Report from Tour of Mid-Zeeland

This report was provided by Peter Hoogstrate who works voluntarily for Radio Schouwen-Duiveland (FM 107.1), and who followed the Tour of Mid-Zeeland for the radio station. Thanks to Peter. I have edited it a bit, but not too much.

37th International Tour of Midden-Zeeland

This year the Tour of Midden-Zeeland was promoted to the 2nd category.

However the number of starters topped 160, the quality was a little disappointing. TVM and Foreldorado sent their strongest team possible to the start, thus being the favorites on forehand.

The Teams

TVM (Blijlevens, Nijdam, DenBakker, Hoffman, Knaven)
RABOBANK (vd Poel, Nelissen)
FORELDORADO-GOLFF (Bouwmans, Veenstra)
US-POSTAL SERVICE-MONTGOMERY (Brozyna)
TELEKOM (Kummer, Zabel, Meinert)
IPSO-ASFRA RACING TEAM 
VOSSCHEMIE-ZETELHALLEN 
TICO RACING TEAM
CEDICO-VILLE DE CHARLEROI (Hennebert, vdAbeele)
LOTTO-ISOGLASS (Frison)
COLLSTROP-LYSTEX-E.MERCKX (Capiot, Hoj, den Braber)
PALMANS-INCO-BBS (M. deClercq)
TONISSTEINER-SAXON
RDM-NEW SYSTEMS (deWilde, Nelubine, Schoefs)
EUROTIC DISCOUNT CENTRE (amateurs)
INDIVIDUALS (Pieters, deVries, Zanoli)
PROVINCIAL SELECTION (amateurs)

The Race

Starting and finishing in Goes, the Tour of Midden-Zeeland visits four of the islands that make up the province of Zeeland.

Weather conditions: Sunny, some drops of rain, fair winds, twelve degrees.

Two riders were responsible for the break of the day. Ex-pro Patrick Tolhoek (Eurotic) and neo-pro Davy Dubbeldam (Foreldorado), both inhabitants of the province Zeeland, started their break at km. 38. It lasted over 120 km. with a maximum advantage of 8'30''. During the crossing of the 5km long Zeeland-bridge a strong group of eleven riders broke away from the peleton, in search of the two leaders, who at that moment had four minutes of their advantage left. The eleven names: Knaven, Nijdam, denBakker (all TVM), vdPoel (Rabo), Talen (Foreldorado), Gragus (US-Postal), Kummer (Telekom), Frison (Lotto), Capiot (Collstrop), Timmermans (RDM), Hennebert (Cedico).

During the first of the three local laps, the eleven caught the two men ahead, leaving Tolhoek and Gragus behind. With three TVM-riders in front, all eyes were waiting for their first attack. Dutch champion Knaven tried first with 30 km. to go, picked up 30",but was caught again at 20 km. later. Jelle Nijdam took off shortly after, and succeeded in his well known style in winning the Tour for his second time (first in 1989.)

The results: see Previous File on the Tour

The tour saw the return of Jesper Skibby (TVM) in the peleton.

Man of the day was without-a-doubt Davy Dubbeldam, who in fact was riding his first race as a pro in the Foreldorado-Golff team (after being an amateur in this team), because even after having ended the 120 km., he succeeded in staying in the first group, finishing eleventh.