Michael Boogerd will return to a more prominent role in cycling as a directeur sportif for a new Continental Dutch team, to be sponsored by Specialized, the bike manufacturer. The team will start its operation in 2011.
Boogerd will also be responsible to scout out new young talents. "This is a great challenge. I am starting from zero to set up a decently organized team," Boogerd said to De Telegraaf. "Foremost, we want to let talents race a good program, so that they can develop and move over to the big teams."
He won't be alone in his endeavor. "I will look for sponsors now together with Marco Goudswaard from Wielerland, who sat up the plan. We need a budget of about half a million euro in the first year," Boogerd said. "In the long run our ambition is to become a ProTour team, but I realize that in the team's development, you have to go step by step."
A relaxed looking Boogerd was interviewed in the harbor of Willemstad (Netherlands Antilles), already dressed in a Specialized shirt.
Boogerd retired in 2007 in the Rabobank colors, for which he rode most of the time in his 14-year career. He initially did some freelance promotional activities for Rabobank. Currently, he offers cycling clinics and is a frequent co-commentator at cycling races for Dutch and Belgian television.
Boogerd's major successes were Paris-Nice (1999), two stages in the Tour de France and he won the Amstel Gold race once (finishing in the top three another five times). He also was Dutch champion three times (1997, 1998, 2006).