Weekly Women's Cycling News 19-26.05.2013

Vos and Johansson battle in Aalburg and Gooik - Creswick wins R1, JHT GP - McQuaid promises Women's Commission - Not enough "participation and involvement of the women at grassroots-level cycling," says Martin Barras - Reports from the UK - Reports from around the world - Photo of the Week - more to come

Vos wins home race, Johansson wins Gooik
It's a well-known fact that riders have an advantage in races taking place near to their homes. Sometimes that's purely because of their desire to win in front of family and friends, sometimes - though not as commonly as was once the case - it's because their rivals don't race quite as hard as they might otherwise have done, letting a popular rider win (in days gone by, because they'd been paid to do so).

Queen Marianne of Meeuwen wins again

When that local rider is Marianne Vos, however, things are rather different - even though the Rabobank 7-Dorpenomloop van Aalburg passed through the 26-year-old's home village Meeuwen on Saturday the 25th and despite the fact that huge crowds turned out to see her (she is, after all, the most famous female cyclist in the world today, familiar even to those cycling fans who don't follow the women), Vos wins so many races that suspicions of bribes could only have arisen if she hadn't won.

The event was marred early on by a big crash which saw Sabrina Stultiens fall hard. Though she attempted to continue, she left the race later on. Annemiek van Vleuten, also of Rabobank and the winner of the Dorpenomloop last year when Vos was recovering from a broken collarbone, also crashed later in the race and, though uninjured, was left too far back to get into the seven-strong lead group that controlled the race in its later stages.

Vos was helped by the pancake-flat parcours because, although she can climb with the best in the world and regularly wins mountainous races, she's also able to keep turning the pedals at maximum RPM for kilometre after kilometre, then persuade her legs to give one last burst of power when others have given all they've got. The other teams didn't make things easy for her, though - Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS) was strong in the latter parts of the race and, aided by team mate Loes Gunnewijk, kept things uncertain right into the final 10km. Vos' Rabo team mate Roxane Kneteman attacked as the race neared an end but was unable to trouble the lead group greatly; Vos did the same a short while later. Johansson was next to go and, with 5km to go, was riding out in front with Rabo's Liesbet de Vocht and, with 3km to go, they'd opened a gap of 15" between themselves and their chasers. It wasn't enough: a kilometre later, the gap was slashed to 7"; then the seven leaders were together again as the finish line came within sight - and that's when Vos did what she does best, tapping into a new reserve of the high-octane fuel that runs through her arteries to overpower her challengers and cross the line in first place, winning what is to all intents and purposes her race for the fifth time.

Result
1 Marianne VOS (Rabo-Liv/Giant) 3h00'14"
2 Liesbet DE VOCHT (Rabo-Liv/Giant) ST
3 Emma JOHANSSON (Orica-AIS) ST
4 Amy PIETERS (Argos-Shimano) ST
5 Lauren KITCHEN (Wiggle-Honda) ST
6 Loes GUNNEWIJK (Orica-AIS) ST
7 Roxane KNETEMAN (Rabo-Liv/Giant) +18"
8 Vera KOEDOODER (Sengers) +02'16"
9 Annemiek VAN VLEUTEN (Rabo-Liv/Giant) +02'39"
10 Nina KESSLER (Boels-Dolmans) ST
Full results 

Photos
The race
Vos wins (by Bart Hazen)

Sunday the 26th brought Belgium's Gooik-Geraardsbergen-Gooik which, with its four big climbs including the notorious Kapelmuur, rated as the toughest climb in the country for its steep gradient and step-like cobbles, is an entirely different beast to the Dorpenomloop.

