Ster van Zwolle Roundup

The wheels are humming a beautiful note across the world right now as cycling season for those in the Northern Hemisphere and some actual UCI racing took place.

Ster van Zwolle

Dutch racing is crazy... Fun, but crazy.
— Jesse Kerrison (@jkerro) February 28, 2015

Jesse Kerrison sums it up perfectly. Dutch racing is nuts. It is flat but throw in 200 riders, some road furniture and wind that could match a minor hurricane and you have a typical Dutch UCI race such as Ster van Zwolle. (Fun Fact: The citizens of Zwolle are colloquially known as Blauwvingers according to Wikipedia)

Ster van Zwolle, in the last few years, usually sees a late attack that goes up the road and sticks ahead of a large peloton that comes into sprint for the lower places. The wind took its toll early with a group of 20 mainly made up mainly of Rabobank Development, Metec and Jo Piels (10 out of 20) got a gap. Eventually, the 2nd group was able to come to terms but it was a continuing theme. A group would go up the road and get some time and then be brought back.

With 40 kilometers to go, a group of 6 including Remco Te Brake (Metec) , Steven Lammertink (SEG Racing), Stefan Poutsma (Jo Piels), Rene Hooghiemster (Baby Dump), Dimitri Claeys (Verandas Willems) and Twan Castelijns (Baby Dump) got 40 seconds but the group wasn't working well together and with 20 kilometers to go, it was done. Elmar Reinders tried right after but even going 55 kph, he wasn't able to get away from the peloton.

When it looked like it was coming back for a big sprint, a group of 10 got away with 10 kilometers to go and there was a pause from the peloton. Twan Brusselman, Reinders and Jeff Vermeulen (Jo Piels), Haavard Blikra (Coop-Oster Hus), Claeys and Daan Myngheer (Verandas Willems), Coen Vermeltfoort and Ronan Van Zandbeek (Join's-De Rijke), Castelijns and Te Brake. This group worked well together and there was no bringing them back.

#elmarreinders #StervanZwolle #indebloemetjes pic.twitter.com/ZnnmCT8ttl
— ZevenAlleetjes (@ZevenAlleetjes) February 28, 2015

Reinders, who was 3rd in the 2013 edition of this race, came around Claeys, who led the sprint out, to take his first win since last year's stage 1 of the Tour de Berlin. Reinders is out of the U23 ranks but he has tested with Lotto-Belisol in the past and is on the verge of getting a big contract. The best U23 rider of the day was Myngheer, who finished 9th.