With a little imagination, her story resembles that of Max Verstappen. Just like the world champion, Vennepse Eline Duivenvoorden made her first meters on circuits at a very young age. And just like Max’s father Jos, Eline’s father Eric is no stranger to the racing world. The 19-year-old quad crosser is now scoring such high marks that her opponents regularly sit on their quads with their buttocks squeezed together. NH went looking for the secret behind the racing violence in the Haarlemmermeer polder.
“She is not afraid and wants to perform at all costs,” Eline’s former trainer Benjo Kellerman tells NH about her top sports mentality. Benjo has had her under his wing for years and knows her inside and out.
You might not immediately expect it due to the rough image of quad sport, but Benjo describes Eline as a ‘quiet tuthola’. “She doesn’t say six words too many, but she can talk quite a lot to people she knows.”
Infected with quad virus
Eline was only 5 years old when she got on a quad bike for the first time during her father Eric’s cross competition. She soon became infected with the virus, she tells NH. “I enjoyed it so much that we started training more and competing more often.”
“This makes me the first woman to take the holeshot during the Pont de Vaux”
At the age of 13 she joined the Motocross Organization Netherlands (MON). Things are going so well there that she soon joins the Royal Dutch Motorcycle Association (KNMV). Three years ago – when she was only 16 years old – she switched to ‘the big men’. “I was one of the few ladies on the 450cc at the Dutch Championships,” she says proudly.
Competition
Of every hundred Dutch quad riders who ride under the flag of the association, only four are women. That is why there is no separate competition for women in the Netherlands and they are forced to stand their ground among their male competitors. And Eline has no problem with that. In the NK Quadcross, a competition with several races, she finished 14th in 2021. wrote the Vennepse Witte Weekblad at the time.
Internationally, Eline has more competition from her own gender. She holds her own in that field, as was evident two years ago during a highly regarded quad competition in Pont-de-Vaux, France. After a four-hour race for women, she crossed the finish line in third place with her teammate Joyce van Eerd.
View the summary of the 2021 race below
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And she continues the upward trend, because last month she held her own among the men in the town north of Lyon. During the races in the third weekend of August, she not only took the lead, but also took pole position on the last day and the coveted so-called holeshot. “That is unique because I am the first woman who has ever done that,” Eline tells NH. “An unreal feeling to be the fastest of all participants.”
Racing dummies
For the racing dummies among us: to get the holeshot, you have to be the first past the first corner, which is easier if you start from pole position. Whoever takes the holeshot often wins the race, although that was not the case for Eline in Pont de Vaux last month.
Because numbers one and two did not appear at the start, Eline was allowed to start at the front of the field and was the first to pass the bend. But due to technical problems she lost half an hour and finished at the back of the field. Nevertheless, she still crossed the finish line as the third woman.
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Eline is also a busy bee outside the circuit. She follows the ‘snow sports’ profile at the CIOS in Haarlem. Indeed, she also enjoys professional sports that do not require a quad but rather slats or a board, such as skiing and snowboarding. “I am also very active in fitness, crossfit, mountain biking,” she adds.
There is also no lack of ambition, as becomes apparent when NH asks about its future plans. “I would like to participate in quad-cross rallies, with the main goal of participating in the well-known Dakar rally,” says Eline passionately. “I follow the rally every year and as a little girl I said that I would do the same later. I still have a long way to go to make my dream come true, because you don’t just get there. You really have to work hard. for work.” says Eline
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She knows that she is far from finished learning on the circuit. “You have to deal with highs and lows, you have to be able to deal with disappointments and accept that there are sometimes mechanical problems. I want to become stronger in this regard, even though I am already reasonably strong mentally.”
She also wants to grow more muscles. “You do notice that you are sometimes physically inadequate compared to the men. I train hard every day to keep this difference minimal. I want to get everything out of myself to perform as much as possible.”