GP Gerrie Knetemann, June 28
It's not too often that I get to be in a follow vehicle at a pro race in europe. So far, it happens every 24th year. I'll try to make it a more frequent occurence, because it really is the best place to be during a race and I would even argue it's the best place to be, period. How does one get to sit shotgun in a team car for a race? It helps to be a team director, a mechanic, or in some cases it works to be a well-connected cycling fan;)
Some background info: Gerrie Knetemann was a well known pro racer from back in the day and more recently he was the national team coach. He died last year and this race was created in his memory. The race was 5 laps on a 30 km loop in eastern netherlands, close to germany in a reasonably hilly area with nice big U.S. sized homes, and narrow curvy roads (please see earlier post regarding lack of straightaways). The participants were mostly dutch racers and dutch pro teams. A handful of top dutch pros that are on foreign teams raced together as the national team. You might be familiar with such guys as Servais Knaven (Quick Step), Karsten Kroon (CSC), and Max Van Heeswijk (Discovery). A fourth well known cyclist joins them for this picture:
National team coach Egon Van Kessel gives a pre-race pep talk. "Now listen guys, you're all here cuz your teams didn't think you were good enough for the tour, but you're a hell of a lot better than anyone else here. You're all wearing different jerseys and I don't pay you, so let's have some fun."
Does Max Van Heeswijk ever stop smiling? So far the answer is no. Not before the race, not during the race, not after race.
Waiting in the caravan for the race to start. In the caravan lottery we got number 15. Not so good when there's 20 teams.
I thought it might be boring to sit in the 15th car, after all, I wouldn't see the race much. I was wrong. There's the race radio, the radios with the riders, joking around with the other team managers, driving erratically on closed roads, enjoying the scenery and spectators. The team car is a busy place. And in a really big race there'd also be a laptop, TV, gps, etc. Four hours flies by. One minute you're chatting with the Rabobank guys.
The next minute it's Jeroen Blijlevens driving the official race car.
Two of our guys were in the breakaway and once the gap reached over a minute, our car was allowed to move up. That was great because now I'd actually be watching the race. Here's video of us passing the field.
Another video watching the race from behind.
You also get to see the riders a little bit more when they drop back to the cars for bottles and food. Usually the exchanges are pretty quick but in this video, Karsten Kroon is taking a while. It seems like he wanted water but the bottle he got was a sports drink.
The gap grew to almost 3 minutes, but near the end it got reeled in....way to spoil the fun Landbouwkrediet-Colnago. Consequently the car had to go back and I didn't see the finish. A Rabobank rider won. But Max Van Heewswijk was still smiling. All in a day's work. It wouldn't be a bike race if there wasn't post-race standing around in chamoises (or whatever the plural of chamois is).
Some background info: Gerrie Knetemann was a well known pro racer from back in the day and more recently he was the national team coach. He died last year and this race was created in his memory. The race was 5 laps on a 30 km loop in eastern netherlands, close to germany in a reasonably hilly area with nice big U.S. sized homes, and narrow curvy roads (please see earlier post regarding lack of straightaways). The participants were mostly dutch racers and dutch pro teams. A handful of top dutch pros that are on foreign teams raced together as the national team. You might be familiar with such guys as Servais Knaven (Quick Step), Karsten Kroon (CSC), and Max Van Heeswijk (Discovery). A fourth well known cyclist joins them for this picture:
National team coach Egon Van Kessel gives a pre-race pep talk. "Now listen guys, you're all here cuz your teams didn't think you were good enough for the tour, but you're a hell of a lot better than anyone else here. You're all wearing different jerseys and I don't pay you, so let's have some fun."
Does Max Van Heeswijk ever stop smiling? So far the answer is no. Not before the race, not during the race, not after race.
Waiting in the caravan for the race to start. In the caravan lottery we got number 15. Not so good when there's 20 teams.
I thought it might be boring to sit in the 15th car, after all, I wouldn't see the race much. I was wrong. There's the race radio, the radios with the riders, joking around with the other team managers, driving erratically on closed roads, enjoying the scenery and spectators. The team car is a busy place. And in a really big race there'd also be a laptop, TV, gps, etc. Four hours flies by. One minute you're chatting with the Rabobank guys.
The next minute it's Jeroen Blijlevens driving the official race car.
Two of our guys were in the breakaway and once the gap reached over a minute, our car was allowed to move up. That was great because now I'd actually be watching the race. Here's video of us passing the field.
Another video watching the race from behind.
You also get to see the riders a little bit more when they drop back to the cars for bottles and food. Usually the exchanges are pretty quick but in this video, Karsten Kroon is taking a while. It seems like he wanted water but the bottle he got was a sports drink.
The gap grew to almost 3 minutes, but near the end it got reeled in....way to spoil the fun Landbouwkrediet-Colnago. Consequently the car had to go back and I didn't see the finish. A Rabobank rider won. But Max Van Heewswijk was still smiling. All in a day's work. It wouldn't be a bike race if there wasn't post-race standing around in chamoises (or whatever the plural of chamois is).
Labels: cycling, netherlands
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