Published July 5, 2009

On saturday the fourth of july a lot of Dutch and German footbikers were present at Flevonice, in winter the longest artofficial iceskatetrack in the world (in summer traffic free asfalt track). On this day the Dutch Footbike Association (NAF) organised different footbike-elements as part of the National Kickbike Cup. On a very sunny, warm but also windy day we started with a teamtimetrial. The timetrial with teams of 3 persons riding 1200 meters together (so no relay) in the senior men-category was won by the team Gevloerd.nl. They were faster than team High Level/van der Laan and team Hotel Doesburg. In the senior women-category team Twente beated team Hotel Doesburg. The timetrial was part of the teamranking of the National Kickbike Cup.

In the afternoon it was time for theindividual elements. The individual race was divided in two elements. A sprint with a distance of 800 meters (with rolling or so called 'fying' start) and an endurance-race over 30 kilometers. The ranking in both elements was decisive for the overall-ranking of this day.
The sprintrace had some very strong competitors with Dutch sprintchampion Roel van der Velde and former Dutch sprintchampions as Albert Klompmaker, René Elzinga and André Visscher. In the women-field Dutch and Worldchampion Hermien Koers was absent. This was the chance for both Rosanne Reijne and Wenda Zuiddam to close the gap that Hermien has set with her victories earlier this season in the overallranking. The sprintelement in the women senior category was won by Wenda Zuiddam (Stepteam Rotterdam) in 1.24.187. Second was Rosanne Reijne (Stepteam High Level) with 1.26.885 and third was junior Nohroa Hutten (Hit the Road) with 1.40.822.
Number three in the senior men category was the leader of the National Kickbike Cup-overallclassification René Elzinga (Steppendoejezo.nl). With his time of 1.19.009 he lost almost 0.7 seconds to number two Albert Klompmaker Stepteam Hotel Doesburg), who (military deployed at the Dutch Antilles) used his vacation to participate at Flevonice and the EC in the Czech Republic. With his time of 1.18.401 he surprised everyone. Fastest sprinter this saturday was Hans Korbee (StepcrOss) and that was also a little surprise. He set down a 1.18.014 and beated the reigning and the former sprintchampions.

After the sprints it was time for the endurance-race over 30 kilometers. Everybody knew what to do to get the best overall classification of the day. In the womenfield it was very exciting. Rosanne Reijne and Wenda Zuiddam were much faster than the rest and ended the race with a tremendous sprint. Rosanne beated Wenda with 0.06 seconds. How much closer can it be ? Third again was Nohroa Hutten with a difference of more than 13 minutes. For the overallclassification of this day this all meant that both Rosanne Reijne (first time this season) and Wenda Zuiddam (second time this season) took the full score by ending both on first place. With this they put some pressure again on Hermien Koers. Third of the day was junior Nohroa Hutten. With this result she beated a lot of senior and veteran women.

In the senior mencategory there were no limits on a furious René Elzinga. Disappointed over his third place in the sprint he wanted to show that he is still the best. With an average speed of almost 29 km/hour on a very windy track he was by far the fastest. Number two in the endurancereace was Martijn Dashorst (Stepteam Heerenveen), who is really on his way back. He lost almost one and a half minute to René but was more than two minutes faster than number three Hans Korbee. Due to his not so good sprinttime Martijn did not reach the victorystage. Because he was number nine in the endurancerace and second at the sprint Albert Klompmaker reached the victorystage as third of the day. Both René Elzinga as Hans Korbee obtained a first and a third place this day. With that they were both winners of the day and gained 30 points for the National Kickbike Cup. René for the third time this season and Hans for the second time.

In the veteran men category Mario Reijne (High Level/ van der Laan) was the winner and in the veteran womencategory Conny Brans was the best of the day. With all the shared first places and of course the youthwinners we have a lot of winners at Flevonice. But most important is that every participating footbiker was a winner, being able to ride on an unique traffic-free skatetrack with excellent wheatherconditions !

Next event in the National Kickbike Cup is the race in Noord Scharwoude on saturday August 29. The race through the villagecentre will last one houre plus one round. But first footbike-event will be the European Championships in the Czech Republic next weekend. The Netherlands will be represented by more than 20 footbikers with one mission: defend the titles from Sankt Wendel 2007 and improve at the other disciplines. But most of all we want to have fun and enjoy the EC.

Hans Korbee

www.autoped.nl/flevonice