After a solid effort in yesterday’s Ronde van Groningen, we were back in racing mode today as we were featured in the start line of Dorpenomloop Rucphen. The race presented a 200+ km long parcour was made harder due to the presence of strong wind and rain, but our riders did not back down and they started committed to execute the pre-race plan. 

It took a while until a two-man group went up the road, but the strong pace that was always kept in the head of the peloton brought it back way before the finish line. With 65 km to go, it became a succession of attacks in which big groups tried to make up the road. Our riders played it perfectly, and in every move you could find an Academy jersey of the likes of Jordi Meeus, Daan Hoole or Stan van Tricht. A 8-man group that featured Jordi Meeus was in the lead only 15 km reminded, and as soon as the group was brought back, Daan Hoole tried his luck up the road. With 10 km left, just a sole leader was in the front, and the Academy riders organised themselves and move to the front of the pack and led the chase. 

The strong effort of the whole team paid off as the race entered into the final kilometer in one piece, and the perfect team leadout saw Jordi Meeus setting David Dekker in the perfect position so the current U23 Dutch Road Race Champion could deliver his second win of the season, while Meeus himself still got into the Top 10 of the day. This impressive team performance accounted as our fourth win of the season, and we will be back in racing vibes Saturday with Ronde van Drenthe. 

Aike Visbeek, Academy Director and DS for the race: 
“We knew that today it would be a very nervous race, with a lot of cornering, some small crosswinds splits, 200 km race with wind and rain … But the team rode really well together, we never lost control of the race and as a result we had a perfect situation heading into the final where we had Jordi Meeus in a breakaway, so that forced other teams to chase which helped us to save energy. Once that move was brought back we took control and the guys did a textbook lead out. In the way they did the final kilometers you could see the commitment that all riders had, and I can only be proud and give my compliments to everyone in the team. You can’t single out one rider today, everyone did a magnificent job and gave their 110% for the team success”.