1-2 in the rain for CadoMotus, Van Loon wins on return in 't Veld

The rain that held off for the World on Wheels event in Vorden on Saturday did not miss 't Veld this afternoon for the Pinksterdag Skeeler Festijn. The 't Veld course in the North of Holland is known as a tough lap, with a 500-meter section of uneven cobblestones on the back of the course that often is the scene of the winning break.

L: Hilde far left as Elma De Vries leads pack. R: Anniek Ter Haar gives chase to the break away up ahead, Angeline on outside making a pass. (Photos courtesy of Harm de Boer)

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In wet, slick and rainy conditions, the races in 't Veld were all about wheels - just as the first World Inline Cups of Basel and Rennes had been. It was just minutes into the ladies event, and on the first lap of the mens, that the athletes with grip separated themselves from the athletes without. The availability of MPC wheels today proved a key element in who went with the decisive breaks and who did not.

Top L: Angeline Thomas, Margo Van de Merwe, Nachi Shinozuka. R: Nachi Shinozuka, Angeline Thomas, Margo Van de Merwe. Bottom: Nachi Shinozuka and Angeline Thomas.

In the ladies race, CadoMotus World's Angeline Thomas separated herself from the field after a number of attacks involving teammates Jannitta Spigt and Hilde Goovaerts, as well as CadoMotus National's Margo van de Merwe. As in-form skaters struggled to keep in touch - first TimeOut's Anniek Ter Haar, then multiple Nederlands National Champion Elma de Vries, the CadoMotus girls, together with Japanese Nachi Shinozuka, kept the pressure on in the adverse conditions to skate away from the main field... that was soon scattered throughout the course.

Top L: Hilde Goovaerts, Nachi Shinozuka, Jannitta Spigt. R: Margo van de Merwe

Bottom L: Angeline Thomas R: Jannitta Spigt.


Angeline Thomas skated away in a strong solo effort to claim the win with almost a one minute margin over teammate Hilde Goovaerts, who outsprinted Nachi Shinozuka for second place by just 0.295 seconds. CadoMotus World's Jannitta Spigt was herself only narrowly outgunned in the final stretch by Shinozuka, finishing just 0.58 sec behind her in front of a wet and enthusiastic 't Veld crowd.

Angeline Thomas crossing the line for her 2nd Win.

Together with the 1-2 finish in Vorden yesterday, today's result caps off a successful weekend for the CadoMotus World Ladies, taking first and second place in both Vorden and 't Veld.


Dames 1

1. Angeline Thomas (AUS) CadoMotus World Ladies
2. Hilde Goovaerts (BEL) CadoMotus World Ladies
3. Nachi Shinozuka (JAP) Timmerman/PS
4. Jannitta Spigt (NED) CadoMotus World Ladies
5. Margo van de Merwe (NED) CadoMotus National

For full Results click HERE

Hilde Goovaerts 2nd, Angeline Thomas 1st, Nachi Shinozuka 3rd.

In the Mens event it was just over 1 lap before the field began to split as differences in wheel performance on the slick and often rough 't Veld course took their toll. The Powerplay.nl team of Jan van Loon, Alain Gloor and Geert Plender used their MPC wheels to their advantage, playing a lead role in the opening break of the race that included Roy Boeve, Michael Byrne, Josh Lose and Koen Verweij. This group, all on MPC, opened a significant gap on the field, before attacks began from within the group - often initiated by the controlling Powerplay team with 3 athletes in the break.

L: Alain Gloor leads Josh Lose and Roy Boeve. R: Michael Byrne leads Koen Verweij and Geert Plender.

Strong and repeated efforts from Plender, Gloor and Van Loon proved too much as the light, fast-footed skaters wore down their fellow escapees. Van Loon eventually made a solo escape from the breakaway group, and as Boeve tried to verbally 'inspire' the others to keep chasing, it would only serve to keep the remaining two Powerplay skaters well in control and able to attack at will from the back. Work from Lose, Boeve and Verweij kept Van Loon in sight and not too far ahead, from which Gloor used the reduced range to jump across to his teammate and help him to raise the pace and put them out of reach of the others.

Michael Byrne leading Roy Boeve, Josh Lose and Alain Gloor.

Lose and Byrne fell away, in sight but unable to close on the trio of Plender, Boeve and Verweij - and on the final lap it was Van Loon and Gloor who came across the line with a 1-minute 15-second gap over the sprint between Verweij and Boeve for third.


