Ramses Bekkenk has won the first edition of the Merida Dutch Cross Country. This non stop mountainbike race from Lauwersoog to Vaals over 455 kilometers has four obliged stops of thirty minutes and started at Saturday afternoon at half past one. Sunday morning at a guarter to nine Bekkenk arrived solo at the finish in Vaals. He was followed by Jody Tesselaar and Henk Bos who finished second and third. ‘Compliments to the organisation as this was the first edition and it was organised very well. Although it was tough I never had really difficult moments as I and my bike was trained and prepared well for this race.’, stated Bekkenk.
Teammate Karen Brouwer finished 2th in Alpentour Trophy in Austria. In this four days stage race with start and finish in Schladming Brouwer took 4th place in the final uphill time trial and kept her overall second place. In the first and third stage she finished 2th and in second stage a 3th place was her share behind Austrian Christina Kollmann who managed to win all stages. Bram Rood finished at 28th place.