The first race in the NL Crit Series was won by Olivier Leroy (men A) and Tanja Erath (women), the win in the men’s B category was won by. The crit was very well attended with a record of 80 participants spread over 3 categories. NL Crit Series I results.
Text: Brian Megens Header image: Ivan Mudingo Photos article: Nils Laengner
In the men’s race, a few attempts were made to set up a break-away. After the first few laps Bram Linnartz, Brian Megens, and Olivier Leroy had a small gap. However, the peloton realized that they couldn’t give this break-away any space and immediately closed it. After this manoeuvre it seemed like most riders had lost their appetite for a break-away. It was Brian Megens again, this time with Rick Nobel, who were up for an adventure. They cooperated well and succeeded in building up quite a gap. Nevertheless, the peloton had too many strong riders to control this beak-away and half-way through the race the gap was closed again and the peloton was reunited.
With 12 laps to go, Brian attacked once more ending in a solo stretch of 3 laps but once again the peloton had other plans and Brian’s third break away from the peloton was unsuccessful. With 2 laps remaining it looked like everyone was getting ready for a group sprint, but Luc Ducrot had different plans and attacked just before going into the final lap. For a moment it seemed like Luc’s attempt would be successful, but with the bunch sprinting to the finish line, they caught up with him 150 meters away from the checkered flag. It was Frenchman Olivier Leroy who had the fastest legs taking the win, followed David van Eerd, and Edwin van Kerkhof.
In the women’s race it was Tanja Erath who was able to keep her position in the Men’s B peloton to claim her first victory, followed by Nathalie Simoens and Ashley Faye.
The Men’s B race saw a breakaway group of three wherein Joris Bellingwout came in first followed by Bjorn Holzapfel and newcomer Oscar Torres Fernandez. With this victory, Joris promoted himself to the A group.
Podium
