Dutchwoman Marieke Kerkvliet is showing her strength on the An Post Rás na mBan and hopes to make progress in the sport (Photo: Lorraine O'Sullivan)
By Shane Stokes
Dutchwoman Marieke Kerkvliet showed her climbing strength early on in the An Post Rás na mBan, taking the Queen of the Mountains on Wednesday’s first stage and defending it on day two.
But she also displayed strong ability in Saturday morning’s time trial.
Covering the undulating 11.3 kilometre course in 15 minutes 46.750 seconds, she finished a full 14 seconds ahead of her closest rival, fellow Dutchwoman Nina Buijsman (Regioteam Noord-Holland).
“In the Netherlands I am a good time trialist but here we used our normal bikes,” the WV Breda Manieun.nl Ladiesteam rider told stickybottle afterwards.
“I had never done that before, 11 kilometres on my normal bike, and I was very excited…it is different to when you are on your TT bike.
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“It felt…a time trial is never easy…you feel crap when you are going, but I heard afterwards that I had the best time.”
Kerkvliet had a nervous wait at several others were still on the course, including race leader Rikke Lonne (Team Crescent Dane) and Irish national champion Lydia Boylan (Team WNT).
She said that she had heard both were good time trialists but in the end, they weren’t a threat.
Lonne placed eighth, 39 seconds back, while Boylan conceded one minute 13 seconds to place 22nd.
The win was important for Kerkvliet, not least because she fractured her collarbone last year and missed the race.
Being able to clock up a victory was a good compensation after that disappointment.
“The course was a bit up and down, but I like that. I am good with that,” she said. “I was motivated…yesterday was very tough. I wanted to win the time trial.”
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Having started racing three years ago, she has competed in the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, in Belgium and now Ireland.
She is building experience and her results are growing year on year.
“I have to learn a lot, but this year I made a big step and it is going very well,” she said.
“This race has been good. On the first and second stages I had the Queen of the Mountains jersey.
"Yesterday I lost it – the girl who won the stage [race leader Rikke Lonne] got all the points of the Queen of the Mountains and so she has the jersey now. But I hope to get it back tomorrow.
“There is one climb, one Queen of the Mountains sprint. We have to make a plan. I hope I can get it back.”
She also has her eye on the general classification.
At the time of speaking she hadn’t seen the GC after the time trial and didn’t realise that the rider who had been in third overall, Erin Kinnealy (CCN Energy HR Australia) had problems with her chain jamming at the very start of the time trial and lost a chunk of time.
Kerkvliet had believed that Kinnealy was still a minute and a half clear, but things are actually much tighter.
Heading into the critierium she is fourth overall, four minutes 34 seconds off Lonne, but just 11 seconds behind Kinnealy.
That plus her victory earlier will give her increased motivation to try to finish on the podium in the race.
Whether or not she does that, she has marked herself out as one of the strongest in the event. It is all part of her goal to keep improving and to aim for a goal that she realises will take a lot.
“I hope to make steps to a UCI team,” she said, speaking about her long term target.
“But it is very difficult…I am 26 and at my age, it is very difficult to come to a UCI team.
“I’m going to just do my best. That is the important thing. Because when you have so much pressure to win races, then you don’t have fun,” she laughs.
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