Visma | Lease a Bike 1-2-3 dominates scorching-hot Women Elite National Time Trial Championship

Daniek Hengeveld won the Dutch National Women’s Time Trial Championship on Wednesday. The 23-year-old rider from Visma | Lease a Bike was the fastest in sweltering Laren. Her team had a glorious day, as Visma riders Femke de Vries and Lieke Nooijen finished second and third, respectively.

Hot, hotter, hottest: that’s how things went on Wednesday in Laren, Gelderland. The organizers were therefore forced to take action: the riders would start much later, with the first rider rolling off the starting platform at 5:15 p.m. This allowed them to avoid the hottest hours of the day and the highest UV index readings.

While many of the top contenders in the men’s race were absent from the Dutch National Time Trial Championships, the top contenders in the women’s division were all present as expected. Lieke Nooijen, Riejanne Markus, Mischa Bredewold, and De Vries thus appeared to be the top contenders for the red-white-blue jersey from the start.

At a quarter past five, Dieke Hendriks was the one who, representing the Wheels Diva Cycling Team, got the race started. Hendriks was also the first rider to cross the finish line, with a time of 51.35 minutes. Meanwhile, Femke Markus had set off at a brisk pace, and Fee Knaven also posted strong split times.

Femke Markus held her own well and would eventually take the hot seat with a time of 46 minutes and 36 seconds. Puck Langenbarg, from the Fenix-Premier Tech development team, posted the second-fastest virtual time at that point, though she was more than a minute behind Femke Markus.

Fee Knaven then posted a second virtual time, but that, too, was more than half a minute off the fastest time. By then, everyone was waiting for the second wave of riders, which included most of the favorites competing for the red-white-blue jersey. Once all the riders were on the course, everyone was watching for the split times.

Riejanne Markus had gotten off to a good start and posted the fastest first split time. Hengeveld, who had started a little earlier than Markus, was the fastest at the second split point, however. Halfway through the time trial—at the 18-kilometer mark—Hengeveld still held the fastest split time. Loes Adegeest, in second place at that point, trailed by 11 seconds. Could the Visma rider keep it up?

It certainly looked that way, although Adegeest—who had started just after Hengeveld—did manage to close the gap slightly in the final stretch. Meanwhile, Nienke Vinke clocked the fastest time at the finish line, but Hengeveld then beat that time by a wide margin. The Visma rider posted a top time of 45.12 minutes, which Adegeest couldn’t match at the finish. The Lidl-Trek rider was 15 seconds slower.

De Vries then came very close, but was 2.35 seconds slower than her teammate Hengeveld at the finish line. Nooijen, also of Visma | Lease a Bike, posted the third-fastest time. Adegeest and Bredewold were unable to make a move, and so Visma swept the top three spots: Hengeveld became the Dutch champion, De Vries finished second, and Nooijen third. Bredewold ultimately finished eighth, 51 seconds behind the winner.