5th World University Cycling Championship

Nijmegen, The Netherlands - May 21st to 26th, 2008

Erica Terpstra, the President of the Dutch NOC

The 2008 World University Cycling Championship was hosted in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, from May 21st to 26th. The Championship was opened by Erica Terpstra, the President of the Dutch NOC and Bas Kortmann, the rector magnificus of the Radboud University.

The first day of competitions, mountain bike cross-country was on the program. In a breathtaking finale French rider Caroline Mani succeeded in keeping her opponent Maaris Meier from Estonia behind her in the women’s competition. Dutch Ingrid Bosscha finished third. In the men’s competition it was Till Marx from Switzerland who crossed the finish line first followed by Jan Skarnitzl (CZE) and Dutchman Niels Wubben.

The next day, the 2006 title holder on the men’s time trail, Malaya van Ruitenbeek, extended his supremacy winning the gold medal with an average speed of 45.5 km/h. His younger brother Emanuel just missed the podium and had to settle for the 4th spot. Andrei Krisilikau (Belarus) and Evaldas Siskevicius (Lithuania) won the silver and bronze respectively. The women’s race was dominated by the hosts as the podium was entirely Dutch with Iris Slappendel, Annemiek Van Vleuten and Loes Markerink winning the gold, silver and bronze.

Golden Girl Elisa Van Hage (NED) of the Women's Road Race

On Saturday May 24th, fast times were set during the inaugural mountain bike marathon, the first ever in a World University Cycling Championship. After 3 hours and 26 minutes Hannes Genze (Germany) and the Dutch favourite Frank Schotman crossed the finish line. After 104 km Hannes Genze won the final sprint with only a fraction of a second. Belgian Kevin Van Hoovels captured the bronze. In the women’s competition, Maaris Meier took revenge after loosing the gold medal in the cross-country winning this time with a 10 minutes lead ahead of Ilke de Jongh from Belgium who took silver and Kerstin Kogler from Germany who settled for the bronze.

The last day of the championship, the ‘Flying’ Dutch captured five of the six medals at stake. Especially in the women’s road race, the Dutch dominated winning all medals. Gold went to Elisa Van Hage, silver to Annemiek Van Vleuten and bronze to Loes Markerink. In the men’s race only German rider Michael Schweizer was able the wriggle himself between golden boy Robin Chaigneau and bronze medallist Malaya van Ruitenbeek on the podium. The 5th edition of this championship was extremely well organized and also breaking all participation records as 256 participants from 24 countries took part in the event.

Numbers

Countries: 24 Male Athletes: 133 Female Athletes: 62 Officials: 61 Total Participants: 256

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