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Dutch Junior and Beginners Championships - NE
Hoensbroek, Netherlands, August 18, 2002
Reports
By Bert Saarloos, Dagblad de Limburger
After some years on flat courses the Dutch Road Championships for juniors and beginners were back in Limburg, the only province of the Netherlands with real hills. A course of 5.3 kilometres in the former mining town of Hoensbroek awaited the riders, with three climbs, the finish climb of the Randweg being particularly tough. The tropical temperatures of thirty degrees did not make things easier.
Junior Men - three way battle
In the junior men's race a break of six riders formed in the early stages: Tim van der Zanden, Niek Oude Nijweme, Eddy van IJzendoorn, Remco Bouwens, Thom van Dulmen and Stefan van Dorrestein. Three riders managed to bridge the gap from the peloton: Marcel Lamberts, Frits Mattijssen and Tom Stamsnijder, one of the favourites. But the bunch stayed vigilant, giving the group not too much freedom. The leading group decreased in size every lap and at the 50 km point all were back in the bunch again.
With still seventy kilometres to go Jos Harms, one of the big favourites, attacked. "I cannot stay too long in the bunch. I have to attack. That is my nature," Harms explained his move.
Immediately there was panic in the peloton. Albert Timmer was the first to react, first being joined by Frits Mattijssen and Tom Stamsnijder, then also by Tom Veelers. With fifty kilometres to go they were trailing Harms by 1 minute, but the chasers steadily closed in on Harms. The pace in the chasing group proved to be to high for Mattijssen and Timmer. Stamsnijder and Veelers cooperated well and caught Harms with some 35 kilometres to go.
Seven riders (top favourite Thomas Dekker, Huub Duyn, Onno Gerritsen, Marcel Lambert, Marc de Maar, Dion Murk, Kai Rens) tried to bridge the gap of 1.05, but there was too much rivalry in this group. The three in front even increased the gap to two minutes. Although we should say: the two in front, because Harms was not doing any leading work anymore.
"After several laps solo, I could not do any better than just follow," Harms said.
Stamsnijder and Veelers did not buy that. "Well, he was good enough to take me back when I tried to get away," Tom Stamsnijder, only first year junior and son of former world cyclo-cross champion Hennie Stamsnijder, said. "So I figured: if I don't win, you don't as well. I decide to let Tom Veelers win. Tom is a good friend of mine. We live only a couple of kilometres apart from each other, I know him since we started racing and we often train together."
"I took the last corner before the finish uphill at full speed, Stamsnijder closed the gap and I had ten metres. That was enough," Veelers explained the tactics.
The bike mechanic of a cycle shop in his hometown Borne took the gold medal and the red-white-blue jersey. Next year Veelers moves to the elite ranks, either to Tegeltoko or Bert Story-Piels (TT3).
Beginner Men - solo for Van Ooijen
Though there were some breakaways in the first hour of the beginner men's race, the real action only started in the second part. Cornelius van Ooijen, one of the favourites from the second row, got clear with some 35 kilometres to go. "Kamikaze, I thought. I figured it would be impossible to stay clear alone on this tough course in this heat," he confessed.
Van Ooijen proved himself wrong. It was to be the winning solo. Van Ooijen took forty seconds, but with two laps to go (10 kms) the three top favourites - who had dominated the Eurode-Omloop, the toughest Dutch race, a week earlier - made a move forward. Arjen de Baat, Niek Rentmeester and Rob Ruygh were only fifteen seconds behind with one lap to go. But the rivalry paralysed the trio. None of them wanted to close the gap with the other two in the wheel and so Van Ooijen took the title to his own surprise.
The three chasers were caught by the bunch in the sprint uphill. Sven Kramer, son of former speed skating star Yep Kramer, took the silver and Dwight Spijker, son of former top amateur Jan Spijker, got the bronze medal.
