Interview | Buddies Mollema and Hoole pushed each other leading up to Dutch National Time Trial Championship: "Still a significant gap to Jos"

Hoole, who already won bronze at the Dutch National Time Trial Championship last year, finished second, 18 seconds behind winner Jos van Emden. His performance may have come as a small surprise to outsiders, but not for those within Trek-Segafredo. Mollema had already mentioned on a podcast that Hoole had come out of the Giro d'Italia in good shape, and he proved that on Wednesday. "Honestly, I came here to win. I felt good and I recovered well in the Giro, after a difficult start where I crashed. I was focused, and it went really well, but Jos was simply faster."

After the Giro, Hoole's focus shifted entirely to the time trial. He spent a lot of time on his time trial bike and completed intense training blocks. "I felt good and I started off strong. I found a great rhythm, so great in fact that I wouldn't have minded if it had all been straight roads. The corners were nice for catching my breath, but they actually disrupted my flow," he says with a smile. The fact that Van Emden was aiming for his third red-white-blue jersey in time trials didn't ultimately surprise Hoole on this course. "He had already been national champion twice before, so he's always among the favorites. He's a specialist. I might have expected a bit more from Thymen (Arensman, ed.), but perhaps he is more suited for time trials in grand tours. A standalone time trial is different."

Mollema also noticed that. He surprisingly snatched up the victory in the time trial last year but had to settle for fifth place this time. He explains that he ran out of energy. "Not good enough. The first round went fairly well, with a good start and for the first ten kilometers I was feeling good, also in terms of power. However, when we faced a bit more headwind, I already noticed that I couldn't maintain a good rhythm. I had to slow down a bit when the road started to incline, while ideally, you want to crank it up a notch in those situations. Communication was lost from the start onwards, but halfway through, I heard that I was four seconds behind the fastest split time. That wasn't bad, but the second round was much tougher."

In addition to the Garmin on his handlebars, Wilco Kelderman was also a good indicator for Mollema of how he was performing. "At one point, I saw Wilco riding ahead, and I had closed the gap to him by about thirty seconds. But at a certain point, I couldn't catch up anymore, and he even extended his lead. In that case, if you're really strong, I would have caught up to him and my power output would have indicated that I could maintain that pace. However, the second round was genuinely five percent weaker than the first. It was a great year wearing the red, white and blue jersey, truly an honor. I genuinely intended to defend the title here, but unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be."

The fact that Mollema and Hoole could experience the National Championship together made it a beautiful experience. "We shared a room a lot this year, from training camps to the Giro actually. Until I got a bit sick there, then we went our separate ways," Mollema laughs when asked about it. "We've been teasing each other throughout the year because we wanted to perform well at the National Championship. I get along well with Daan, and it doesn't surprise me that he made it to the podium today."

Nevertheless, according to Hoole, Mollema couldn't give him the golden tip on achieving success in the National Championships. "We do discuss it, of course, since we share a room. But ultimately, you have to do it yourself. It's not like with a golden tip from Bauke you suddenly go fifteen seconds faster. This was a fair course, so you had to make yourself aerodynamic and push hard. To be honest, I still see quite a big gap to Jos, so I have to keep developing myself, improve my position and generate more power. Pulling on grass won't make it grow faster, so it will come naturally. I went to the wind tunnel with Koen de Kort just two weeks ago, so the team is investing in me."

Will we get to see the two buddies in action together again at the next major time trial event? No. Hoole is eager to go to the World Championships, but Mollema isn't. "It was nice to participate in the World Championships last year, but I'm really not competitive enough to make the top ten. This year, I had no ambition to go for the World Championship time trial again or even to participate in the World Championships," said Mollema. Hoole still hopes for a ticket to Glasgow in August. "The best riders here will also go to the World Championships - or at least have a good chance of getting there. That played a role, although my main focus was on the time trial."

Bram van der Ploeg (Twitter: @BvdPloegg)