Last weekend the Dutch Youth National Cycling Championships were held with Finn Bastiaansen powering to victory in the men’s 15-16 year-old category after a decisive surge to the finish line, celebrating jubilantly with an arms raised two fist victory salute.

Competitors soon rolled up to congratulate the new Dutch champion, but Finn never got a chance to pull on a highly prized red, white and blue Dutch National Champion jersey, or even stand on the podium.

An hour after he crossed the finish line, Dutch Cycling officials (KNWU), awarded the victory, national title, champion’s jersey and gold medal to Thijs Wiersma, after relegating Finn to 5th place for alleged careless racing when he took his hands off the handlebars.

KNWU rule 12.11.040.75 includes: “Additional Violations for National Championships for letting go of handlebars completely during a mass sprint at Youth competitions and competitions for Newbies [15-16 year-olds] will result in declassification [relegation] to the last place of the group of which the participant is a part at that time.”

Finn was gutted, understandably. After all, the young up-and-coming Dutch cycling star was the first to cross the line, by several bike lengths, and crowned himself Dutch champion. At least, that is what he believed, as he had done nothing different from past champions in his age category as they celebrated victory without being penalized by KNWU officials.

That’s also what many other Dutch cyclists thought as well, with some posting actual evidence…

Others just posted their frustrations with KNWU:

“Taking off a deserved victory. Destroying the dream. Take this rule away from the newbies [15-16yo]. It’s total madness.”

“It is a shame that this young man’s championship has been stripped because of this rule that is clearly meant for ‘in competition’ behavior. I would not like to be the kid who received the win under these circumstances.”

Thijs Wiersma, the rider Finn beat, had no regrets and was anything but humble about being promoted to Dutch National Champion, saying “Finn made a mistake, it’s no different. I would have preferred to win in a good way by being the first to cross the line. That didn’t work out because of a mistake of my own. Then you come across the line second. After an hour I had won anyway. On the one hand beautiful, but you miss the moment when you come across the line first. I came here to win. That just didn’t work out and yet it did. That’s beautiful and not either. I can be happy with it and I’m going to wear the jersey with pride.”

As far as KNWU commenting on the matter, WielerFlits reports the following statement was provided to them: “The rules are clear about this. You are not allowed to finish with both hands separately from the steering wheel in this category. The fact that situations have not been properly assessed in the past is regrettable. No policy change has been based on it. Nothing has changed. So it is above all important that our judges always continue to consistently assess such situations.”

Photo Credit: Courage Events

© 2019-2024 All Rights Reserved Gran Fondo Daily