Lars Boom signs with Rabobank through 2008

Lars Boom will stay with the Rabobank Cycling Teams through the end of the 2008 season. General director Theo de Rooij of the Rabobank Cycling Teams has reached an agreement with the Dutch under 23 national champion in cyclocross.

Besides Sven Nys, Gerben de Knegt, Richard Groenendaal and Sven Vanthourenhout, Lars Boom is one of the aces of the Rabobank in cyclocross. In 2006, Boom will ride a full road program with the Rabobank Continental Team of Nico Verhoeven. At the end of 2006, Boom will once again focus on a compact cyclocross program.

At the end of the 2005 road season, Boom showed his impressive possibilities in road racing: in three weeks time, he won Sint-Truiden - Bousalle, the youth classification of the Hessen Rundfahrt, the individual time trial and the general classification in Triptyque des Barrages plus a stage in Tour de la Somme.

In cyclocross, Boom is a class of his own. He became national youth champion in 2001, followed by national titles with the juniors in 2002 and 2003 and the under 23 in 2004, 2005 and 2006. In 2003, he was the junior World Champion of Monopoli, Italy. One year later, he beat Belgian Niels Albert for the European title in Vossem, Belgium.

Boom is only 20 years old. Since 2002, he has recorded 44 victories, of which he recorded 33 in cyclocross. This season, he was stronger than the international elite in both 'Vlaamse Druivenveldrit' in Overijse, Belgium, and 'Grote Prijs Sven Nys' in Baal, Belgium.