Next to the Red Hook Crit in Brooklyn, there was a fixed gear crit in the Netherlands, right in the center of Amsterdam. The Ronde van de Orteliusstraat was a big race back in the 1950’s and after more than 50 years it’s back on the calendar. This time with the fixed gear crits as the main programme! It was Luc Ducrot that took the win in the men’s A race while Théo Zulian won the men’s B race.
Text & Photos: Merlijn Spenkelink
It didn’t took more than two laps before the peloton of the B-group was completely scattered. A strong escape with four guys was formed quickly, and a few laps later there was a second group with nine guys. Even though there were more people in the second group they couldn’t close the gap, which was over half a minute near the end of the race. Théo Zulian (Dijon Mustard Crew x) won the race in front of Terence Driessen (Spacemonkey), and Max Schelenz (Team Street Monkey got third. The fourth in the first group was Mathieu Castro Placeres (AGE Cycles).
After former World champion Piet van Heusden (87) did a neutral lap with the A group, it was Team FAST with Edwin van Kerkhof, Luc Ducrot and Thomas Jacobs blasting away in the first round! After two rounds the gap was 10 second already and even though Thomas couldn’t hang on, Luc and Edwin kept on pushing hard. Team WIT & Team Double D were leading the chase, and although they tried hard, they couldn’t close the gap. This resulted in a 30 second gap halfway, and even when Luc went solo in the last 7 rounds he kept expanding the gap to the point where he almost lapped the entire field! Luc Ducrot (Team FAST) grabbed the win in an amazing display of team performance, with Edwin van Kerkhof (Team FAST) getting second and Cornelius Kersten (Team WIT) sprinting to a third place.
