The NL Crit Series Rijswijk II had a serious riders field. Not only was the Red Hook Crit Barcelona No.5 winner David van Eerd present to defend his overall lead, his team mate Tim Ceresa, who took the Super Pole during RHC BCN 5 and recently won the National Moutarde Crit No.5, was there as well. Other strong riders that made their way to Rijswijk were American Justin Williams, Kaj Verhaegh, Edwin van Kerkhof, Thomas Jacobs, Brian Megens, and Richard Jansen who is new in the fixed gear scene but with results including the Dutch National Championship beach racing it is clear that he has quite some experience on the bike.
Text & Photography: Merlijn Spenkelink
From the start Tim Ceresa let no doubt that he was riding today to defend David’s lead in the GC. It was also David who took the first prime after the 2nd lap. Mid-way the race it was Kaj Verhaegh and Justin Williams who set-up a break-away together but soon realised that the peloton didn’t plan to let them go. The moment that Kaj’s attack was neutralised it was Óscar Torres Fernández who attacked. From the peloton it was Brian Megens who joined Oscar and for several laps the two were in front. However, also here it was the peloton that neutralised the break-away within a couple of laps.
With 5 laps to go it looked like a bunch sprint was unavoidable, but then Brian Megens attacked on the moment that the no-one controlled the peloton. He build up a gap of around 8 seconds. Going into the last lap it looked like Brian was able to maintain his solo. However, from the bunch it was Richard Jansen who tried to jump to Brian. Richard got 5 meters on the peloton but Tim Ceresa didn’t allow anyone to go and by sticking to Richard’s wheel the peloton was brought back to Brian’s wheel with 300m to go. With fast guys like Justin Williams, David van Eerd, Edwin van Kerkhof, and Tim Ceresa the sprint could go to anyone. Tim Ceresa, who basically worked the whole race to neutralise attacks, tried to lead out David but it was Team FAST with Edwin van Kerkhof and Thomas Jacobs who had the freshest legs and took 1st and 2nd place followed by David van Eerd who had to settle for the last spot on the podium.
The woman’s and men’s B -race started of slowly, but fast enough to stretch out the entire field for the second lap prime, which was won by Terence Driessen from Spacemonkey. The peloton stayed together for a long time, despite a crash and some small attacks. Nathalie Simoens, Ashley Faye en Lisa Worner could keep up pretty easy in the men’s peloton, and they even managed to attack a couple of times. In the final lap Alex Worgitzki managed to open up a gap, and he managed to keep it untill the finish, winning the race right in front of Joeri Bal, who also had a slight gap in the peloton. Terence Driessen took third by winning the peloton sprint. In the woman’s race it was Ashley Faye who won by outsprinting Lisa Worner in the bunch of the peloton while Nathalie Simoens came in third.
Podium Men’s A:
1. Edwin van Kerkhof – Team FAST
2. Thomas Jacobs – Team FAST
3. David van Eerd – 8Bar
Podium Men’s B:
1. Alex Worgitzki – lifeisaride
2. Joeri Bal – Unattached
3. Terence Driessen – Spacemonkey
Podium Women’s:
1. Ashley Faye – LA Sweat
2. Lisa Wörner – Fixedgearcrit.com
3. Nathalie Simoens – Team FAST