That Orica-AIS were going to do well was immediately obvious: firstly, all of their six riders got into the lead group that formed when the first climb split the peloton into several smaller groups and secondly, the Australian team is home to some of the top cobbles specialists in the world today, riders who were able to strengthen their lead when the going became rough. By the close of the Grote Ronde, the lead group contained eight riders - Emma Johansson and Tiffany Cromwell (Orica), Rosella Ratto (Hitec Products-UCK, who seem to have a rider in every lead group and break in every race this year), Katarzyna Pawlowska (GSD Gestion-Kallisto), Maaike Polspoel (Sengers), Jessie Daams (Boels-Dolmans) and Orica's biggest rivals, Rabo-Liv/Giant's Iris Slappendel and Marianne Vos.

The gap, 33" as the first local lap began, grew to just over a minute as the eight worked together, then fell to 36" when they sparred with one another during the second. In the third they worked together again and got it back to a minute. On the sixth lap, Vos attacked on a small climb near the finish line, a point that Cromwell later revealed was precisely where she and Johansson had been planning to make their move in the next and final lap, forcing them to change their tactics.

Emma Johansson

"When Marianne went, I thought ‘No. No way. I cannot go - I was really on the limit. Tiff was tired, too, but she went after her. Iris countered as soon as Marianne came back to us. She got a small gap, and I knew I had to go after her. Tiff couldn’t do it again. Even though I was cooked, I knew I had to give it everything at that moment," Johansson says, going on to explain that she fully expected Vos to bridge the small gap and take control. Yet this time, it was Vos whose reserves were exhausted and, with Polspoel bridging to join Johansson and Slappendel, she was unable to join them. During the seventh lap, the trio had put 30" between themselves and Vos' group. Slappendel attacked, forcing Johansson to expend valuable and limited energy on chasing her down before the final sprint.

"I was hurting a lot," says the Swedish rider. "I knew I could beat Iris in the sprint, but I wasn’t sure about Maaike. I went at 250 metres. I took the corner wide so neither of them could pass me on the outside, and I sprinted straight for the line after that." After taking the final bend wide to prevent Polspoel overtaking, she was too fast for the Belgian and crossed the line in first place.

"I honestly didn't know if I was going to make it to the finish in that break today, I was so cooked," Johansson told reporters. Sharing Vos' ability to overcome exhaustion and somehow persuade her body to make one final explosive effort, she's a very powerful rival to the Dutch World Champion indeed.

Result

1 Emma JOHANSSON (Orica-AIS) 3h30'11"
2 Maaike POLSPOEL (Sengers) ST
3 Iris SLAPPENDEL (Rabobank-Liv/Giant) ST
4 Tiffany CROMWELL (Orica-AIS) +48"
5 Marianne VOS (Rabobank-Liv/Giant) +48"
6 Jessie DAAMS (Boels-Dolmans) +48"
7 Katarzyna PAWLOWSKA (GSD Gestion-Kallisto) +48"
8 Rossella RATTO (Hitec Products-UCK) +48"
9 Christine MAJERUS (Sengers) +05'50"
10 Adrie VISSER (Boels-Dolmans) +ST

Full result

Creswick wins Round 1, Johnson HealthTech GP
The Johnson HealthTech GP Series has grown and developed over the course of its existence and is now one of the best-known, most hotly-contested and popular women's events on the British cycling calendar. Running in conjunction with the men's Pearl Izumi Tour Series, the original idea was that the races would benefit from having the ready-made audience there to watch the men race; now in its third year, the GP Series attracts large numbers of fans in its own right - for many of them, getting to see the men's race too is a bonus rather than the reason to be there.

Mulebar Girl-Sigma Sport
(image credit: Sigma Sport)

This year's series got underway in Stoke-on-Trent on the 21st of May, where Natalie Creswick of Mulebar Girl-Sigma Sport did her bit to persuade even more people that women's cycling is every bit as exciting and interesting as men's cycling with a ride that was widely hailed as the most outstanding in either race and also netted her the Combativity Award - launching her attack soon after the competition started, she metered out her energy impeccably to stay ahead of strong challengers Hannah Barnes and Charline Joiner (both MG-Maxifuel), Jo Tindley, Gabby Day and Hannah Walker (all Matrix Fitness Race Academy), Sarah Byrne (Champion Systems-MaxGear-Base), Alice Barnes (Scott Contessa-Epic) and Hayley Jones (Node 4-Giordana) to cross the line with an advantage just short of a fill minute. Meanwhile, Creswick's team mate Louise Mahé was third.