Heren A

1. Jan Van Loon (NED) Powerplay.nl
2. Alain Gloor (SUI) Powerplay.nl
3. Koen Verweij (NED)
4. Roy Boeve (NED) Habovo
5. Geert Plender (NED) Powerplay.nl

6. Michael Byrne (AUS) Stouwdam/Unive- CadoMotus
7. Josh Lose (AUS) Hyper/CadoMotus

For full Mens Results click HERE

Alain Gloor 2nd, Jan Van Lone 1st, Koen Verweij 3rd.

With klassement leader Sjoerd Huisman only managing 21st, Boeve's efforts worked well on the overall classification as he closed the gap on Huisman. Next week the World on Wheels competition takes a break as the Dutch National Marathon Championships will be held in Nijverdaal.

Michael Byrne 3rd in Vorden World on Wheels with Sjoerd Huisman taking the win. CadoMotus Ladies with 1,2,4

With the weather unsure of being wet or dry, it turned out to be a hot, sunny and beautiful afternoon. The course was on a smooth, fast 1300mt track with 4 nice left hand turns, one long slight windy uphill and a slight downhill for the finish. This was not the case last year, where it rained and was very slippery.

Top L: Hilde Goovaerts leads the group. R: Angeline Thomas leads from Bianca Roosenboom

Bottom L: Angeline Thomas sprints for a prem with Bianca and Erna Kijk trailing. R: Anniek Ter Haar and Britta Vantournhout (Time Out), lead the last two laps with CadoMotus behind. (Photos courtest of MarathonIllustrator)

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The ladies field was again quite strong today with most of the Dutch selection finishing their National Championships last week, most still on a high peak. During the race Bianca Roosenboom’s (NED) job was to collect all the prem sprints, while Hilde Goovaerts (BEL), Jannitta Spigt (NED) and Angeline Thomas (AUS) made sure to counter any attacks that went off after a sprint. Mariska Huisman (NED) tried a few times to break away, but this saw difficult going alone on a fast course.

L: Angeline and Bianca sprint for prems. R: Jannitta Spigt and Angeline Thomas break away with Nachi Shinozuka trailing.

After one of the prem sprints, Angeline Thomas and Jannitta Spigt attacked from the back with Japan’s Nachi Shinozuka quickly jumping on the wheel. They had a 200mt lead on the pack for about 3 laps, with the work being shared between all three skaters. Unfortunately, due to the fast course, they could not hold the gap and got caught with 2 min and 3 laps to go.

In the last 2 laps, there was much fighting, with all the teams trying to get into a good position for the final sprint. Hilde Goovaerts made sure to keep moving up until she was right on the wheel of Time Outs Britta Vantournhout (BEL) and leading her out Anniek Ter Haar (NED). On the last lap and 700mt from the finish, Hilde Goovaerts jumped around Team Time Out to start the lead out with Angeline Thomas on her wheel. With Jannitta Spigt not being able to respond quick enough to follow Angeline, there opened a gap where Britta Vantournhout could quickly jump on.

End sprint, Bianca Roosenboom takes the Victory with Angeline Thomas 2nd and Nachi Shinozuka 3rd.

Coming towards the last corner, Britta Vantournhout was right on CadoMotus so from 5th place, Bianca Roosenboom stepped out and began sprinting but with no one on her wheel. Angeline Thomas then waited for her to pass then jumped to her wheel, leaving a gap on the downhill so no one could catch. With another great result Bianca Roosenboom took the win with Angeline Thomas 2nd and Nachi Shinozuka in 3rd place. A great finish by 17yr old Margo Van der Merwe in 4th and the best finish she has had this season and in a World on Wheels race.

Bianca crossing the line for the win.

Vorden World on Wheels Ladies Results

1. Bianca Roosenboom (NED) CadoMotus World
2. Angeline Thomas (AUS) CadoMotus World
3. Nachi Shinozuka (JPN) Timmerman Powerslide
4. Margo Van de Merwe (NED) CadoMotus National
5. Mariska Huisman (NED) Zuidema

7. Jannitta Spigt (NED)
9. Hilde Goovaerts (BEL)

For full Ladies results click HERE

Angeline 2nd, Bianca Roosenboom 1st, Nachi Shinozuka 3rd.

The mens event was fast-paced from the opening, with a full lineup of teams present and all skaters keen to push the pace in dry conditions on the fast Vorden course. Breakaways were the order of the day, despite rarely lasting long as the fast-moving group bore down on each and every one. The Powerplay.nl team of Geert Plender, Sander de Graaf, Stephan Wielinga, Swiss Alain Gloor and returning from injury, Jan van Loon, launched attacks throughout the first 35 minutes of the 45-min +5 lap event - often countering off their own attacks and succeeding in putting single skaters clear of the field a number of times. Habovo were active in initiating attacks also, as were the Nefit team - keen to score a podium place for Arjan Mombarg (NED) who was in front of a home crowd at the event he helps organize and promote each year.

