Natural Ice Marathon Noordlaren Results

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!

Natural Ice Marathon Noordlaren Confirmed

Written by T Dobbin

Tomorrow is yet another Natural Ice Race in the North of Netherlands in Noordlaren. The race was confirmed late yesterday afternoon where in the Northern City open ice rink had enough ice frozen to confirm that the race would go ahead tomorrow on New Years Eve. Each team had the choice if the track had enough ice to confirm the race whether it would be Tuesday or Wednesday and all but one team decided Wednesday would be better to hold the race. This meaning that just about all skaters have a race on Wednesday and then again Thursday in the Prestige series in Biddinghuizen.

Tomorrow's race will be held during the day with the first race of the day the ladies race being 75 laps of a 350 meter circuit. The men's race will follow with the rules of all top 19 A grade teams to start but with a maximum of four skaters per team. The men's race is 1 hour long plus 10 laps. For more information go to http://www.knsb.nl/natuurijs/wedkal_detail.asp?ID=611 Tomorrow's weather forecast is with sunny skies and the daily maximum temperature at zero degress so another cold day on the horizon.

Schedule for tomorrows races are as follows

Ladies A grade 10:30am (75 laps)
Mens A grade 11:30 (1 hour + 10 laps)

Keep posted for photos and results online soon!

Haaksbergen Natural Ice

Written by T Dobbin

Last night was the first Natural Ice race for the 2008-2009 ice season. The first ice rink to announce the first race was Haaksbergen which is in the East of Netherlands close to the German boarder. The ladies race started first at 19:00. Elma de Vries skating with the DSB Bank team race both on Saturday and Sunday in Heerenveen at the All-Round National Championships finishing in second overall to qualify for the European All-Round Championships finished her 5km and got straight in the car and raced to Haaksbergen to race in the Natural ice race.

Elma de Vries (DSB Bank) broke away in a group including her team mate Maria Sterk (DSB Bank), Mariska Huisman (Viks) and in total 14 girls were in the first breakaway group. These 14 ladies lapped the peleton and it would come down to a sprint finish where DSB Bank's Elma de Vries took the victory over Mariska Huisman (Viks) and third went to Chris Witty (Landjuweel).

Ladies results
1st Elma de Vries (DSB Bank)
2nd Mariska Huisman (Viks)
3rd Chris Witty (Landjuweel)
4th Carla Zielmann (hoolwerf)
5th Maria Sterk (DSB Bank)

The mens race started shortly after where the race was very fast and very hard for the first 35 laps. The pace was on the whole time with breakaway attempts and the face ice. One straight was tail wind and the other head wind. At the mid race point there was a breakaway of approximately 17 skaters. Some skaters were originally in the breakaway and went back to the peleton and some skaters including Ingmar Berga (DSB Bank) crossed over to the breakaway.

Finally these 17 skaters lapped the peleton and the peleton got the bell with 11 laps to go for their sprint finish. Shane Dobbin (DSB Bank) was sitting in second place from laps 18-11 setting himself up for the sprint for the peleton. In the end Shane made a great sprint for the line and passing many people down the final straight ending up in 23rd place.

The breakaway group still had 10 laps remaining where Bam's Rob Hadders was at the front making sure there were no breakaway. After chasing down the final attempt of a breakaway with approximately 3 laps to go Rob Hadders (BAM) pulled aside once the group was together Safan's Roy Boeve made him move with Sander Kingma (Team Care Group) and Bob de Vries (BAM) crossing over. These three skaters were in front just enough to stay away for the final lap and Bob de Vries (BAM) crossed the line in first for the race victory.

Men's results
1st Bob de Vries (BAM)
2nd Sander Kingma (Team Care Group)
3rd Roy Boeve (Safan)
4th Karlo Timmerman (Renault)
5th Joost Juffermans (TNT)
6th Cedric Michaud (Nefit)
7th Arjan Stroetinga (BAM)
8th Ingmar Berga (DSB Bank)
9th Bart de Vries (Schuurman)
10th Yoeri Lissenberg (Foekens)

Announced last night, on Wednesday evening there will be another Natural Ice race in the north of Netherlands. The race will be confirmed in the new 24 hours with the possibility of being a New Years Eve race with another race on Thursday in Biddinghuizen.

For full results go to : http://www.knsb.nl/natuurijs/wedkal.asp

For more photos go to : http://www.fotohdeboer.nl/