Ronhaar makes promise now that Nys and Van der Haar have done enough: "Bad weather is coming..."

When Pim Ronhaar finished sixth in the Koppenbergcross in early November, there might have been expectations that the 23-year-old Dutchman would have a thrilling start at Baloise Trek Lions. The image was only somewhat distorted after a fourth-place finish in Woerden and a second-place finish in Heerderstrand. Ronhaar had a tumultuous run-up to the cyclo-cross season, and so at the European Championships, in Lokeren and Merksplas, he was relatively anonymous outside the top ten. When he finished ninth in Hamme on Sunday, it was time for an update at IDLProCycling.com.

I spoke to Lars van der Haar in Merksplas and he said: Pim is in a difficult spot for a while, but he will be fine. Is he right?

"He is right about that, although I felt in Merksplas that it is improving. I missed my pedal at the start today and then couldn't change gears, so I turned into the first corner last. However, I could move reasonably well and ended up riding top ten, so I'm quite satisfied."

We all know where you're coming from, including when you said at Koppenberg that maybe it was already better than expected. Did you maybe see a small setback looming due to a lack of good physical basis?

"Well, that foundation is there. We also gambled a bit at the beginning of the season by only training on the basics. Therefore, I missed the intensity of going deep in the race's first twenty to thirty minutes. Since last week, we started training more cyclo-cross, and I noticed that it is already paying off. I think I can finally go deep again; I'll compete for the podium in two weeks!"

Read more below the photo.

Pim Ronhaar in action during the European Championships in Pontevedra

Ronhaar in the shadow of Nys and Van der Haar toward top-form

So, what do these weeks look like for you now? 'You can't just work on explosiveness because we saw last year with Thibau Nys that you lose the fundamental elements...

"Exactly, that's why, at the beginning of the season, we did a lot of work on the basics. We must keep doing that; the focus must be on the content. But we have to add incentives to that. Suppose I keep doing that and competing simultaneously toward the muddy and slower Christmas period. In that case, I will get increasingly up front and compete for the top five in a few weeks because the podium will be very difficult. But for now, I'm happy with the top ten. It looks a little better every week."

Lars said next that he did everything for Baloise Trek Lions regarding results at the beginning of this cyclo-cross season. After that, we got Thibau Nys. Is what he said about you being able to work on yourself slowly on the sidelines true?

"Yes, I think so. If I had been the leader of this team, there would have been a lot of pressure on me. Then, you may start doing too much and expecting too much from yourself. Now we have two guys who can ride for results, so I can quietly grow into good form."

So, is the fact that the World Cup doesn't start until next week in Antwerp good news for you?

"Yes. The X2O classification is completely gone, though. That's a shame because that was also a bit of a goal. Now, we are focusing on the World Cup. Bad weather is coming, so I'm looking forward to that. I also go to cyclo-cross with more motivation, which was slightly less in the first weekends."

Bram van der Ploeg (Twitter: @BvdPloegg | email: [email protected])      

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