11-city tour Final day

Today we had the final day of the 220 km 11-city tour.

With Paul Jackson and Casper Steinfach both 13 minutes behind me, I only had one challenger for the 1st overall; Ryan James who managed to stay with me every day and was only 4 second behind me in the ranking after my drama under bridge during the final minutes yesterday.
Ryan is also my team mate using the same board STARBOARD Ace 14' and a nice guy too.

It was windy again strong and directly in our face.
I started fast but realized it was to windy to do it all by myself if the rest was going to work together. So they caught up and we worked together until the break, working hard against the head wind. The last 4 days I did a lot of work on the front today I wanted to play save and the top 4 equally shared the work load. It is nice to be in front to control the pace and avoid escapes but on windy days it costs a lot of energy.
After the break we were 7 racers left over and the pace went up. 4 km before the finish we got a little wake from a dingy and we all wanted to use it, so this started the sprint to the finish. I had made sure I was close to the front. We paddled hard all the way to the finish dropping one after the other. In the end it Casper was in front of me and Ryan James behind me at a save distance. For my only Ryan's position was important, playing it save and taking no risk.
Casper managed to get into 3rd position overall and making 35 second good on Paul Jackson who got 4th.

Day 5
1st Casper
2nd Bart
3rd Ryan

Overall
men
1st Bart de Zwart 24 57 min hrs STARBOARD
2nd Ryan James 10sec STARBOARD
3rd Casper Steinfach 12min Naish

women
1st Anne-Marie Reichman
2nd Angie Jackson
3rd

Many thanks to the fastest board company STARBOARD for my ACE14'

also Black Project for the fastest fins
DAKINE for the best waterpacks and clothing
and CONTOUR for the great action cameras

Many Starboards at the start in Leeuwarden

The winning board STARBOARD ACE 14'

11 city update

3 rd day
An easier day with nice weather and light winds from the back. I started very fast and got away all alone. But I knew if the rest would work together it would be hard to do the next 5 hrs by myself. So I pushed hard but not to hard. After 45 minutes Ryan caught up and 5 minutes later 4 others. We stayed together until 5 km before the finish when I pulled away with Ryan right behind me. It came to a sprint again.
1st Bart de Zwart
2nd Ryan James
3rd Casper Steinfach

Day 4
This day we took it a little easier. Jacco, Casper, Ryan and I took the lead most of the day with a long train behind us. After the break we were only seven left. I took the lead the last 12 km. 4 km before the finish it got hectic. Casper took over with a lot of speed. We just stayed behind me. 500 before the finish when is as about the push for 1st again we got to a low bridge were my paddle hit the bridge and the water which stopped me dead and pulled me of the board. Afterbody passed me. I got back on the board paddling like crazy making up little by little. Ryan made mistake after I could pass him again. 10 meter before the I screwed up again and fell I don't on why. Just a big screw up. Which lost me 6 seconds

1st Casper Steinfach
2nd Jake Jensen
3rd Ryan James

I am still in 1st place overall with james 4 second behind and Paul Jackson 13 min behind us.

The race is on.
Aloha,
Bart

Sent from my iPhone

11-city 2nd day update

2nd day 11 city tour
Another windy and rainy day.
We started in the same lake as yesterday going straight into the wind. It was another fast start again. This time there was a long line behind me drafting into the wind. We pushed really hard. Ryan pulled up right next just when we had a 3 meter gap on the rest. So I told Ryan let's go. We worked hard, sharing the lead when we crossed the lake we had a good lead. Which we kept the whole day. The last 2 hrs Paul Jackson and Casper were pushing hard to gain ground on us. So we were working hard all day right up to the finish. It came to a sprint again.
1st Bart de Zwart 5hrs 30min
2nd Ryan James (eng) 3 sec
3 rd Casper Steinfach (Danemark) 3 min

Women
1st Angie Jackson
2nd Anne-Marie

Sent from my iPhone

An exiting first day

11 city tour update
A big storm passed by last night. At the start it was a little calmer with 20-30 knots.
I had a good start with 3 others right behind me. Ryan James, Paul Jackson and Jake Jensen. We had head wind right from the start. We worked together for a couple of hours. 2 km before or reststop in Sneek I pushed up the pace with who Ryan came along and we had minute on the other two at the stop a nice gap to start the rest of the race.
We worked hard for the next 2 hours and increased the gap. Hard work with fierce winds. And then we got to the lake 30 knots from the side and almost impossible to get to the otherwise where we wanted. Ryan start well but fell a few times. It was about 30 minutes paddle on our left side.
When we finally got to the other side, it was still Ryan and me. It came to a sprint to the finish where I narrowly beat Ryan by 3 seconds.
1st Bart de Zwart 5 hrs 28
2nd Ryan James 3 seconds
3rd Paul Jackson 8 minutes 10 seconds

In women Anne- Marie came in 1st
Tomorrow. One more day with head winds
Aloha from Holland

220 11 city tour starts tomorrow

Tomorrow morning 9:00 is the start of the 3rd 11-city tour. A 5 day stage race over 220 km. It is going to be a hard race with almost a 100 racers of which 32 in the solo race class. Hard specially because there is 30 knots of head wind. STARBOARD organized a real race machine for me. An ACE 14 x 25, thanks Svein.
Now off to bed.
Aloha, Bart