Written by T Dobbin
Today was the second Natural Ice marathon held in Noordlaren, Netherlands. It was freezing temperatures in Noordlaren. When the men were racing the temperatures were approximately -4 degrees. The ladies race ended up in a sprint finish with all the peleton. One of the favourites Mariska Huisman crashing with just over one lap to go left Frisia to lead out for the team leader Daniella Bekkering. Coming into the final straight it was two Frisia skaters and DSB Bank's Maria Sterk came up the inside and crossed the finish line with the race victory with Daniella Bekkering in second and her team mate Janneke Ensing in third both from Frisia.
The mens race started shortly after the ladies race finished. After aproximately 20 laps the leading breakaway grouped formed with four skaters including Karlo Timmerman (Renault) & Douwe de Vries (Adformatie). Shane Dobbin from DSB Bank tried to cross over solo to the half a lap gap to the breakaway group but once he was within a corner the grouped put on the pace and Shane ended up giving up the chase and going back to the peleton.
Once the breakaway got one lap up from the peleton the team of Adformatie controlled the race and made sure there were no more attacks. At the end of the race Bart de Vries tried to gain a lap over the peleton and the remainder of his team went back to him to try to help him get the lap up to be on the same lap as the four escapees but when he was 3/4 of a lap out front, Shane Dobbin of DSB Bank went to the front of the peleton to start to make the sprint for his team mates and Bart de Vries ended up finishing in 5th place where he crossed the line unable to take a lap over the peleton. In the sprint of the peleton Arjan Stroeting finished in 6th place and Ingmar Berga (DSB Bank) finished in 7th.
In the final sprint finish of the escapees Douwe de Vries (Adformatie) made his move with one lap to go with Karlo Timmerman (Renault) right behind. Coming down the back straight Karlo Timmerman put himself in first position and ended up crossing the line for the race win. Second place went to Douwe de Vries (Adformatie) and third place Kurt Wubben (TNT Express).Tomorrow in Biddinghuizen is the third Prestige race. It's a very important race for most teams and 30 minutes is show on one of the biggest channels in the Netherlands. Keep posted for results from tomorrows race that will be coming soon!
