Luc ter Haar surprisingly won the men’s national marathon skating championship challenge. The 30-year-old from Heerenveen benefited from a last-lap crash at Leeuwarden that claimed the lives of several favorites. Evert Hoolwerf narrowly missed the championship overtime.
The 150-lap race had a lackluster opening phase with teams glaring at each other, with many eyes on them, especially at Jumbo-Visma. The yellow-red formation was the big favorite with the fast finisher Harm Visser, who was the best finisher in the mass start at the NK distances last Saturday.
Fisherman warning
After sixty laps, one group attempted to break away several times, but each failed to gain the desired distance from the larger peloton or lacked grip as the race progressed. Attempts to break down Visser, who regularly caught a gap while driving cautiously, did little to help.
Collected sprint chance increased per round. With twelve laps to go, Daan Gelling attacked and Jumbo-Visma had to give up pursuit. Mats Stoltenborg pulled the peloton behind him and soon received help from 2015 and 2022 champion Jorrit Bergsma.
Hot
Gelling remained within firing range and was eventually forced to surrender. It would bring about a mass sprint decision, that much seemed obvious. However, in the intense pace, many players in the front row crashed at the penultimate corner. Ter Haar, who has been on the podium several times but has never won a marathon, took advantage of all the challenges and achieved victory despite all the difficulties.
Silver went to Evert Hoolwerf, third was Christian Haasjes.
Source: NOS
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