Junior Women - De Goede too good
In the junior women's championship three riders got clear from a group of twenty with still some fifty kilometres to go: Suzanne de Goede, Christa Pirard and Pleuni Möhlmann. However the trio managed to hold on until the end. Team mates De Goede and Pirard tried to shake off Möhlmann, did not succeed, but got places 1 and 2 in the end as they were far better sprinters than Möhlmann. De Goede took the title, her 27th win of the year. Initially De Goede (this year triple national track champion) was in the Dutch team for the World Junior Track Championships, "but I preferred to take part in the national road championship," she said. Next year she is riding with the senior women.
Beginner Women - Vos leads home Knetemann
The beginner women started one minute after the junior women, but they set such a high pace in the first laps that they caught up with the older girls on the third lap. At first there was a leading group of 17 riders. From this group seven got clear on the third lap: the three top favourites Roxane Knetemann (daughter of former world professional road champion Gerrie Knetemann), Marianne Vos and Elisabeth Bakker, along with Moniek Rotensen, Suzanne van Veen, Renske Doedeé and Joukje Braam.
Halfway through the race it looked as if Knetemann, Van Veen and Vos were the ones to contest the title, but in the final stages Bakker and Rotmensen (who had punctured) came back. In the sprint Marianne Vos took the gold medal. For the 15 year old from Wijk en Aalburg, who is only a first year beginner, the second national title this year, after winning the Dutch MTB Championship.
Results
Junior Men - 122 km
1 Tom Veelers 3.08.03 2 Jos Harms 0.23 3 Tom Stamsnijder 0.30 4 Marc de Maar 0.57 5 Huub Duyn 1.58 6 Dirk Bellemakers 2.04 7 Dion Murk 2.06 8 Frits Mattijssen 9 Thomas Dekker 2.08 10 Onno Gerritsen 2.12 11 Sebastiaan Langeveld 12. Marcel Lamberts 2.27 13 Bozidar Stjakovac 14 Kai Reus 2.44 15 Tom Leezer 3.57 16 Johan Berk 4.06 17 Steven Mengels 4.08 18 Maikel Paas 19 Lars Boom 20 Wouter Groot 21 Leon Korteland 4.14 22 Menno de Boer 23 Thomas Berkhout 4.18 24 Erwin den Hollander 25 Patrick van Vliet 26 Arjan Molenaar 4.58 27 Jasper Koopmans 28 Wim Botman 5.09 29 Jesper Kelder 5.11 30 Arne Hassink 5.15 31 Marc Kamphuis 32 Niels de Blaauw 5.24 33 Maarten Mandemakers 5.28 34 Klaas van Hage 5.33 35 Eddy van IJzendoorn 5.40 36 Robin Daling 5.43 37 Sjoerd Botter 38 Pieter Israel 5.45 39 Jeroen Kregel 40 Hans Timmermans 5.47 41 Niels Bogaars 42 Erik Hopman 43 Paul Konijnenburg 44 André Bijl 45 Norman Meerkerk 5.53 46 Wilco Hovestad 6.07 47 Tim van der Zanden 6.09 48 Niek Oude Nijeweme 6.13 49 Elzo Vos 6.28 50 Egon van Kessel 6.41 51 Guus Magielse 7.34 52 Merijn van Breugel 7.57 53 Joost van Leijen 8.48 54 Mike Alloo Starters: 151 Classified: 54
Beginner Men - 79.5 km
