | n/a | n/a |
| 2008–2009 | KAL 10 | TAB 9 | PIJ 1 | KOK — | IGO — | NOM 1 | ZOL 4 | ROU 6 | MIL 2 | 5 | 426 |
| 2010–2011 | AIG — | PLZ — | KOK — | IGO — | KAL — | ZOL 1 | PON — | HOO — | | 41 | 80 |
| 2011–2012 | PLZ — | TAB — | KOK — | IGO — | NAM 28 | ZOL 7 | LIE — | HOO — | | 45 | 71 |
| 2015–2016 | LAS — | VAL — | KOK — | NAM — | ZOL 43 | LIG — | HOO — | | | 88 | 8 |
| 2016–2017 | LAS — | IOW — | VAL — | KOK NH | ZEV — | NAM — | ZOL 11 | FIU DNF | HOO — | 59 | 40 |

### Road
#### 2004

    1st Stage 2 Triptyque Ardennais
    3rd Overall Circuit de Lorraine

#### 2005

    1st Young rider classification, Triptyque des Barrages
    1st Stage 2 Grand Prix de la Somme
    2nd Overall Hessen-Rundfahrt
    10th Grand Prix de la ville de Pérenchies

#### 2006

    1st Overall Volta ao Distrito de Santarém
       1st Stage 3 (ITT)
    1st Overall Le Triptyque des Monts et Châteaux
       1st Stage 2 (ITT)
    1st Stage 3a (ITT) Thüringen Rundfahrt der U23
    2nd Time trial, National Under-23 Championships

#### 2007

    1st Time trial, UCI World Under-23 Championships
    1st Time trial, National Under-23 Championships
    1st Overall Tour de Bretagne
       1st Young rider classification
       1st Prologue & Stage 5 (ITT)
    1st Omloop der Kempen
    1st Prologue Tour de Normandie
    3rd Overall Volta ao Distrito de Santarém
    3rd Overall Tour du Poitou-Charentes
    4th Overall Olympia's Tour
       1st Prologue, Stages 4 & 6 (ITT)
    6th Grand Prix de la Somme

#### 2008

    National Championships
       1st Road race
       1st Time trial
    1st Overall Olympia's Tour
       1st Stages 7 (ITT) & 8
    1st Overall Volta a Lleida
       1st Stage 8
    Circuito Montañés
       1st Stages 1, 5a (ITT) & 7
    Tour de Bretagne
       1st Stages 3 & 6 (ITT)
    1st Stage 4 Vuelta Ciclista a León

#### 2009

    1st Overall Tour of Belgium
    1st Stage 15 Vuelta a España
    7th Overall Sachsen Tour

#### 2010

    1st Grote Prijs Jef Scherens
    1st Prologue Paris–Nice
    3rd Road race, National Championships
    5th E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
    6th Overall Eneco Tour

#### 2011

    1st Overall Tour of Britain
       1st Stages 3 & 6
    1st Prologue Critérium du Dauphiné
    1st Prologue Tour of Qatar
    1st Stage 1 (TTT) Tirreno–Adriatico
    9th Gent–Wevelgem
    10th Omloop Het Nieuwsblad

#### 2012

    1st Overall Eneco Tour
    2nd Overall Ster ZLM Toer
       1st Stage 3
    National Championships
       2nd Road race
       2nd Time trial
    2nd Ronde van Zeeland Seaports
    5th Road race, UCI World Championships
    6th Paris–Roubaix

#### 2013

    1st Overall Ster ZLM Toer
       1st Stage 4
    1st Profronde van Heerlen
    1st Profronde van Zevenbergen
    1st Points classification, Eneco Tour
    1st Stage 2 (ITT) Tour Méditerranéen
    2nd Overall Tour du Haut Var
       1st Stage 2
    3rd Profronde van Oostvoorne
    4th Binche–Chimay–Binche

#### 2014

    1st Stage 5 Tour de France
    2nd Overall Eneco Tour

#### 2015

    1st Stage 1 Danmark Rundt
    4th Paris–Roubaix
    6th Tour of Flanders

#### 2016

    6th E3 Harelbeke

#### 2017

    1st Overall Tour of Britain
       1st Stage 5 (ITT)
    4th Veenendaal–Veenendaal Classic
    8th Overall BinckBank Tour
       1st Stage 5

#### 2019

    4th Le Samyn
    8th Clásica de Almería

#### Grand Tour general classification results timeline

| Grand Tour | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
| Giro d'Italia | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career | Did not contest during career |
| Tour de France | — | 130 | DNF | — | 105 | 97 | DNF | — | — | — |
| Vuelta a España | 55 | — | — | 107 | — | — | — | — | — | 153 |

#### Monuments results timeline

| Monument | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
| Milan–San Remo | — | 94 | 112 | 32 | — | — | 51 | 25 | — | — | — |
| Tour of Flanders | — | 76 | 37 | DNF | 11 | 93 | 6 | 11 | 97 | — | DNF |
| Paris–Roubaix | — | OTL | 12 | 6 | 14 | 37 | 4 | DNF | DNF | — | 74 |
| Liège–Bastogne–Liège | — | — | — | DNF | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Giro di Lombardia | 100 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Legend :
| — | Did not compete |
| DNF | Did not finish |

### Mountain bike
#### 2017

    1st Marathon, National Championships

#### 2018

    1st Beach race, UEC European Championships
    1st Marathon, National Championships

#### 2019

    2nd Marathon, National Championships