Dutch Road Championships 2008 – Elite Men
A tough and windy 206 kilometer race made the selection with Rabobank's Lars Boom taking home the elite tricolore jersey of Dutch Road Champion. Job Vissers elite without contract champion

The Dutch Road Championships were held in Ootmarsum in the province Overijssel. It was a very tough and technical parcours with some small climbs and lots of wind. On a sunny Sunday it was Lars Boom who took the Dutch elite title ahead of Koos Moerenhout and Steven de Jongh. Job Vissers won the title in the elite without contract category.

Elite Men
On Sunday morning at 11.30 AM the elite men with and without a contract started under sunny weather conditions for their Dutch National Championships. The riders had sixteen laps of a 12.9 km circuit with a total distance of 206.4 km. Koos Moerenhout (Rabobank) was the defending champion.

The first attack of the day came from Martijn Verschoor (Krolstone). He was quickly joined by Gerhard Klijnhout (Odysis). In the second lap the two got the company of duo: Daan de Jonge (Josan) and Wim Botman (P3Transfer).

The break of four as Daan de Jonge (Josan) and Wim Botman (P3Transfer) bridged across to Klijnhout and Verschoor. Photo © 2008 Bart Hazen

The four leaders worked well together and they got a maximum gap of 6.45. This seemed to be the sign that Rabobank waited for to start the chase; by halfway through the race the gap was reduced to 3.00 on three chasers Tom Leezer (Rabobank), and local hero: Ger Soepenberg (P3Transfer), as he is a inhabitant of Ootmarsum, Tom Veelers (Skil-Shimano). The bunch followed at 3.40 down.

The chase is on and a Raborider leads the chase across the summit of one of the many small climbs. Photo © 2008 Bart Hazen

But the three chasers were caught very quickly. The next ones to chase were Jens Mouris (Mitsubishi-Jartazi) and Niki Terpstra (Milram). The two worked well together and bridged up quite fast to the four riders in front. The now six leaders worked well together and the gap was about 1.30 with six laps to go.

Approaching the final circuits the Rabobank team threw all the riders into the chase. Photo © 2008 Bart Hazen

Rabobank took the lead in the bunch again and the gap started to drop quite fast. In front Daan de Jonge, Martijn Verschoor and Wim Botman were the first to drop off the back and be caught by the Rabo led peloton. A few kilometers later their three previous companions were also swept up by the orange and blue mob. With 55 km to go everyone was back together, a little to early for the sprinters teams.

Reinier Honig (P3Transfer), Piet Rooijakkers (Skil-Shimano), Marc de Maar (Rabobank) and Bas Giling (Cycle-Collstrop) were the next brave ones to attack. Stefan Cohnen (Team Sparkasse) went on the counter attack and was able to bridge up with these guys. The maximum gap of the five was 55 seconds but with three laps to go (38 km) the break was over.

Steven de Jongh leads the break, deep into the final circuits with Van Groen, Botter and Weening on his wheel. Photo © 2008 Bart Hazen

Steven de Jongh (Quick Step), Arnoud van Groen (P3Transfer), Pieter Weening (Rabobank) and Sjoerd Botter (Krolstone) were the next in the attack. Climbing talent Robert Gesink (Rabobank) bridged up to them but the quintet couldn't increase their gap on the bunch as they whittled the distance down to 25 km.

Pieter Weening attacked on the Kuiperberg
Photo © 2008 Bart Hazen

In the penultimate lap Pieter Weening (Rabobank) jumped out of the break. Nobody responded and the four others gave up the attack and pedaled backwards to the peloton. The maximum gap by Weening was around the 15 seconds; the pace set by chase led by Niki Terpstra and Skil-Shimano closed the gap to Weening and ended his adventure.

Multiple World Champion in all disciplines of cycling Lars Boom (Rabobank) was the next one with an attack. Niki Terpstra (Milram) and defending Champion Koos Moerenhout (Rabobank) were able to respond.

As Rabobank didn't want to tow Niki Terpstra to the finish, Moerenhout was the next to attack to force Terpstra to effort.  Terpstra tried to chase him down but didn’t succeed. At that moment Lars Boom jumped away from Terpstra and bridged to team mate, Moerenhout.

In the final kilometers Boom blasted away near the finish from Moerenhout as well, and won his first ever national road title in the elite riders with contract. Koos Moerenhout finished 6 seconds down in second. Steven de Jongh won the sprint for third at 31 seconds. Karsten Kroon and Jos Pronk rounded off the top 5.

Lars Boom celebrates his win
Photo © 2008 Bart Hazen

Job Vissers at rank 9 was the first elite rider without contract and became the new national champion in that category. Maarten de Jonge and Jeroen Boelen completed the podium. (results below)

Steven De Jongh wins the field sprint for third. CSC's Karsten Kroon on the right finishes in 4th place. Photo © 2008 Bart Hazen

More photos in the Elite Mens Gallery.