1 Cornelius van Ooijen 2.03.28 (38.6 km/h) 2 Sven Kramer 0.11 3 Dwight Spijker 4 Michel Kreder 5 Rikke Dijkxhoorn 6 Sjoerd Commandeur 7 Jimmy de Bruijn 8 Niek Rentmeester 9 Hidde van Nuil 10 Ben van der Kooi 11 Patrick Kos 12 Rick Mostert 13 Arnoud Koot 14 Rob Ruygh 15 Frank Wierstra 16 Yvo Kusters 17 Freek Wallaard 18 Jordi Muller 19 Robert Gesink 20 Arjen de Baat 21 Stijn de Bruijn 0.20 22 Mark Solberg 23 Jeffrey Buist 24 Sander de Kip 25 Jeroen Mersman 26 Enrico Liebe 27 Jan Mikkers 28 Wesley van Dongen 0.23 29 Michiel Jan van der Linde 30 Thijs van Amerongen 31 Frederik Bekkers 32 Dennis Luyt 33 Leander Pronk 34 Maarten Krommendijk 35 Daan Rijntjes 36 Manman van Ruitenbeek 37 Jamie van Rijswijk 38 Yondi Schmidt 0.27 39 Menno Horst 40 Robin van der Lijn 41 Kaj du Prie 42 Jeffrey van Henten 43 Jelle Kooistra 44 Robert Berk 45 Ricardo van der Velde 0.32 46 Robert Bovenhuis 47 Mike van der Putten 48 Giancarlo Brand 49 Jeroen Poppe 50 Michael Sonneveldt 51 Cenny Glasbergen 0.38 52 Lars Jun 53 Teun Kuster 54 Rik van IJzendoorn 55 Erwin Franssen 0.42 56 Jan Pruijn 0.49 57 Jasper de Lange 58 Emiel Lubbers 59 Sjon van der Valk 60 Harm Verhaegh 61 Niels Bastemeijer 62 Dennis Kreder 63 Giel Kleinjan 64 Marco Brus 65 Nick van der Linden 66 Fokke Postma 67 Bryan Oudhuis 68 Caspar Mylius 69 Ronald van der Laar 70 Rob Zwekars 71 Bas van Dalen 72 Hessel Wassenaar 73 Adriaan Mout 74 Danny van der Weg 75 Maickel Beekelaar 76 Bob van Winden 77 Daniël Brok 78 Rik Lugtenburg 79 Diëgo Gulpers 80 Davy Gorissen Starters: 144 Classified: 80
Junior Women - 69 km
1 Suzanne de Goede 2.01.24 (34.1 km/h) 2 Christa Pirard 3 Pleuni Möhlmann 4 Marjon Spijkerman 0.41 5 Joan Boskamp 1.54 6 Linda Dirkx 3.59 7 Kornelia Groenveld 4.25 8 Nathalie van Katwijk 7.56 9 Iris Slappendel 10 Esther Kortekaas 11 Marije Profeit 8.07 12 Loes Markerink 1 lap 13 Ivonne de Jong 14 Kirsten Eikmans 15 Lysbert Hartholt 16 Yvette van Leest 17 Anouk de Veen 18 Marloes Raymaekers 19 Eveline Kaleveld 20 Linda van den Beukel 21 Aniek Eijsink 22 Ramona van Wijk 23 Famke Kweekel 24 Chantal Groen Starters: 41 Classified: 24
Beginner women - 53 km
1 Marianne Vos 1.33.29 (34.0 km/h) 2 Roxane Knetemann 3 Moniek Rotmensen 4 Elisabeth Bakker 0.04 5 Suzanne van Veen 6 Renske Doedee 0.14 7 Joukje Braam 0.23 8 Christel van Bakel 9 Marlijn Binnendijk 3.31 10 Lotte Egberts 1 lap 11 Leida Roelofs 12 Marieke de Kort 13 Ellen van Dijk 14 Martine Geerts 15 Nicole Keizer 16 Sofie van Horik 17 Jennifer van Staten 18 Linda Kroes 19 Margot Baaijens 20 Ingeborg Kreuze 21 Suzan Lavooy 22 Elise Meuleman 23 Josine van Agtmaal 24 Ester Broekhuis 25 Lotte Eijsink 26 Suzan Simons 27 Anouk Haantjes 28 Lonneke te Wierike 29 Linda ter Beek 30 Louise van Esveld 31 Ramona Koenen 32 Sanne Bogers 33 Romy Kassing 35 Angela van der Velde 36 Sanne van der Ven 37 Daisy Storteler 38 Mirjam Deuten 39 Kirsten Verhoeven 40 Joke Drent 41 Ingeborg Eikmans 42 Joyce Verbaant Courtesy of Bert Saarloos/Dagblad de Limburger
