State of the nation: Analysing the Netherlands' 2024 Road World Championships teams

The Dutch arrive at the UCI Road World Championships as one of the most dominant nations in the sport and both elite men and elite women will field powerful teams, potential rainbow jersey winners and medal contenders in the road racing events held on the final weekend of the 10-day event on September 28-29 in Zurich.

Demi Vollering is the only rider from the Dutch team to secure a medal at these world championships so far, earning silver in the individual time trial behind gold medal winner Grace Brown from Australia.

The tides could turn in favour of the Dutch in the elite road races as the men’s team line up with defending champion Mathieu van der Poel and the women’s team includes Demi Vollering and multiple-time world champion Marianne Vos.

History

It’s not surprising that a cycling-friendly nation like the Netherlands has a rich history in nearly all categories and disciplines at the World Championships. 

In elite men’s and elite women’s road racing, the country has seen some of the most dramatic performances in the 90 editions of the men’s road race, with 64 editions of the women’s road race.

Since Theo Middelkamp won the nation its first elite men’s road race world title in 1947, the Netherlands has gone on to secure eight more thanks to Jan Janssen (1964), Harm Ottenbros (1969), Hennie Kuiper (1975), back to back victories for Gerrie Knetemann (1978) and Jan Raas (1979), and Joop Zoetemelk (1985). However, there was then a 38-year drought for the elite men’s team until Van der Poel won the rainbow jersey in Glasgow in 2023.

The elite women’s team has seen much more success in the road race at the World Championships with 14 victories starting with Keetie Hage’s wins in 1968 and 1976, and Tineke Fopma in 1971. Gold medals also came from Petra de Bruin (1979) and Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel (1991-1993). 

Then came an 18-year-old Marianne Vos, who won her first road race world title in 2006, but went on to win two more in 2012 and 13. Vos has amassed a total of 13 world titles, that also includes eight in cyclocross and two in track racing.

The talented elite women’s team has not stopped at Vos, and has gone on to win five more road race titles with Chantal van den Broek-Blaak (2017), Anna van der Breggen (2018 and 2020) and Annemiek van Vleuten (2019 and 2022). This makes the Netherlands the most prolifically successful team, next to the French, in the history of elite women’s road racing at the Worlds.

The Dutch team have only one previous winner in the elite men’s individual time trial, Tom Dumoulin (2017), but again, the elite women have excelled in the discipline, taking eight world titles: Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel (1998-1999), Ellen van Dijk (2013, 2021-2022), Annemiek van Vleuten (2017-2018), and Anna van der Breggen (2020).

Lineups

Elite Men: Mathieu van der Poel, Oscar Riesebeek, Wilco Kelderman, Bart Lemmen, Frank van den Broek, Daan Hoole, Bauke Mollema, Sam Oomen and Sjoerd Bax

Elite/U23 Women combined: Demi Vollering, Puck Pieterse, Marianne Vos, Riejanne Markus, Pauliena Rooijakkers, Thalita de Jong and Mischa Bredewold

U23 Men:  Huub Artz, Tibor del Grosso, Wessel Mouris, Darren van Bekkum and Menno Huizing

Junior Men:  Senna Remijn, Ko Molenaar, Jurgen Summer Month, Ruud Nagengast and Gijs Schoonvelde

Junior Women:  Megan Arens, Esmee Blok, Fee Knaven, Puck Langenbarg and Noï Moes

Key Riders

Mathieu van der Poel lines up as the defending champion after winning the road race title in Glasgow last year. While wearing the rainbow jersey during the trade season this year, Van der Poel had a remarkable Spring Classics campaign that saw him win the E3 Saxo Classic and then take back-to-back wins at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. After a lacklustre mid-season and then taking time off to recover from knee pain, Van der Poel only recently won his first race since April at the opening stage of the Tour de Luxembourg, where he finished second overall. 

There are questions surrounding whether he will be able to survive attacks from
race favourites Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) or Remco Evenepoel (Belgium), and that he lost 2kg to try and be competitive on the circuit’s climbs. He doesn’t line up as the outright favourite, but if anyone can take back-to-back titles, it’s Van der Poel.

Demi Vollering‘s season didn’t start as well as she’d hoped but that turned around during the stage racing season where she won consecutive overall titles at La Vuelta Femenina, Itzulia Women, Vuelta a Burgos and Tour de Suisse. Her biggest goal of the season was to defend her title at the Tour de France Femmes, and while she won the stage 3 time trial and stage 8 atop Alpe d’Huez, she lost the yellow jersey to rival and overall champion Kasia Niewiadoma by just four seconds. After another second overall at the Tour de Suisse and second in the time trial in Zurich last weekend, Vollering will be chomping at the bit for a victory and the rainbow jersey.

She lines up with three-time former road race world champion, Marianne Vos, who after nearly two decades of world-class competition, is still performing at the highest level. Wins this season include Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Amstel Gold Race, a stage at La Vuelta Femenina, an overall win at Catalunya, and she also took the silver medal at the Paris Olympic Games and the points jersey at the Tour de France Femmes. This season she has increased her career total of elite road race victories to a whopping 255!

The Dutch team will be all-in for Vollering and Vos to win the elite title during the combined elite-U23 women’s road race, but they also have a contender for the under-23 category with cross-country mountain bike champion and Tour de France stage winner Puck Pieterse.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Mathieu van der Poel may not have been at his best in recent months, but the elite men’s team still line up with one of the top favourites and they will put all their focus on supporting him to a second consecutive victory. 

The Dutch team have stated that they will be hoping for an ‘attacking race’ on the challenging parcours, which will play more in the favour of Van der Poel. Having one team leader means that Van der Poel will have the full support of what looks like a balanced team that includes a mix of experience with Bauke Mollema, Oscar Riesebeek, Wilco Kelderman, Sam Oomen, Sjoerd Bax, Daan Hoole, and Bart Lemmen and giving opportunity to younger prospects like Frank van den Broek.

The more obvious weakness for the elite men’s team is that the course doesn’t necessarily suit Van der Poel as well as Glasgow did, and the depth of the team might not be as strong as some of the other nations.

The elite women’s team line up with the most powerful roster, on paper, which is par for the course when it comes to the World Championships or almost any other major international event fielding national teams.

The course looks perfectly suited to Vollering because of her all-around strengths as a winning stage racer and a one-day Classics rider. While she had a series of stage race wins this year, she has also had stellar spring campaigns, particularly last year where she won the Ardennes triple. She can climb, has a powerful sprint, and can time trial, so watch for Vollering to make the selection and play her role in the final run-in to Zurich. The team have Vos as a main contender, too, and she has shown that she is still at the top of her game when it comes to one-day racing.

The downside of having a team as powerful as the Dutch, when any one of their seven riders is capable of winning, is that it can lead to inter-team rivalry. Although this might have happened in the past, it appears that the team in Zurich has one appointed a leader in Vollering, and everyone is on board with that decision. 

They will, of course, need to be able to adapt accordingly depending on how the race plays out on the road. But with riders like Mischa Bredewold, Riejanne Markus, Pauliena Rooijakkers in a support role for Vollering, she is in the best position to win, while Vos could be somewhat of a wildcard on the flat run-in to Zurich.