Creswick leads Barnes in the overall Series standings with 20 points to 19. Matrix, with three riders in the top ten, were the winning team for the round and Hannah Walker won the Sprints. Matrix lead the overall team standings with 45 points, Mulebar and MG-Maxifuel are second and third with 38 points apiece.

 Highlights of the race will be broadcast on ITV4 at 10pm on the 22nd of May.

@CiclaCycle
One chuffed @NatCres doing her team @MuleBarGirl proud winning @JHTUK GP series last night in Stoke. #womenscycling pic.twitter.com/udQUmy6CHT

Natalie blogs about her victory.

Result, Round 1
1. Natalie Creswick (MuleBar Girl-Sigma Sport)
2. Hannah Barnes (MG-Maxifuel)
3. Louise Mahé (MuleBar Girl-Sigma Sport)
4. Jo Tindley (Matrix Fitness Race Academy)
5. Sarah Byrne (Champion Systems-Maxgear-Base)
6. Gabby Day (Matrix Fitness Race Academy)
7. Charline Joiner (MG-Maxifuel)
8. Hannah Walker (Matrix Fitness Race Academy)
9. Alice Barnes (Scott Contessa Epic)
10. Hayley Jones (Node4-Giordana)
Full Round 1, Overall and other classification standings


Next Rounds
Round 2  30th May (Colchester)
Round 3  4th June (Redditch)
Round 4  11th June (Woking)
Round 5  13th June (Aylsham)


McQuaid promises Women's Cycling Commission
There have been calls from riders (including Emma Pooley, who has used her fame as a platform to be very vocal on the subject), team officials and fans for a dedicated body to oversee the development of women's cycling for some years now, with many people accusing the UCI of showing little concern for the sport.

Money talks, and fans = money With existing fans becoming more vocal in their support and large numbers of new fans following the sport after the enormous success of the Women's Road Race at the Olympics, it seems that cycling's governing body has decided that the time is right to listen to those demands: president Pat McQuaid has revealed that if re-elected to the post for a third term, he'll create a new Women's Commission at the UCI's annual conference this September.

Will it be given the money and powers it needs if it's going to set right decades of neglect and turn women's cycling into the popular, profitable sport that it could be? Over to you, Pat.

Cash grants for four American projects aiming to get women cycling
$7,500 (£4,944 or €5,809) isn't a huge amount of cash in the big scheme of things - the toilet roll holders on Team Sky's tour coach probably cost more* - but shares of it are enough to make a massive difference to not-for-profit organisations working to get more women onto bikes or teaching them to be bike mechanics, such as the four recipients of grants made by the League of American Bicyclist's Women Bike program.

The four organisations are We Are All Mechanics of Madison, Wisconsin ($1,500); Girl Scouts On Wheels (part of Women Bike PHL) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ($1,500); Women On Wheels In Spanish at the Marin County Bicycle Federation ($2,500) and Engaging Latina Women Through Bilingual Outreach and Resources of WE Bike, NYC ($2,000).

"We want to make sure the best efforts take root and serve as examples for the rest of the nation," says the League's Women Bike director of communications Carolyn Szczepanski.

*OK, possibly rather than probably.

Are YOU: A; Australian, B; Fast?

Fancy joining McCulloch and Meares on
the podium?

If you're female and your answer is yes to both questions or even "No, but I live there" to A and "Not yet, but I'm going to be" to B, then consider getting in touch with and joining your local cycling club - because they're being encouraged by National Cycling Team coach Martin Barras to make sure they offer more of what female cyclists need and want in an effort to guarantee the country has a new generation of world-beating riders ready to race with Anna Meares, Chloe Hosking, Kaarle McCulloch and the rest.

