Henk Vogels

Hendricus "Henk" Vogels was always going to be a cyclist. His father, Henk Senior was a cycling devotee and passed his love of the sport on to his son... And it wasn’t long before the younger Vogels was making an impression. His debut for Australia was made at the 1991 World Junior Championships where he finished seventh in the road race and won a bronze medal in the 4,000m teams pursuit.

Vogels decided his future lay on the road and in 1995 he signed his first professional contract with Novell team but injury ruined that campaign. In 1996 he moved to the Dutch Rabobank team but his results didn’t really begin to pick up until the following year when he joined fellow Australian Stuart O’Grady at the Gan team, now known as Credit Agricole. Vogels recorded a number of top five positions in major races and enjoyed perhaps his finest moment during his first year with Gan – a podium finish at the end of the final stage of the Tour de France. Vogels sprinted down the Champs Elysses at the end of the 1997 Tour to finish third.

At the end of the year he was named the 1997 Cyclist of the Year, winning the Sir Hubert Opperman Trophy. The following year Vogels was an important part of the team which enabled O’Grady to record a series of outstanding results in the Tour, which enabled him to wear the yellow jersey for three days.

Early in 2000 Vogels decided to leave the team, packed up and moved to the United States where he joined the Mercury team. In June he stamped his authority on the US scene by winning the USPro Championships race in Philadelphia.

 

Henk is now based on Boulder, Colorado where he lives with his wife Cindy.  He currently races for the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team, America’s premier cycling team.  He is also pivotal to the Henk Vogels Cycling Foundation (founded in 2002), which provides promising elite, disadvantaged and disabled cyclists in Western Australia with funds to prepare for an compete in national and international cycling competitions.