L: The start group of the A mens. R: Michael Byrne giving chase to a break away.

A sneak off the front by Arjan Smit together with Geert Plender and Jan van Loon in the closing laps was close to being successful, however they were swallowed by the bunch in the last lap with around 40 skaters still intact in the lead group to contest the jostling and wrestling match that precedes the final sprint. While Timmerman/PS managed to put 4 skaters together near the front with just 500m remaining, it was Sjoerd Huisman who had been allowed to skate an economical race who took the lead, followed by Ingmar Berga and Michael Byrne (AUS) into the final turn. Despite a corner-exit run up the inside by Byrne, the order at the turn would not change at the line - with Huisman taking the win with another strong sprint finish, followed by Berga in 2nd, and Byrne 3rd for his first podium appearance of the season.

Field sprint from left: Ingmar Burger, Sjoerd Huisman, Koen Verweij, Michael Byrne, Karlo Timmerman with Christijn Groeneveld behind in green suit, then far front right is Stijn Van Hoeve.

Vorden World on Wheels Mens Results

1. Sjoerd Huisman (NED) Nefit
2. Ingmar Burger (NED) DSB
3. Michael Byrne (AUS) Stouwdam/Unive - CadoMotus
4. Stijn van Hoeve (BEL) Habovo
5. Karlo Timmerman (NED) Timmerman/PS

Sjoerd Huisman wins from Ingmar Burger 2nd, Michael Byrne 3rd and Stijn Van Hoeve 4th.

6. Koen Verweij (NED) Stouwdam/Unive - CadoMotus
7. Christijn Groeneveld (NED) Hyper - CadoMotus
10. Josh Lose (AUS) Hyper - CadoMotus

For full Mens results click HERE

Ingmar Burger 2nd, Sjoerd Huisman 1st, Michael Byrne 3rd.

The double-feature 'weekend' continues in the Netherlands on Monday night with another World on Wheels Criterium in t'Veld - the scene of last year's Netherlands Marathon Championship.

CadoMotus World Ladies and Geert Jan Van der Wal win in Wolvega

Great Pictures courtesy of Glenn : http://www.flickr.com/photos/marathonillustrator/

Today was one of the toughest and tactical races in Holland in a long time. With the Dutch National Championships finishing the day before, there were many fast but tired skaters. The course was different from last year, being held on a windy 1500mt smooth asphalt road, with one 400mt long straight and 3 left – right turns.

Podium: Angeline Thomas 2nd,Hilde Goovaerts 1st,Elma De Vries 3rd.

There was a lot of international flavor in the group today with Japans National Champion - Nachi Shinozuka, Netherlands Champion - Elma De Vries, Belgium’s Champion - Maaike Polspoel, Jessica Gaudesaboos, Britta Vantournhout and Hilde Goovaerts, and Australia’s Champion - Angeline Thomas. In the men’s, even more Nationalities with Belgiums World Inline Cup skater - Jasper Corne, Alain Gloor – Switzerland, Michael Byrne and Josh Lose – Australia, Ronan Sanchez – Spain and Shinki Yamamoto – Japan. As the Dutch had spent the last 3 days racing their National Track Chapionships, this sparked many break aways by the International skaters and those who did not contest the Championships.

Ladies Peleton on far sie of track.

In the Ladies group, break-away’s went from the gun, with Time Out’s – Britta Vantournhout (BEL) and Maaike Polspoel (BEL) being the first to attack. Jannitta Spigt (NED) soon caught it with Elma De Vries (NED) attacking straight after. After one of the Prem sprints, Elma De Vries and Angeline Thomas (AUS) got away for at least 3 laps until they were eventually caught. The whole race kept up like this until we lost half the group, one of those being Britta Vantournhout. 10 skaters remained in the leading group for the final rounds.

Angeline Thomas off the front for a prem sprint and break-away. Maaike Polspol in the distance.

As we crossed the line with 3 laps to go, the pace dropped dramatically- almost to a crawl, with no one wanting to lead. We came through the last corner on to the straight with 2 laps to go when out of no where; Britta Vantournhout came flying past us, making her way up the road. The whole group was stunned, wondering whether she was on the same lap as us or if she’d been lapped. As we were all in shock, Jannitta Spigt (NED) led for 1 lap, closing the gap right up but not quite enough, so Jessica Gaudesaboos (BEL) had to close the rest.

Hilde Goovaerts leads peleton. Maaike Polspoel and Anniek Ter Haar (Time Out) in view to right.

