Poels at the 2016 Tour of Britain
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Personal information | |
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Full name | Wouter Poels |
Nickname | Wout |
Born |
Venray, Limburg, the Netherlands |
1 October 1987
Height | 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) |
Weight | 66 kg (146 lb; 10.4 st) |
Team information | |
Current team | Team Sky |
Discipline | Road |
Role | Rider |
Rider type |
Climber Super-domestique |
Professional team(s) | |
2006–2008 | Fondas-P3Transfer Team |
2009–2013 | Vacansoleil |
2014 | Omega Pharma–Quick-Step |
2015– | Team Sky |
Major wins | |
Wouter Poels (born 1 October 1987 in Venray) is a Dutch professional road bicycle racer for the UCI WorldTeam Team Sky.
After competing with the Vacansoleil–DCM squad since 2009, Poels moved to the Omega Pharma–Quick-Step squad for the 2014 season.
He almost lost a kidney after a massive crash on the sixth stage of the 2012 Tour de France.
In September 2014 Team Sky announced that Poels would join them from 1 January 2015. His first win for the team came in the 2015 Tirreno–Adriatico, where he led the team following the withdrawal of Chris Froome. Poels won stage 4 into Castelraimondo with an attack on the final climb and a solo descent to the finish line. He moved into the lead of the race and went on to finish seventh in the overall standings. He later finished second overall at the Tour of Britain, winning the toughest mountain stage with an uphill finish on Hartside Fell.
In 2016, Poels won his first one-day race after sprinting to victory from a four-man group in the 2016 Liège–Bastogne–Liège. It was the first monument for Team Sky and for Poels himself.