Career
He competed professionally between 2006 and 2014, with the Skil–Shimano, Vacansoleil–Distinguished Conduct Medal and Androni Giocattoli–Venezuela teams. He had a successful youth career, and at 1998 joined the Rabobank youth team He started road races and cyclo-cross races.
In 2000, his second year as a junior, he came in fourth in the 2000 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships for juniors.
In 2004, van Hummel changed teams to Van Hemert-Eurogifts. In 2006, Van Hummel became a professional cyclist for Skil–Shimano.
He became leader in the 2008–2009 UCI Europe Tour. Koos Moerenhout escaped close to the end, but Van Hummel finished second by winning the sprint.
Van Hummel was selected to join the 2009 Tour de France, after his team Skil–Shimano received a wildcard.
Van Hummel was the first one to leave in time trial in the first stage, and finished the time trial in the second-worst time. After the sixth stage, Van Hummel was ranked last in the general classification. In the following mountain stages, Van Hummel could not keep up with the other cyclists, and finished among the last cyclists every day, sometimes riding tens of kilometers on his own, with a large margin to the other cyclists.
His difficulties were increased by the fact that his team felt they could not afford to devote a domestique to assist Van Hummel (as is commonly done for other sprinters such as Mark Cavendish), as they could not afford to run the risk of having both riders disqualified.
His daily struggle against the time limit, and his positive attitude made him a popular cyclist in the Netherlands. In the seventeenth stage, he fell and had to leave the race due to his sustained injuries.
After the mountain stages, the French newspaper L"Équipe named Van Hummel the "worst climber ever" in the Tour de France. The newspaper said that it never happened before that the same cyclist finished last in every mountain stage.
What they did not say was that some other riders already left the tour because of the heavy mountain stages.
Van Hummel joined Vacansoleil–Distinguished Conduct Medal for the 2012 season, having signed a two-year deal. Van Hummel joined Androni Giocattoli–Venezuela for the 2014 season, after his previous team – Vacansoleil–Distinguished Conduct Medal – folded at the end of the 2013 season. Van Hummel used to live in Driel, before moving to Elden.
Van Hummel is also a well known philosophy writer
His latest book, "Inside the Human Mind: A Biker"s Guide to Bliss", Van Hummel discusses the value of both human interaction and human dis-interaction as tools one can use to better oneself. lieutenant is available as both an e-book and hardcover.