In the final lap, Anniek Ter Haar (NED) was leading coming out of the last corner with Elma De Vries, Angeline Thomas and Hilde Goovaerts on her wheel. Nachi Shinozuka fought to get in the group, but was quickly reminded of how she had skated weeks before and didn’t quite make it in. With 200mt to go, Elma De Vries jumped left and Angeline Thomas and team mate Hilde Goovaerts jumped right, with Angeline beating Elma to the front of the straight. As Angeline led out Hilde to the finish, Elma was right on Hilde’s wheel. It was a close lunge finish with CadoMotus taking the victory with 1-2, not sure of what order we finished but with Elma De Vries in 3rd.







Finish sprint - Hilde Goovaerts, Elma De Vries and Angeline Thomas.


Wolvega World on Wheels Ladies Results

1. Hilde Goovaerts (BEL) CadoMotus World
2. Angeline Thomas (AUS) CadoMotus World
3. Elma De Vries (NED) DSB
4. Maaike Polspoel (BEL) Time Out
5. Jessica Gaudesaboos (BEL) CadoMotus National

8. Jannitta Spigt (NED) CadoMotus World

For full Ladies results click here

Happy after the race; Angeline Thomas and Hilde Goovaerts with podium flowers.

In the mens event, extended to 1hour +5laps in Wolvega (over the regular criterium time of 45mins +5laps), a big field started out in the face of approaching rain, with skaters from Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Australia, France and Japan.

The smooth asphalt made for a fast race, with skaters taking a few laps to become familar with the tight left-right turns that acted as slowpoints in the opening laps but were quickly skated through by the group after a short time. Although the tight turns were difficult for some, it was the headwind that made the difference on the back side of the course, where a group of 10 skaters (with only the Habovo team having 2 skaters in the group) broke away and were never caught by the main field - who countered every effort from any team to place a second or third athlete in the breakaway group.

In the final laps, van der Wal's teammate Willem Hut (NED) gave him his cue to go, whereupon he took off from the breakaway with Jasper Corne (BEL) following. Van der Wal, just back from a 4-week absence from the competition with a broken collarbone, was too strong in the closing lap and held off Corne in the long finish to take the win. Corne in turn held off a fast finishing Cedric Michaud (FRA) and Alain Gloor (SUI) who took a close 3rd and 4th place respectively.





Cedric Michaud leads the peleton after the first turn. Michael Byrne in distance.



The bunch sprint was won by Sjoerd Huisman (NED) despite the best efforts of Shinki Yamamoto, Ronan Sanchez and Mark Horsten to take the sprint for team Timmerman/PS. Huisman maintains his lead in the overall classification from Roy Boeve who was 8th in the bunch sprint.


Wolvega World On Wheels Mens Results

1. Geert-Jan van der Wal (NED) Habovo
2. Jasper Corne (BEL) World Inline Center
3. Cedric Michaud (FRA) Nefit

7. Frank Fiers (BEL) Stouwdam/Unive - CadoMotus

Field Sprint -

11. Sjoerd Huisman (NED) Nefit
12. Michael Byrne (AUS) Stouwdam/Unive - CadoMotus
13. Christijn Groeneveld (NED) Hyper - CadoMotus

For full Mens Results click here.

Heerenveen PowerPlay Race

Last night Mick Byrne (AUS) raced the Power Play Trophee competition, which was in conjunction with a cycling tournament around the famous Heerenveen sports stadium. It was a very ‘hairy’ course with 4 sharp left hand corners, cobble stones, speed bumps, tiled sections and chicanes made from metal gates. This race was only for the A men, to promote the Power-play company. It was freezing cold - 12 degrees, which is crazy right now as we’ve been having 22-25 degree days, and was one of the strangest races I have seen in a long time. I think it might have had something to do with the fact that the Dutch National Championships start today, so as you can understand none of the Dutch wanted to push themselves.

A break away went from the start with the Frenchman Alexis Contin, Ronan Sanchez (ESP) and Cedric Michaud (NED). They stayed away for the whole race with the peleton 35 seconds behind. Ingmar Burger from Team DSB (NED) who is very well knows as the ‘break away’ specialist, attempted to break away throughout the whole race, but if someone was on his wheel, he would just shut it down. With 10 laps to go, Alain Gloor (SUI) also tried to cross to the break but was soon caught by the peleton. Towards the end of the race, the break away group was almost 1 minute up on the peleton. As the peleton came through the finish line with 2 laps to go, Geert Plender (NED) broke away from the group solo, which then in turn sparked skaters all over the place to get a run for it. The finish sprint was close with Ronan Sanchez (ESP) winning the lunge from Alexis Contin 2nd (FRA), and third Cedric Michaud (NED). Geert Plender (NED) held his 4th place as the rest of the peleton, meter’s back, came through the line one by one. So there was really no field sprint, just a lot of little breaks here and there. Mick said he felt tired and a little empty from the day before but for sure will be ready for Sundays race in Wolvega.

