The Dutch fixed gear crit series, Vast Verzet Bokaal (VVB) has changed its name into NL Crit Series. The series was founded with the aim to give Dutch riders a chance to compete in fixed gear crit racing and by doing so, increase the level of the riders and the sport in the Netherlands. With strong Dutch riders like former RHC winner Stefan Vis, Ashley Faye, Yvo Kinkel, Thomas Jacobs Willes, Bram Linnartz, and Nathalie Simoens, the competition level was already very decent to start with. Last year, more and more new Dutch riders like David van Eerd, who should be on everyone’s shortlist for RHC BK10, Luc Ducrot, and Brian Megens were introduced into fixed gear crit racing through the series. Furthermore, several strong international riders like Olivier Leroy, Thibaud Lhenry, Tim Ceresa, Marius Petrache, Paolo Bravini and Johannes Killisperger often join the crits pushing the level up even more. For this season, Colin Strickland has announced to visit some of the crits this summer bringing the competition level up even more.
The organisation now believes it is time to cater the name and logo more to the international community as Olaf Wit explains “we want to be a crit series that is seen by the international riders as a great opportunity to compete with top riders from the fixed gear scene. Our aim has always been to facilitate the development of the fixed gear crit racing sport. The Dutch level will go up if we attract more good riders from abroad (…) it is a natural process (…) from start we had people from France and Germany visiting our crits but now we also have people from further that want to compete in our series.”
