Tim Smeenge won the Drenthe 200 today, the mountain bike race across the province. At 6 o’clock this morning, almost 1100 participants were ready to tackle the 200-kilometer route in Roden. Only one can be the fastest, and that’s Smeenge with 7:27:37.
The winner experienced the competition as ‘quite tough’. This was mainly due to the harsh weather conditions. This may also have been the reason for the relatively low turnout: in total there were 1900 registrations. So almost 1100 people showed up.
“It was a heroic journey,” says Smeenge after his victory. “Even the mountain bike trails, which often remain fairly good, were now very bad. I’m still quite fresh, I still have energy. It is of course great to win, especially with such a lead.”
He already sealed the lead that Smeenge is referring to after ten kilometres. “I thought: they will really take that back, because this is madness,” says Johan Wekema of the organization. “Riding solo for so long, 190 kilometers, that’s really great. Chapeau.”
Wekema saw many participants get off along the way. “Of course it has to do with your mindset,” he says. “One can handle this a bit better than the other. 20 degrees above zero would of course have been a bit nicer. But it’s just the Drenthe 200 and then this is part of it. It’s raining, it’s cold, it’s windy and there’s mud on it the route. The conditions are tough.”
Laurens ten Dam, former professional cyclist, took third place with 7:49:58. In 2014 he finished 9th in the well-known Tour de France.
The silver is for Bas Peters, he was on his bike for 7:49:09.