"The battleground for us is very much the detection and development level, we're still not seeing enough participation and involvement of the women at grassroots-level cycling," Barras says. "It's not good enough to just open the doors and hope that women are going to come in. You have to go and seek them, make it inviting for them to get them into the sport, then you have to look after them as well. It's not good enough to send out women and say 'you're going to train with guys and that's going to be good enough and interesting and make for a great experience', it needs to be … more specific."

Chances are you won't be riding alongside Hosking as she takes on Marianne Vos and Giorgia Bronzini at the Giro Rosa next year, but you might - and you'll have a lot of fun finding out.

Recommended reports from the Web
UK
Herne Hill Women's Track Cycling  (Track Cycling News)
Raising the Barr - Jane Barr's rise to the top (Herald Scotland)

Worldwide

[Australian] National Women's Cycling Team ready to roll (Adelaide Now)
Ukrainian Milavitsa amateur race will take place in 2013 (Ukrainian News)
"It’s like the government is saying, “Look, we’re giving you something! Shut up, women!” - Saudi Arabia isn't having a feminist revolution (Vice.com)
Marijn de Vries on crashing (Marijn's blog)
Q&A with Elly Blue, Feminist Bike Activist and Independent Media Titan (DC StreetsBlog, USA)
Robin Farina: We can benefit from men's circuit (ESPN-W)
Female cycling athletes compete with men for first time in USA championships (Nooga.com)
Cycling's Occupational Hazard - Amber Neben on crashing (Wall Street Journal)
Bike-themed festival kicks off with Boston woman’s tale (Boston Globe)
Largest ever women's field for third round of [Benchmark Homes] cycling series (Yahoo Sport)
“Paris Roubaix? That would be awesome” Marianne Vos on MTB and the future (CX Magazine)
Afghan Women's Cycling Team is working all the gears (Green Prophet)
Top Five Worst Arguments Against Promoting Equality in Pro Cycling: It's Not Worth It (Women Cyclists)
Finegan wins at Victoria Country road cycling championships (Bendigo Advertiser)

Photo of the Week

Boels-Dolmans Ladies
(image by Pauliena Rooijakkers)

Rabobank 7-Dorpenomloop van Aalburg 2013

25.05.2013 Official Site
Netherlands, One-day Road Race, 121.2km
UCI 1.2

Only the Dutch could ever have come up with a name such as the one this race bears. In fact, it's not really a name as such, but a description - "Rabobank-sponsored tour of seven villages in Aalburg" - and an accurate one at that, because a tour (sponsored by Rabobank) of seven villages in Aalburg is precisely what it is. One of those villages, incidentally, is Meeuwen; the most famous resident of which is a certain Marianne Vos, who has won four of the six editions of this race - 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011 (Loes Markerink won in 2008, when Vos was third; Annemiek van Vleuten won for Rabo in 2012 when Vos was recovering from a broken collarbone sustained at the Valkenburg Hills Classic) - and has given her name to the recreational cycling route that follows the same parcours as the race and to which a new bench is added every time she wins a World Championship (so the local authority had better arrange a good supply of benches for the future).

Parcours

The Elite Women's race (there are other events too, more information below) consists of three laps around a 28.5km circuit (shown on the map in purple) and three around a 11.3km circuit (shown in orange), making a total distance of 121.2km. The parcours winds around the polders and is entirely flat; however, the wind blows in uninterrupted from the North Sea and can make it a difficult race.