Dutch Road Championships 2008 – Elite Men
206.4 km - 4:58:01
1 58 Boom, Lars RB3 Rabobank 4:58:01
2 1 Moerenhout, Koos RAB Rabobank 4:58:07 0:06
3 77 De Jongh, Steven QST Quick Step-Inner 4:58:32 0:31

Dutch National Championships Podium: Koos Moerenhout, Lars Boom in the champs jersey and third placed Steven De Jongh. Photo © 2008 Bart Hazen

4 87 Kroon, Karsten CSC Team CSC
5 23 Pronk, Jos KST KrolStonE
6 69 Van Dijk, Stefan MIT Mistubishi-Jarta
7 16 Langeveld, Sebastian RAB Rabobank
8 10 de Maar, Marc RAB Rabobank
9 160 Vissers, Job TML Dommelstreek Elite w/o contract Champion
10 89 Pronk, Matthé Cyclie Collstrop
11 32 Honig, Reinier FPT P3Transfer-Batav
12 168 de Jonge, Maarten Beveren 2000
13 51 van Hummel, Kenny SKS Skil-Shimano .
14 78 Terpstra, Niki MRM Milram
15 39 Vierhouten, Aart FPT P3Transfer-Batav
16 154 Boelen, Jeroen WV de Jonge Renner
17 83 de Kort, Koen AST Astana
18 42 Bos, Marco CJP Jo Piels Cycling
19 99 Giling, Bas Cycle Collstrop
20 54 Veelers, Tom SKS Skil-Shimano
21 37 Soepenberg, Ger FPT P3Transfer-Batav
22 55 Beima, Marcel RB3 Rabobank
23 167 Boom, Bart AWV de Zwaluwen
24 71 Mouris, Jens MIT Mistubishi-Jarta
25 79 Tjallingii, Maarten SIL Silence-Lotto
26 2 Tankink, Bram RAB Rabobank
27 9 Löwik, Gerben RAB Rabobank
28 15 Gesink, Robert RAB Rabobank
29 56 van Emden, Jos RB3 Rabobank
30 7 Dekker, Thomas RAB Rabobank
31 181 Cohnen, Stefan TSP Team Sparkasse
32 63 Hoogerland, Johnny VVE vVliet-EBHElshof
33 140 van Schalen, Paul B&E Cycling Team
34 34 Mol, Wouter FPT P3Transfer-Batav
35 57 Berkhout, Thomas RB3 Rabobank
36 75 Maaskant, Martijn TSL Slipstream Chipotle
37 30 van Groen, Arnoud FPT P3Transfer-Batav
38 86 Heijboer, Mathieu COF Cofidis
39 50 Goesinnen, Floris SKS Skil-Shimano 4:59:09 1:08
40 11 Posthuma, Joost RAB Rabobank 4:59:13 1:12
41 76 Engels, Addy QST Quick Step-Inner
42 12 Weening, Pieter RAB Rabobank
43 13 ten Dam, Laurens RAB Rabobank 4:59:25 1:24
44 156 de Haan, Sierk-Jan WV de Jonge Renner 5:00:00 1:59
45 91 Sneeboer, Paul Duja-Tavira 5:00:25 2:24
46 18 Botter, Sjoerd KST KrolStonE
47 25 Schouten, John KST KrolStonE 5:00:46 2:45
48 173 van Reek, André RTV de Bollenstreek
49 49 Curvers, Roy SKS Skil-Shimano
50 52 Rooijakkers, Piet SKS Skil-Shimano 5:01:50 3:49
51 184 Hoeben, Bjorn WV de Jonge Renner 5:02:34 4:33
52 8 Leezer, Tom RAB Rabobank
53 146 van Haaren, Bart Ubbink-Syntec 5:05:20 7:19
54 138 Oostlander, Sander Asito Cycling Team

Result Elite without contract
1 Vissers, Job TML Dommelstreek 4:58:32
2 de Jonge, Maarten Beveren 2000
3 Boelen, Jeroen WV de Jonge Renner
4 Boom, Bart AWV de Zwaluwen
5 van Schalen, Paul B&E Cycling Team
6 de Haan, Sierk-Jan WV de Jonge Renner 5:00:00 1:28
7 van Reek, André RTV de Bollenstreek 5:00:46 2:14
8 Hoeben, Bjorn WV de Jonge Renner 5:02:34 4:02
9 van Haaren, Bart Ubbink-Syntec CyclTm 5:05:20 6:48
10 Oostlander, Sander Asito Cycling Team

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