Felipe Orts Triumphs at Night of Woerden, Lars van der Haar Beaten for First Time in Ten Years

In the first laps, Van der Haar was immediately put under pressure. Orts and Ronhaar quickly managed to break away from the rest of the field. Van der Haar then tried with all his might to bridge back to the front, but ended up in a chasing group with, among others, Ryan Kamp and Michels.

Would the Kiremko Nacht van Woerden see a new winner for the first time in ten years? It began to look increasingly likely. Although Van der Haar rode away from the chase group with thirty minutes to go, the gap to the race leader was already about twenty seconds.

So, we watched a battle for the win between Orts and Ronhaar. With 25 minutes remaining, the Dutchman seemed to be deciding this duel in his favor. Second by second, Ronhaar managed to pull away from Orts, until the Spaniard launched a comeback and returned to the front of the race.

With two laps to go, the roles at the front were completely reversed. As the bell rang, Ronhaar was facing his biggest deficit yet, while Orts seemed definitively gone. In the final lap, he saw his lead safely through to the finish.

The fight for third place, however, was far from settled. It was only in the last lap that the final decision was made. Michels put pressure on his rivals in the closing lap and managed to shake off Kamp and Van der Haar. The latter therefore had to settle for fifth place in 'his' Woerden after eight consecutive wins.