Setting out from Bergstraat in Wijk en Aalburg, the riders first travel 1.3km west to arrive at a bridge over the N267 marking the end of the neutralised zone and beginning of the race proper on Veldstraat. Immediately after the bridge lies a sweeping right-hander bend, followed a little over 100m later by a sweeping left-hander between two farms. 470m beyond the second bend is a crossroads; they continue straight ahead for another 1.43km on Veldstraat to a left turn leading onto Lange Pad. Sheep sometimes graze along the verges here and, if the weather's been wet, the droppings they leave on the road can become slippery - as can be deduced from the damaged bollards. Lange Pad travels south, completely straight and very much prone to strong crosswinds, for 1.81km to a junction with the N283; the riders go around a roundabout to cross it and enter Genderin on the Kelderstraat passing between a petrol station and a car dealership on the way into the village.

390m after the N283 crossing is a fairly tight right turn on regular cobbles (actually bricks) between a convenience store and a branch of Rabobank. This leads onto Hoofdstraat, which will carry the race west for 775m to the western end of the village where it becomes narrower and changes its name to Nieuwe Steege. 1.86km further on the race arrives at Eethen, crossing a bridge just before the village and then, 450m later, negotiating a left turn onto Molensteeg. The entry into the corner is simple, the exit out of it is made more technical by the presence of a traffic island with bollards between the two carriageways, reducing space dramatically - if the peloton is still complete when it reaches it, it would be possible for a small group of riders at the front of the bunch to power away in an attempt to form a break at this point whilst the main body of riders are squeezing through.

Kasteel Meeuwen

Molensteeg leads south for 480m, then crosses a bridge before continuing for a further 630m to a sharp right-hand bend followed 60m later by a wider left. There is a cycleway running along the road, separated from it by a strip of grass, which would be an ideal place from which to watch the riders as they go through this section. After the left bend, the road becomes Kruisstraat and leads into Drongelen; after 289m on it the riders reach a brickwork cobbled crossroads and turn sharply right onto Gansoyen. The road is surfaced with herringbone pattern bricks and there are two mini-roundabouts which may be slippery in the wet in the first 210m, then 300m later the race leaves Drongelen behind and crosses another bridge where the road becomes Eindesestraat and heads back into open countryside. There are several bends in the 700m immediately after the bridge: the first four (right, left, right, right) and gentle; the fifth, a left, is much tighter. The remaining 1.08km of the section is much straighter and ends at a tight right turn onto Matersteeg heading north through an avenue of trees (providing welcome shade if the weather's as hot as it was in 2012). It then crosses a bridge and, 527m ahead, arrives at a junction where the riders turn left onto Moleneind to enter Meeuwen, home of Marianne Vos. 100m after the turn is a T-junction where another left leads onto Dorpstraat, carrying the race through the middle of the village and onward for 1.14km to a junction with the N283 - it's easy to see why Vos chooses to live here, being an attractive village with good transport links but sufficiently small and anonymous for someone as famous as she is to be left alone.

2012 winner Annemiek van Vleuten

Crossing the N283 takes the race north along the Meeuwensesteeg, from where the Kasteel Meeuwen can be seen - it dates from the 19th Century and is surrounded by the moat that once encircled the proper castle that was demolished to make way for the present building. Meeuwensesteeg runs straight for 1.4km with, in places, some trees to offer a little protection from crosswinds, heading north to a bollarded right turn onto Hillsestraat leading into Babyloniënbroek. The road becomes Broeksestraat with two bends, a sweeping left and right, just beyond the village; there's another bridge 710m later, then the road becomes known as the Klaverplak and continues for 2.01km to a left turn leading onto Dodesteeg - the surroundings may seem familiar because the turn is only 60m west of the Veldstraat/Lange Pad junction the riders used earlier on. The corner isn't technical, but Dodesteeg is narrow enough to cause the peloton to have to change shape in order to fit onto it, creating another opportunity for a break; last year the trees on the left of the road blocked the wind and reflected the afternoon sun onto the road, making the 740m section leading to the crossroads unbearably hot and leading to several abandons. After the crossroads the road becomes the Zwaansheuvel; another crossroads lies 466m ahead and becomes Duizendmorgen; 376m after that it crosses a bridge spanning the N267 before continuing for 387m to a third crossroads where the riders turn right onto what is at first Middenweg before becoming Veensesteeg half a kilometre ahead.

