Saturday evening was third race of the Essent Cup in Eindhoven. It wasn't as cold as last time the race was in Eindhoven with temperatures in the low teens. The first race of the evening was the ladies marathon. Mariska Huisman (Viks) won her first marathon in two years with a lunge at the line with USA's Chris Witty (Landjuweel). See below for ladies resultsLadies Results
1st Mariska Huisman (VIks)
2nd Chris Witty (Landjuweel)
3rd Maria Sterk (DSB Bank)
The men's A grade race got off to a slower start than usual. The action would first start at the first sprint points where Douwe de Vries (Adformatie), Bob de Vries (Bam), Cedric Michaud (Nefit) and Jan Maarten Heideman (DSB Bank) were sprinting for the three sprint points. It was close between all four skating with Douwe de Vries trying to hold onto the gold jersey and the other three skaters trying to win the gold jersey. 
With approximately 35 laps remaining a breakaway group with 18 skaters were off the front of the peleton. In this breakaway included DSB Bank's Arjan Smit and Ingmar Berga trying hard to gain a lap over the rest of the peleton. When the team of Safan went to the front they pulled back the breakaway group just in time for the final elimination sprint where only the top 20 skaters across the line finish the final 20 laps. The finish of the men's race finished in a sprint finish where the victory went to BAM with Arjan Stroetinga.
Mens Results
1st Arjan Stroetinga (BAM)
2nd Cees Juffermans (TNT Express)
3rd Jan Maarten Heideman (DSB Bank)
4th Karlo Timmerman (Renault Eco2)
5th Cedric Michaud (Nefit)
6th Douwe de Vries (Adformatie)
The final event of the night was the first division starting their marathon at 21:00. Shane Dobbin (DSB Bank) and New Zealand's Dj Nation & Wayne Begg were starters in Eindhoven. It was a very hard race from the first lap. With many A grade skaters starting in the first division the field each lap was getting smaller and smaller. A group of approximately 20 skaters including Shane Dobbin (DSB Bank) and Dj Nation lapped the peleton after approximately 40 laps. Willem Hut (BAM) made the race very difficult always attacking every moment possible. Shane Dobbin (DSB Bank) skated the race on the front always trying to either close down breaks or make breaks himself. He did a good job of controlling the race with Dj Nation pulling through for some very strong leads on the front trying to not let Willem Hut (BAM) breakaway.
It wasn't until the final 30 laps where there were only 18 skaters left in the race and Willem Hut (BAM), Casper Helling (Safan) and Koss Kortekaas (Vlasman) broke away together and ended up gaining another lap over the remaining 15 skaters. In the final 20 laps Dj Nation & Engbert de Vegt broke away together for the sprint for 4th place which after two sprint finishs from lap 11 to 10 and then again 6 to 5 it was Dj Nation who crossed the line for 4th just ahead of Engbert de Vegt. The rest of the peleton's sprint finish came across the line all together with Shane Dobbin crossing the line in 11th place.The victory went to Willem Hut (BAM) from second Casper Helling (Safan) and third Koos Kortekaas (Vlasman).
First Division Results
1st Willem Hut (BAM)
2nd Casper Helling (Safan)
3rd Koos Kortekaas (Vlasman)
4th Dj Nation
5th Engbert de Vegt (GIBO-BEKA)
6th Johan Bakker
7th Martijn van Es (TNT Express)
8th Pieter Albada
9th Klass de Weerd
10th Roelof Koops
11th Shane Dobbin (DSB Bank)
Full results are at http://www.knsb.nl/content/marathon/wedkal_detail.asp?ID=303
For more photos from Eindhoven go to http://www.fotohdeboer.nl/index.php
The next race of the Essent Cup is in Amsterdam but both Shane Dobbin & Dj Nation will be having the weekend off from the marathon racing. Keep posted for more news coming soon.
The next race of the Essent Cup is in Amsterdam but both Shane Dobbin & Dj Nation will be having the weekend off from the marathon racing. Keep posted for more news coming soon.
Written by T Dobbin
