Sunday 14 January 2024 at 4.02pm
Joris Nieuwenhuis will be able to run in red, white and blue in cross country for a year. On Sunday afternoon in Hoogeveen the Baloise Trek Lions rider became Dutch cyclocross champion. He was accompanied on the podium by his teammates Pim Ronhaar and Lars van der Haar.
Mathieu van der Poel also missed the National Cyclocross Championships this year. In Hoogeveen the focus was mainly on the Baloise Trek Lions trio: Joris Nieuwenhuis, Pim Ronhaar and reigning champion Lars van der Haar. Of these, Nieuwenhuis got off to the best start. Once on the field he had Mees Hendrix in his wake, but the Crelan-Corendon rider fell. Van der Haar barely managed to get through, Pim Ronhaar and especially Ryan Kamp were held back.
Nieuwenhuis versus Ronhaar?
This gave Nieuwenhuis a little hole. However, it has not yet broken away definitively, first Van der Haar and then Ronhaar managed to reunite. After less than a minute of the race we had the three favorites ahead of us. However, the trio did not stay together for long. Nieuwenhuis continued to apply pressure, causing Van der Haar to lose a few metres. Ronhaar overtook him and when the reigning champion subsequently lost his bike, he lost the connection permanently. We were headed for the Nieuwenhuis-Ronhaar duel.
photo: Cor Vos
Ronhaar initially had a gap, but eventually managed to close the gap. In the second round it was once again Nieuwenhuis who took the initiative. He did it in the following laps too, until Ronhaar crashed halfway through the race and was forced to leave a gap. Nieuwenhuis saw the opportunity in him. He persevered and was almost ten seconds ahead after four of the eight rounds.
Nieuwenhuis takes the red-white-blue
In the following rounds, Nieuwenhuis systematically extended his lead. With two laps to go he already had almost forty seconds on Ronhaar. Lars van der Haar, still third in the race, followed after more than a minute and a half. The title holder seemed to have secured his place on the podium, because numbers four and five, Ryan Kamp and Tibor Del Grosso, were nowhere in sight of him.
photo: Cor Vos
But he didn’t want to keep the title, he went to Nieuwenhuis. After last year’s second place, he is now the undisputed number one. Ronhaar had to settle for second place, Van der Haar in fact secured third place. Behind them Kamp and Del Grosso were fighting for fourth place. The winner was Kamp, but Del Grosso was the best prospect with fifth place. The latter was also able to get on the podium with the red-white-blue jersey.
National Cyclocross Championships Hoogeveen
Elite men results
1. Joris Nieuwenhuis (Baloise Trek Lions)
2. Pim Ronhaar (Baloise Trek Lions)
3. Lars van der Haar (Baloise Trek Lions)
4. Ryan Kamp (Fenix)
5. Tibor Del Grosso (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
2024-01-14 15:02:00
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