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The Heerde Skate-Off competition that took place in the Netherlands last week has been a concept in development for some years, with the Heerde parabolic Banked-track a European favorite that was designed based on the Valence d'Agen track in France, and has itself been duplicated more than once. With the Heerde club hosting both the Senior and Junior European Championships in recent years at the track, the Skate-Off concept had to take a back-seat for some time.
In 2008 though, with Skatebond Nederland no longer responsible for the World on Wheels competition (which has been taken over by Podium Sports, NL, and is now sponsored by Megapool.nl) and with the Skate-Off being bankrolled by Unive insurance (formerly sponsor of the World on Wheels), the time was right to put Heerde on the map beside Trois Pistes (FRA) and Gros Gerau (GER) as one of the blue-ribbon meets of the European summer. Club president Bertus Doktor and his amazing crew of Heerde volunteers - responsible already for organizing 2 European Championships - put together a great 2-days of racing for the various categories in Heerde that raced for their share of EU 15,000 prizemoney.
Tims Imaging has created an online photoseries of the CadoMotus athletes competing at the two-day track tournament that was the Heerde Skate-Off last week. Click on any of the images to view them full-size.
Mariska Huisman off the starting line.
Margo van de Merwe follows (left).
Mariska Huisman and Elma de Vries
holding off Colombian Diana Guzman at the line.
The Girls
Margo van de Merwe, Mariska Huisman, Bianca Roosenboom,
Elma de Vries, and Brooke Lochland (AUS, right).
500m take-off
Sabine Berg (GER), Elma de Vries, Luz Guzman (COL)
Elma
De Vries leads Sabine Berg.
Huisman takes over the frontrunning
De Vries looks on from the head of the bunch.
Hilde Goovaerts leads Mariska Huisman
She won the points event and was 3rd in the elimination.
Powerhouse twin sprinters
Ronald and Michel Mulder -
new CadoMotus skaters lead Bart Swings (BEL).
Ronald Mulder leads
with Alexis Contin (FRA) following, as Michel Mulder lines Contin up.
The teams race
(left to right) Bianca Roosenboom, Elma de Vries and Manon Kamminga.
Go Team
CadoMotus World took the win,
ahead of the Germans and Colombians.
Full results (PDF) from the Heerde Skate-Off are online.
