The Mentings on Tour

On Monday, Pelle, Finn and Imke Menting from AR&TV De Adelaar told about their expectations for this Jeugdtour. Today the riders from Apeldoorn looked back on their week.

Finn from category 5 was the first of the family to take action on Friday. “I had a great race,” he said. “The week has started a bit disappointing for me. After a good prologue I got involved in a crash. Later my chain also came off, so I fell behind. With this my chances for a good general classification were gone. I had to adjust my goals a bit and went for the stage win. Unfortunately that did not work out. I found the time trial on the Muur van Emmen tough, but a lot of fun.”

The criterium through the Asserbos was still a very important day for Imke. Before the stage she was second in the classification for the pink jersey of category 6, just one second behind leader Jaylinn Brakke.

“Tuesday I had a lesser day. After this I was one second behind all week but behind two different leaders. My plan for today was to save as much energy as possible. I hoped to make up time with bonus seconds.”

The tactic proved successful. The Dutch champion took more bonus seconds than her competitor, making her the winner of the girls’ classification.

“I like to race with the boys because they are stronger, which makes the races tougher. But I am happy that there is a separate classification for girls. Still, I am also looking forward to racing with only girls in the nieuwelingen next year.”

Finally, Pelle from category 3 rode his laps through the Asserbos. He had a really bad day. “My brake was rubbing, so I stopped to get my wheel straight. I gave everything to come back after this, but it didn’t work. Fortunately, the other races went well. I really enjoyed taking part. Tuesday was my favorite stage. We rode aggressively, but I was able to keep up.”

The Menting brothers and sister had a nice week in which, when it wasn’t raining too hard, they sometimes found time to encourage each other. The three are already looking forward to next year’s edition.