Published 6 June 2005


Eurocup Oldenzaal

Photos eurocup Oldenzaal (NL) 2005
Videoreport Oldenzaal (NL) 2005 (79 Mb)

Saturday 5 June in the region Twente the second footbike eurocup of 2005 took place. Location park Hulsbeek in the town Oldenzaal in eastern Netherlands (10 minutes of German border). Footbikers from Finland, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Czech Republic and ofcourse the organising country the Netherlands took part.

The number of participants during the weekend:
- 37 in the marathon race (excl. funriders)
- 36 in the dropout race.
- 9 teams in the relay (each team had 3 members)
- 10 in junior race



Overall a great succes.
The weekend started with the eurocup relay race. 9 teams took part. For eurocup competition it was needed to have 2 men and 1 woman per team. Though some teams competed with only men. Those teams were ranked in the race, but excluded from eurocup ranking later on.

The local junior race was great! All had to kick 10 km. Tom Rikkerink won the race in men junior category and Tanja van Oorschot finished first in ladies junior class. Both Dutch and both also leading in their national nafcup competition after this weekend. Great to see so many teenagers in the race. This confirms that we have to focus more seriously on junior categories in future. Only a wide base can carries a high top.
The organisation had also arranged nice prices for the young talents. Tom even won a DVD player.

The dopout race of 15 rounds x 2,2 km (maximum) was a bit chaotic. Because of the large differences in speed between the competitors it was hard to keep track on the ranking during the race.
Hannu Vierikko (Finland) started sprinting already after couple rounds in the race a way from the group, just to be sure he did not drop out by exident :) In his own report he wrote later that he did this to boycot the dropout system in eurocup, but I think the drop out system sounded too complex for him and he concluded (very wisely) let's be sure and sprint a way now - before i drop out by exident. (first 3 rounds nobody out, then some rounds 2 out followed by 3 out followed by last 3 rounds were nobody had to leave the group - all in all complicated).

End conclusion: track was beautifull, good asfalt, cleared from traffic, but not suited for a drop out race, the organisation also agreed in that.
Though I doubt if this means the end of drop out races in eurocup. It's a great race element when you have a short track with lot of public to entertain.

So Hannu never dropped out and won the race. Second was Karel Cvalin from the PSP KK Plzeň team from Czech Republic and just behind him the allways enthousiastic and smiling Erwin Borremans from Belgium (though living and training in Finland). Erwin brought also his own Flamic support crew. So next to biking also our sport has now the yellow flag with the black lion in our mids.

In the womens race it was quite simple: Hermien Koers from team Selles Kamperzeedijk won with a larg gap for Anezka Zykova (Ultima Prague team) and 3d was Kristyna Babickova (R+Penco Prague), both from Czech Replublic.
After the races, 1 km from track there were showerfacilities and some video presentation. This followed by the price ceremoney of the day and a great barbeque. Some footbikers even ended up in the studentnight life of Enschede till late in the night. These had next morning hard time to wake up.

Day 2
Sunday the races started at 12.30. So some time to recover from late party-time. After start first couple of rounds quite a large leading group. Then when tempo increased, the head group of 3 formed again: Erwin Borremans, Karel Cvalin and Hannu Vierikko. Followed after a couple of hundred meters by the peleton.
Hannu tried to loose the other 2 by moving from one side of the road to other and speeding up, but he failed in his first attemp. After a couple of rounds he tried again and again and finally Erwin and Karel had to let him go. With a huge tempo Hannu speeded a way and could maintain his leading position till last round. He finished in a time of 1:34:52. Erwin Borremans sprinted just close before Karel over finish line in a time of 1:35:32. Karel Cvalin 1:35:33

The women had to kick 33 km. (Dutch prefered 41,195 km als for women) but oke we have to attract some foreign ladies too, so we shortened it to 33 km.
In the race Hermien Koers was too strong for the rest. Se even lapped the number 2 and 3 with 1 round. The 2 Czech ladies Kristyna and Anezka battled for second place. When Anezka got a flat tire in last round she lost any change to become second and could continue after finally getting a spare footbike and became third.

After the race the organisation had arranged next to shower facilities also a sportmassage for those who needed it. And ofcourse the marathon price ceremoney. Many thansk for competing and see you in next eurocup!

Most comptitors kick without a mudguard, to save weight.



Photos eurocup Oldenzaal (NL) 2005
Videoreport Oldenzaal (NL) 2005 (79 Mb)


Thijza Brouwer

News source www.autoped.nl