Regardless of the result, the Ronde van Drenthe was a special race for Mayke van der Duyn (Canyon-SRAM), the 21-year-old who was born, raised, and still lives in Assen, less than 30 km from VAM Berg, and has long looked forward to racing in her home town. She had been looking forward to her hometown race for some time. But finishing third was unexpected, and in a post-race TV interview with local station RTV Drenthe, van der Duyn had a big smile on her muddy face.

"It really is like a dream. If I had been offered it before the race, I would have taken it. I wanted to, but I wasn't really expecting it, and to be able to go up the VAM Berg six times, it could be good for me, but it could also be bad."

"I felt really good in the race, and when I was the last of the first 10 over the VAMberg, I thought, 'Okay, that's it for the sprint. How great it would be to get my first podium for the team as a newcomer," said van der Duyn. I'm really looking forward to it," van der Duyn said.

Van der Duyn has only competed once, in the Ronde van Drenthe, finishing 69th in an unlucky race in 2022, but has other road and track results, including taking the intermediate sprint jersey in the women's Tour and finishing fifth and sixth in the Tour de France Femme stages, finishing fifth and sixth, earned her a two-year women's WorldTour contract with Canyon-SRAM, which was announced in September.

In October, she finished second in the scratch race and omnium at the World Track Championships and third in the elimination race at the European Championships for the 2023 season.

However, track cycling again played a role in his preparation for the Ronde van Drenthe. Last week the weather was really bad, so I pushed myself to the limit on the track for three days. Then I was able to rest again for this weekend, and it worked out well," van der Duyn said.

The 21-year-old now leads the Women's WorldTour U23 ranking: four points as the second best U23 rider in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and six points as the best young rider in Drenthe, giving her 10 points.