During the second edition of the Dutch Masters of MTB in Haarle Ramses Bekkenk and Bram Rood were at the front row again. Rood who won the 200 kilometers long mountainbike race last year had to deal with a flat tire in this edition. Battling alone against the strong Eastern wind he was without chance to catch up with the leaders again and a fifth place was all there was left for him. Teammate Ramses Bekkenk was still part of the leading group with later winner Joey van Rhee, Roel Verhoeven and Thom Bonder.
‘We started with a ten men leading group early in the race and from time to time someone dropped from this group. After the 125 kilometers mark I also had some problems with the pace of Joey and Roel and had to let them go and partly continued with Thom. After I dropped him it was really difficult to keep up the speed alone due to the strong wind. With my third place I can only be happy as today it was all there was to win for me as two men were to strong.’, stated Bekkenk