Can Vos take a fifth victory? Probably - she is Vos,
after all!

2.02km from the crossroads is a T-junction in Veen where the riders turn right, traveling south for 60m along Schmitzstraat to a left turn onto Nieuwstraat; 320m ahead they turn right onto Rivelstraat and head south, crossing the 3km to the finish line point a few metres before passing by Korvertweg on the left. Rivelstraat bends gradually to the east and becomes Engelsestoof as it approaches Spijk and, at the next T-junction, the riders turn right onto Perzikstraat, following it for 239m before turning right to take De Kroon; 440m ahead the road forks and the riders keep right for Grote Kerkstraat heading back into Wijk en Aalburg, then turn right to continue on the same road at the next T-junction 313m ahead.  335m later, a right carries the race back onto Bergstraat where the riders continue for 237m, passing over the start line to reach the finish line at the junction with Anjelierstraat.

The long circuit described above is completed three times. Having passed over the finish line for a third time, the riders continue along Bergstraat and take the same route west along Veldstraat. At the junction with Lange Pad, they go straight ahead rather than turning left, arriving 60m later at the junction with Dodesteeg that featured in the long circuits; they turn right here and follow the same route via Veen and Spijk leading back into Wijk en Aalburg. This circuit will also be completed three times.

Start List
To be confirmed

Other Events
In addition to the Elite Women's race, there are a total of nine Youth races suited to various categories and a race for handcyclists. The official website is still showing last year's programme; the 2013 should soon be listed here. Other festivities and events also take place; the programme should appear soon here.

How to follow the race
Karl Lima (manager of the Hitec Products-UCK team), Richie Steege (mechanic of Boels-Dolmans), Bart Hazen (photographer and journalist) and Anton Vos (journalist and brother of Marianne) did such an admirable job of providing accurate updates last year that it was possible to follow what was happening in the race on Twitter - a good thing, because as is so often the case with women's cycling there was no other coverage.

Weather
More information closer to race day

Aalburg - second win in as many days for Annemiek van Vleuten

Video below

Two wins in two days for
Annemiek van Vleuten

Baking heat, strong winds and a crash just 7km into the parcours proved too much for a big chunk of the field and caused the peloton to split rapidly into three groups; a small lead group being chased by a second and a big pack of riders simply trying to survive some way down the road as the tough conditions dissuaded anyone from even thinking about putting in more effort than was strictly needed. An attitude of "We're all in this together; let's just get through it" developed, made most evident when Senger mechanics went to the aid of Specialized-DPM-SRAM rider Anouska Kloster - a nice demonstration of the friendliness that, for the most part, is found in women's cycling; but nevertheless many riders preferred to sit it out in the autobus and no doubt wished that they were aboard a real, air con-equipped bus.

It wasn't until the final part of the race that the attacks began. Chantal Blaak (AA Drink-Leontien.nl) was first to go but didn't get far, then van Vleuten and Shelley Olds (AA Drink-Leontien.nl) went together, apparently as much to check out one another's strength as in the hope of actually achieving anything because they'd let off the pace and were back with Blaak moments later. Blaak, meanwhile, was feeling the effects of the heat and was replaced by Amanda Spratt (Australian National Team), the three of them working together to grab an extra 50m and 30" going into the 108th kilometre.

