Ciao amici, on the last day of the Giro I bring you the results of yesterdays Arnhem Uphill Alleycat Classic. Only 30 riders showed up but what a magnificent showdown it became. After 30 minutes the fastest ones already were busy doing their third manifest!! Jeroen Blom won the race cause he was the only one with an extra strap on his bag so he could carry the largest package from the sixth manifest. Afterwards we ate pizza and then the auction began. Shirts, jerseys, bags, helmets, spokecards and flyers came under the hammer and together we raised over € 1700,- for Artsen zonder Grenzen. This means I have to go and ride the Tour for Life. So, big thanx for all people who came down, thanx for donating, thanx for making things possible, thanx.

1. Jeroen Blom
2. Bram de Vos
3. Ruben Hiddink
4. Kees Vernooij
5. Nick Vreeswijk
6. Carl van der Heide
7. Michael Pouwels
8. Pascal Wesselink
9. Jelle Tienstra
10. Bart van Orsouw
11. Bram Haegens
12. Mark de Jong
13. Pieter Aart Schouten
14. Niek Faber
15. Reinier Woltjer
16. David Broere
17. Almar Bijlsma
18. Bram Kuypers
19. Andy Duncan
20. Joris van Ophuizen
21. Bram van oosten
22. Hanno Maas
23. Hein Willekens
24. Harrie van Grinsven
25. Tom van Wandelen
26. Pieter Polo
27. Takahiro Honda
28. Eddie Scherphof
29. Ab Al-Tamimi
30. Vincent van Engelen

Pfoeiiiii, spend the last 8 hours thinking, rethinking and making decisions on which hill to be climbed and what package to be shipped. I guess it’s all in kannen en kruiken now and first manifest is for all competitors. After that only few will go through to round 2 and so on. Finally we’ll have only 5 riders doing the 6th and last manifest. This means they already have climbed 5 hills. For those people that came to the Arnhem Uphill Classic before, you know, this is going to be a killer. Bring out your best of legs, your largest bag, your stamina, a bit of luck and try to lose weight the next 3 days. Start is at 14:00, Cycloon HQ, van Muylwijkstraat 348, Arnhem. And remember, it’s all about helping Tour for Life collecting money for Artsen zonder Grenzen!!

So how are things coming along with the Arnhem Uphill, people asked me this week. Not too bad, I might say. Guustaaf offered his services for checkpoint and the plan is to make a race in which only the strong will survive. Checkpoints will only be open for a short amount of time. Limited amount of racers will go through to the next round. Een afvalrace waarbij u de Arnhemse heuvels zult beklimmen teneinde uw tegenstanders te verslaan op de gebieden van uithoudingsvermogen, fietskoerierskunde en een gezonde niet aflatende vorm van onuitputtelijk doorzetting. For potential foreigners and hopefully to be welcomed fakengers, who wanna come and join in on this monstruous alleycat. From start to finish it’ll go uphill, collecting a package, going downhill, grabbing a manifest, going uphill, getting a proof of delivery, going downhill, taking an order, going uphill, etcetera etcetera. Put that 29th of may in your agendas cause I’m expecting you to bring coins for the good cause. Money will be collected for Tour for Life’s Artsen zonder Grenzen.

I used to be the black sheep of the family cause I was born in Twente. But this militant individual has left the flock to become a shepherd of his own breed. And what better way to celebrate life than going back to your own roots one day. Lemme see… the 20th of March sounds pretty kewl to go back in time and check if I’m still the king of the streets of Enschede like I thought I was. Niks hennig an, veur’n met die bak!

My employer asked me to join in the Cycloon Fietskoeriers team for Tour for Life. The bicyclemessengers from Zwolle, Groningen and Arnhem are fundraising for Het Goede Doel! Or, as the organisation put it: Get on your bike for a week and help Médicins Sans Frontières-Holland (MSF-Holland). Ofcourse I wanna help out collecting money and doing the best I can to support this nice and needed initiative. By throwing in the yearly returning Arnhem Uphill Alleycat Classic on the 29th of may. Come over to hilly city and show your kattebakmoney where my mouth is.

We had to wait for a whole year. Too long, way too long in my smartass opinion. I was getting thirsty already. Malle Tjeerd and I haven’t been drinking since cause we wanted to be prepared. We could never drink as much as them so this year we’re going for Gold in the kattebakalleycat. The bierweek in Zwolle, it’s simply just something special. Make sure you’re there to witness it all till your vision gets blurred.

That Hanno-guy from Brabant set out a magnificent alleycat. No less than 17 riders entered the snowy thus cold competition but I’ll ask the DMA to give one point per person for volunteering. Cause the weather was bad as a mofo. Yet the organisation of food, drinks, warmth and gezelligheid was at its best. If this is going to be the standard for the future… I sign up!

Les Resultats D’n Bossche Bol pour le classement du bac à chat:

1. Tom van Wandelen
2. Kees Vernooij
3. Almar Bijlsma
4. Bram Haegens
5. Jan Willem
6. Hein Willekes
7. Iwan Brinkman
8. Carl van der Heijden
9. Jeroen Weijnen
10. Niels
11. Mark Velocity
12. Andy Duncan
13. Jochem Kromhout
14. Jur Arntzen
15. Pierski Akbar
16. Brigitte Vandewall
17. Mark Proosten

1 point per person for checkpoint: Eddy te Rietstap, Ruben Hiddink,  Nick Vreeswijk, Eddy Scherphof, Marijn, Sophie, Vincent van Eijk

17 points for organisation: Hanno Maas (Shortcut Den Bosch)

Het is zo ver! Hoe hedde gij da gezeed gehad? Hoe hedde gij da gedoan? Hoe doedde gijda? Hoe doedde ge da? Hoe hedde ge da gedoan? The first alleycat in Oeteldonk is about to become fact. So everybody, get together on the ninth of january for some good ol’ kattebak racing in Den Bosch. Hanno Maas deserved it to be in the spotlight after all these years of hard work. So we got organised, alarmed the DMA and now invite you to come over. Here are the details:
D’n Bossche Bol Alleycat
datum: 9 januari 2010
tijd: 13:00
plaats: Kerk Nationaal Monument Sint-Jan Kathedraal
adres: Choorstraat 1, Den Bosch
organisatie: Shortcut fietskoeriers, Haute Courier

So what did happen actually in Grunn? Well, Meneer Eddie ended 4th in the alleycat on friday and won the kattebak klassement but that was more a formality. Dirk-jan Haagsma and Ria Slegers became Dutch Champions in the main race and Enrico Liebe and Ria (again) won the sprints. Team Polotov beat T.G.F.E., EHVFXD Polo Squad and Team Mix in the final four of the bikepolo tournament. And…mmmmm, ohja, a lot of pictures were taken including this one from Jelle.

It’s a day for renewed chances. Let’s see, what’s there to do this week? My woman and son are off to her mom. We’ve got bikepolo on wednesday, we have de hel van het noorden alleycat on friday and there’s the ODCMC on saturday. Oh yeah, let’s not forget that we’re still on monday, to celebrate Meneer Eddie’s effort from last saturday when he became Utrechts best foreigner in the uphill. He placed 4th overall which gives him a bijna niet te missen kans to become kattebakkampioen 2008/2009.