Four riders hit by a jury car during the Dutch National Cycling Championships

Huub Artz finished 31st at Sunday’s Dutch National Cycling Championships, but the Dutch time trial champion had a very close call during the opening phase of the race. The Lotto-Intermarché rider collided with the jury car along with a few other riders, he confirmed afterwards to IDL Pro Cycling.

Mees Hendrikx saw it happen. “We were approaching a roundabout, and apparently we were supposed to turn left afterward. One car went left on the roundabout and the other went right. The car that went right on the roundabout basically had to go all the way around it. So it drove right into the pack, blocking everything. Four riders crashed into the back of that car, including Huub Artz.”

Artz nods. He had just become the Dutch time trial champion in Laren on Wednesday and was also at the starting line in Nijmegen with high hopes. So he faced a major setback right from the neutralization phase. “The jury car turned right at the roundabout and then slammed on the brakes. And four riders crashed right there.”

"Wow, that wasn't exactly a smooth move," says the Lotto-Intermarché rider, who will make his Tour de France debut next week, by way of an understatement. Fortunately, Artz was able to continue and officially crossed the finish line, although he—like several other riders—was pulled from the race before the final lap.

It was part of a chaotic opening phase. Artz explains: “We had that approach loop, which was also neutralized. The pace behind the car kept fluctuating between 30 kilometers per hour and 40 kilometers per hour the whole time. And then we got here, at the first little climb, and they rode 45 kilometers through that village while the race was neutralized.”

"It was already slippery because of this morning's rain," the Lotto-Intermarché rider continued. “And there were also guys who, of course, see opportunities here among the pros. I’m mainly referring to the U23 riders—it’s sometimes just really dangerous how they position themselves or cut in from the side.”

"I'm not going to name names, but yeah, people don't really stop to think that it's almost a 170-kilometer race. And that the course is selective enough that, well, you're bound to rise to the top," Artz explains. Because of that constant push forward, the breakaway formed fairly quickly.

"Yeah, I think the top riders—so to speak—were up front pretty quickly, and yeah, they know pretty well what you're made of. But I think the peloton is just too big for a race like this. You can also see that it actually broke up right at the very start, and that there are only 40 riders left in the race."