Sun and rain alternated during the National Championships Cross Triathlon in Almere today, which resulted in tough, but also crossworthy conditions on the already tough course. This resulted in great winners, with Wouter Dijkshoorn and Diede Diederiks as brand new Dutch Champions at the elite (1km swim, 29.5km bike, 7.5km run).
The fastest overall athlete was the Belgian Tim van Hemelen, who of course did not compete for the National title but who successfully took up this race in preparation for the World Championships, which will be held next year on the same course in Almere. “It was a nice, rainy day with also sunshine. That made the course initially slippery, but after this it dried up which makes the conditions totally different. For me this was an amazing test in my preparations for the World Championships. Now that I’ve already checked the course, I definitely can say that I want to come back here next year to finish on the podium. Thanks to the short and steep climbs, a course like this is perfect for explosive athletes, but also technique plays a big role. Today it turns out that crossing in Almere is really possible. A World Championship-worthy course.”
At the womens race the overall victory and the Dutch title went to Diede Diederiks. She’s not even specialized in Cross Triathlon, but she turned out to be very strong today. “It was an incredibly tough course: especially the two hundred altimeters. The course is much tougher than it looks, but that makes it very cool to ride. It’s a technical course where you don’t only win on speed and power, but also on technique. It’s a course that contains everything.”
Among the men’s race the Dutch title went to Wouter Dijkshoorn, who became second overall behind Tim van Hemel. Also Dijkshoorn enjoyed the course. “This was a real cross. You have the flat, crisscrossing parts which are perfect for the technical orientated athletes, but also the though climbs for which you really needed power. I loved every part of it.”
Among the men who competed for the Dutch title, the second place went to Joep Staps and third place to Victor Goené. For the women second place was for Judy van den Berg and third place for Ingrid van Lubek. The Dutch junior titles went to Lucas Goené and Kim van ‘t Verlaat. Youth Dutch titles went to Hugo Overmeen and Selina Franken.