For the second evening in a row, the northern skating top failed to claim a leading role, but the fun was no less in Noordlaren, where the public turned out en masse for the second marathon on natural ice.
It was Noordlaren that took the honors. On Tuesday evening in Winterswijk, where the first race was held, the focus was still on Haaksbergen for the next marathon spectacle of this winter, but the Haaksbergers did not get things together well enough at the last minute. The track was too badly affected by the children and recreational users who used it en masse.
“So on Tuesday evening we received a call from natural ice coordinator Geert-Jan Muskens asking what we could do,” chairman Jan-Geert Veldman of the ice skating association De Hondsrug in Noordlaren looked back on the hectic 24 hours that he and his army of volunteers had had. In the famous skating village on the border of Drenthe and Groningen, they set to work on upgrading the ice rink. “We were busy all night,” Veldman agreed. With all the experience available in Noordlaren, there was pay for work on Wednesday morning.
Mirror of an ice floor
The end result was a mirror of an ice floor that turned out to be more than 3.5 centimeters thick during the official measurement. More than enough according to the KNSB guideline to give the green light. The skating rink was closed to the general public from 1 p.m. to save the ice for the competitive skaters, who could enjoy themselves on real ice in the evenings for the second day in a row.
For the men, the competition in Noordlaren was a lot tougher than the evening before in Winterswijk, where this season’s Frisian glutton, Harm Visser, claimed victory. The fact that more big names were at the start on Wednesday than the night before had everything to do with the return of coach Jillert Anema’s team, which in the previous days prepared under the pleasant Tenerife sun for the alternative Elfstedentocht and the open National Championships. which will soon be held on the Weissensee in Austria.
Groningen star
Gritting his teeth, a Groningen star like Daan Gelling had to watch on Tuesday evening as his colleagues in Winterswijk rode the race that every enthusiast in the marathon peloton eagerly looks forward to every winter, while he sat somewhere high in the sky in a silver bird. But he could still indulge himself in Noordlaren, his home track.
That’s what Gelling did. He rode the final, together with the other Groninger in the peloton Robert Post and twelve others. The leading group also included Harm Visser and other good names such as Luc ter Haar, Evert Hoolwerf and Jordy Harink. The men had to decide in the last ten rounds who would be added to Noordlaren’s list of achievements.
The young Lars Woelders from Gramsbergen colored the final. He ran off alone with his leg number 31. It was a daring attempt that earned him respect from the cheering audience and the speaker, who enthusiastically shouted that Woelders had to persevere. He couldn’t do it. Three laps before the end, the Overijssel daredevil was caught by the chasing competition.
‘Almost at my wits end’
In the final laps on the way to the finish line, the top riders barely survived and Visser was finally prevented from winning by winner Hoolwerf and number two Harink. Visser came third in Noordlaren. The Groningers Gelling and Post (who had to sprint for Visser) had to give up their dream of shining in front of their own audience and finished fifth and fourteenth respectively. “I almost lost my nerve,” Post looked back on the final laps. “We drove for it, but it wasn’t quite right this time. Woelders’ escape meant I had to work and we couldn’t play the game as we wanted. Otherwise it would have offered opportunities for both of us. That was a pity.”
Daan Gelling still had a week in Tenerife in his legs, where many training kilometers were covered by bike. “I still noticed it a bit, there was quite a bit of pressure on my legs. But that’s no excuse. We are all very fit, so that was not the problem. It also went very well. The ice slid smoothly, there were hardly any cracks. That used to be different.”
Great evening
The positive review of his ice surface was music to Chairman Veldman’s ears. “It was a great evening,” the president of the De Hondsrug ice skating club reflected. He was delighted with the large crowd of spectators who gathered along the crowd barriers. “We have issued more than a thousand hats at the cash register. In practice this means that we had an audience of around two thousand people. That’s great of course. It’s alive. It was also a sporting pleasure to enjoy the matches. You couldn’t ask for more as chairman.”