Pim Ronhaar narrowly misses out in World Championships: "I did shed a few tears after the finish"

After his fourth-place finish at the European Championship, the most disappointing position once again had Pim Ronhaar's name on it at the World Championships in Tábor. This left the Dutch Baloise Trek Lions racer feeling down afterward, although he will look back with pride on what he achieved in these months, especially after the end of the cyclo-cross season in late February. IDLProCycling.com caught up with him in the Czech Republic.

Let's start from the beginning: in the opening lap, we spotted Ronhaar - along with Thibau Nys, Lars van der Haar and Michael Vanthourenhout - in around fifteenth place, far behind leader and eventual winner Mathieu van der Poel. What happened there? Shaking his head, he said: "I completely missed my pedal. Then I crashed in the first few corners, so I was definitely a bit stressed in my head."

"After that, I started moving up as quickly as possible, and at one point, I found myself with Michael Vanthourenhout," he continued. "Mathieu and Joris Nieuwenhuis had already taken off by that point, but the two of us managed to break away from the rest. Ultimately, Michael pulled away from me as well," Ronhaar explained, sticking purely to the facts up to this point in our conversation.

Ronhaar absolutely honest about fourth place: "It's a crappy finish position"

Then we switched the topic to how all this mad him feel. Was Ronhaar disappointed or satisfied, knowing that he had given his all during the hour of racing in Tábor? "Finishing in fourth place, well... It's a crappy finish position. After the finish, I had to shed a few tears because it's not fun to miss the podium," Ronhaar admitted honestly.

"But I had told myself beforehand: if I can give it my all, then I'll be satisfied," he added. "And it's true: if I hadn't crashed, I would still have ended up fourth. It's simple: three other riders were better than me, which makes me number four. I would have loved to be on the podium, but unfortunately, it didn't happen."

"I'm racing in Maldegem on Wednesday, then doing two double weekends, and after that, I'll go on a skiing trip," he revealed his upcoming plans. Afterward, he will focus on road cycling. "In mid-March, I'll start training with David Haverdings in Calpe, and I'm looking forward to that as well. Last year, I made good progress, and we hope to repeat that now, including high-altitude training and such. This way, we can focus more on specific aspects. Last season, I took road cycling seriously for the first time, and it resulted in a good road season, but I think there's room for improvement."