Heerenveen PowerPlay Trophee Mens A

1. Ronan Sanchez (ESP) Timmerman Powerslide
2. Alexis Contin (FRA) Powerslide World
3. Cedric Michaud (NED) Nefit

16. Michael Byrne (AUS) Unive/Stouwdam/CadoMotus

For full results click here

Hilde Goovaerts 4th in Rennes Marathon as Gegner and Schneider win.

Sorry it’s taken so long to post. If you managed to watch any of the footage from the WIC coverage, you would have seen the conditions were pretty bad. It rained on and off all day with the course drying minutes before the start of the ladies marathon. With everyone not knowing whether it was going to rain again or not, we decide to wear Hyper Stripes which are wheels that work in the wet and dry.

L to R: Before the race we had an interview with the French Inline Cup magazine. Jannitta, Jessica, Angeline and Hilde

What a great result for our second World Inline Cup race with Hilde getting away with the break group to place 4th in the finish. The race was fast from the start with the likes of Nicole Begg (NZ) and Nadine Gloor (SUI) attacking at every chance they could. Hilde skated like a trooper staying on all the attacks and making sure she didn’t do too much work for the finish. It rained half way through with most of the girls finding it tough in the wet. Teams such as Athleticum had the wrong wheels for the wet, using the MPC pink VT wheels. Hilde said she struggled when it was dry but as soon as the rain came, the stripes worked great. With 10 laps to go, there were only 6 skaters left in the peleton strong enough to contest the tough wet, dry and windy conditions - 3 rollerblade, Jana Gegner (GER), Nicole Begg (NZ) and Cado Motus’ Hilde Goovaerts (BEL). It stopped raining enough for the ground to dry for the finish.

L: Jessica and Angie wait at the start. R: The start of the Ladies Marathon

Before the last turn, Rollerblade was setting up to lead out one another when Nicole Begg (NZ)jumped the group with Jana Gegner (GER) right on her wheel. About 300mt from the finish Gegner passed Begg sprinting her to the line to take the win with Begg 2nd and Tamara Lorens (ARG) 3rd. Hilde didn’t quite get to Lorens, but gave her a good run to get the best result for our team this season and her best individual WIC result in 4th.

Top: Angie after she crashed in the first lap R: Angie chasing solo.

Middle: The peleton with Tamara Llorens (ARG) Rollerblade leading, Hilde 3rd from the back. R: Tina Struever (GER) Bont leading with Hilde following and Melissa Bonet (ARG) WorldInlineCentre.

Bottom: With 1 lap to go, Rollerblade in the lead with Hilde in 3rd and Jana Gegner (GER) in the yellow Zepto suit to her left. R: Jessica Gaudesaboos in the orange CadoMotus suit at the beginning of race.

Now, on to some not so nice news. Basically my race was not so peachy. I was feeling good to go and pretty positive that we could get a good result. Straight off the start it was fast and I was on the back line. I was far over to what I thought was the side of the road when all of a sudden some girl tried to fit between me and the curb, taking both my feet out from under me. I landed hard on both my knees and supporting the rest of my weight, landed on my left arm as I hit the ground. I then had to do, what felt like a time trial for 16km. I was skating hard but felt like I was going no where. It wasn’t until later I was told that I was doing the same time as the group on my own, but by that time couldn’t close the gap. I was hurting pretty bad so Desly Hill, our coach, said to stop. So in a nut shell, I drove 16hrs in two days, just to race 20min on my own. But all the pain went away when Hilde’s efforts put our team in the top 5.




Nicole Begg (NZ) starting her sprint a bit too early with Jana Gegner(GER) to her right, Tamara Llorens (ARG) in 3rd and Hilde Goovaerts (BEL) in 4th.

Rennes Ladies Marathon

1. Jana Gegner (GER) Zepto
2. Nicole Begg (NZ) SsanyYoung Bont
3. Tamara Llorens (ARG) Sportvital RB
4. Hilde Goovaerts (BEL) CadoMotus World
5. Michaela Neuling (GER) Sportvital RB

Rennes Mens Marathon

1. Roger Schneider (SUI) Athleticum
2. Shane Dobbin (NZ) Sportvital RB
3. Max Presti (ITA) Bont
4. Diego Rosero (COL) Sportvital RB
5. Fabien Hascoet (FRA) Sportvital RB