Anouska Koster just barely missed the Dutch road championship title in ’s-Heerenberg.  she finished as second, only a few seconds after the winner Chantal Blaak who jumped away in the final from a leading trio.

“One should be happy with silver when the best in the race wins. Chantal Blaak was very strong today”, says DS Jeroen Blijlevens, who was pleased that his riders followed the team instructions from the start. Riejanne Markus and Moniek Tenniglo attacked very early on. “In order to increase our chance of success, we had to have someone in the front.”

Anouska Koster settled in the only real leading group of the day, taking a lead of more than 2 minutes.  In the rolling final lap of well over 16 kilometres (covering it 8 times), the chasing peloton got closer and closer.

Anouska jumped on the final climb of the Peeskesbult. “You know that the peloton was closing in, then it’s a matter of keeping the pace high enough.  If you don’t, it’s all too easy for the chasers to close the gap which is what we wanted to avoid”, says Jeroen Blijlevens.

The leading group was able to stay upfront. Chantal Blaak attacked at around 2 kilometres from the finish line. “I alertly reacted, but could not close the gap anymore”, says Anouska who passed on her champion jersey to Blaak and finished 2^nd herself. “I have given everything I had in me. Ultimately, it is nice that I stood again on the podium of the Dutch championship.”

Race in Israel and Poland
WM3-riders were also racing in national championships in other countries. Rotem Gafinovitz took the 4^th place. “It is rather disappointing as I was riding a good race. The pace was very high and many riders were dropped on the rolling route.  We stayed with 4 at the front. I didn’t have anything left in the final lap and knew I couldn’t do any better.” Omer Shapira won.

Anna Plichta obtained a podium spot on Saturday noon in Poland, finishing 3^rd. She chose to attack already early on in the race in order to make it hard. She and 2 others were in the lead pretty much the entire race.

“Not exactly easy. One the one hand because of the long distance and on the other hand because the other two looked at me to do the work.  I wanted to stay in the lead in order to avoid a sprint which would not have been to my advantageous. I attacked on the longest climb of the day, 30 kilometres from the finish line. I accelerated again at the top, but also then, I couldn’t get away. The other 2 were clearly still fresher.” The victory went to Karolina Karasiewicz.