Judith Bloem

Spratt launched an attack of her own a short while later but was soon back. The final 5km, with the three of them calmly riding together, was a fantastically tense bit of racing - each of them demonstrated the sort of self-control of which a poker player would feel proud and gave absolutely no indication of when, or even if, they were about to launch what might well prove to be the winning move. They were still together at 2km to go, then 1km, then 200m...and then van Vleuten lit the fuse and flung herself up the road towards the finish, getting there mere fractions of a second before Olds with Spratt 4" behind. The chase group arrived 1'42" later with Marieke Van Wanroij getting a 2" advantage over the rest, then a third group led by Roxane Knetemann came in just shy of three minutes after the winner. The autobus arrived at +6'23" and turned out to have no fewer than 68 riders onboard, then Judith Bloem (Restore) closed up the race when she crossed the line 6'56" after van Vleuten. Chapeau to everyone who finished - 49 riders did not.

Top Ten
  1.  Annemiek van Vleuten Rabobank 3h04'44"
  2.  Shelley Olds AA Drink-Leontien.nl ST
  3.  Amanda Spratt Orica GreenEdge-AIS +04"
  4.  Marieke Van Wanroij AA Drink-Leontien.nl +1'42"
  5.  Chantal Blaak AA Drink-Leontien.nl +1'44"
  6.  Iris Slappendel Rabobank ST
  7.  Pauline Ferrand Prevot Rabobank ST
  8.  Gracie Elvin ST
  9.  Suzanne De Goede Skil-Argos ST
  10.  Roxane Knetemann Rabobank +2'59"

(Full results)

Photos by Bart Hazen
Photos by Anton Vos

De Omloop van Aalburg

Click to enlarge

Official site

Local rider Marianne Vos was favourite to win this one - after all, it goes right through Meeuwen, the village in which she lives and takes part in various cycling workshops for the local children, so she'd have been certain of massive crowd support - but since the Dutch superstar crashed and broke her collarbone at Valkenburg, the race could be anyone's; though if Annemiek van Vleuten, Roxane Knetemann, Liesbet de Vocht, Tatiana Antoshina, Rebecca Talen, Lauren Kitchen, Thalita de Jonghand Iris Slappendel are going, as the official start list says they are, another Rabobank victory is very possible (but then, as anyone who follows women's cycling will know, the riders on any race's start list and the riders who actually take part in the race are very often entirely different people). The complete start list is here.

It's one of those very friendly-feeling races, which isn't the only thing it has in common with the Energiwacht Tour - it also takes place on a similar parcours with several long stretches around the pancake-flat countryside. Like Energiwacht, it'll probably end in a sprint too. It begins on the tree-lined residential Bergstraat in Aalberg, then heads west for 3.3km before turning south to Genderen - a village that has been rebuilt since 1944 when, situated on the line between the liberated south of the country and the Nazi-occupied north, it was almost entirely destroyed by Allied shells. The riders then continue west to Eethen, which suffered as much damage as Genderen, then south again to Drongelen on the banks of the Bergshe Maas canal before continuing north-west to Meeuwen. Just north of the village is Kasteel Meeuwen, actually a large and not-very-impregnable-looking manor house that, along with some earthworks, is all that remains of the real castle that once stood here. There was once a clog factory; nowadays, the village's only claims to fame are the castle, an animal feed business and the fact that Marianne Vos has chosen to make it her home.

Click to enlarge - this is not a race for the climbers!

The parcours heads north past the castle, then east to Babyloniënbroek and past the village "castle," even less like a castle than the one at Meeuwen - it's little more than a large country cottage (though not at all bad to look at). When the race reaches Veldstraat, where it earlier turned south for Genderen, the riders turn north and cross a bridge over the N267 trunk road and, a little way ahead, turn east to head into Veen before following the roads south back to Bergstraat in Aalburg. This loop is completed three times - on the fourth passage from Bergstraat, the riders will turn north towards the N267 instead of south towards Genderen and complete three laps of the smaller circuit.

Weather
High temperatures of around 24C are pretty much the ideal for most people and the 24kph easterly wind won't do anything to reduce it - though on such a flat parcours, it may affect the riders on the open sections. Rain is extremely unlikely at any point during the day, making it perfect weather to go and watch the race.