Vrienden van het Platteland

Vrienden van het Platteland

Team information
UCI code	OND (2002–2004) VVP (2005–2008)
Registered	Netherlands
Founded	2000 (2000)
Disbanded	2008
Discipline(s)	Road
Key personnel
General manager	Peter Smeets
Team manager(s)	Jan van Dam (2007) Wim Kruis (2008)
Team name history
2000–2003 2004 2005–2008	Ondernemers van Nature Ondernemers van Nature-Vrienden van het Platteland Vrienden van het Platteland
Jersey

Vrienden van het Platteland (UCI Code: VVP) was a Dutch UCI women's road cycling team that existed in the 2000–2008 road cycling seasons.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

One of the main new recruits for the team was former junior rider Ellen van Dijk.^[6] In March Ellen van Dijk became University World Champion at the 2006 World University Cycling Championship in the women's road race.^[7] and finished second in the women's time trial.^[8] The other main victories for the team were Flèche Hesbignonne by Chantal Beltman and stage 2 of the Tour Féminin en Limousin by Ellen van Dijk. At the national championships Sharon van Essen finished second in the road race and Iris Slappendel won the bronze medal in the women's time trial. At the end of the year the team ended 12th in the UCI Team's Ranking with Chantal Beltman as the best individual at the 30th place in the UCI Individual Women's Road Ranking.^[9] Van Dijk was also active on the track and won the bronze medal at the 2006 Dutch National Track Championships in the women's individual pursuit.

The main victories on the road for the team were the time trial at the Tour of Chongming Island by Ellen van Dijk and the Norwegian and Dutch Time Trial Championships by Anita Valen and Ellen van Dijk. On the track Van Dijk also won the individual pursuit at the Dutch National Track Cycling Championships. At the end of the year the team ended 23rd in the UCI Team's Ranking with Ellen van Dijk as the best individual at the 37th place in the UCI Individual Women's Road Ranking.^[10]

The first podium place for the team was a third place for Jaccolien Wallaard at Omloop Het Volk in March. In May Ellen van Dijk finished third at Omloop van Borsele and in the time trial stage at the Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin. Van Dijk finished third again in an international time trial at the Tour of Chongming Island Time trial in June. The day afterwards Van Dijk won the first stage of the Tour of Chongming Island with Wallaard in third place. After finishing second in the stage 2 and stage 3 Van Dijk ended also second in the general classification.^[11] In July Ellen van Dijk represented the Netherlands at the European Championships (under-23) and finished fifth in the time trial. At the national championships Anita Valen won the time trial in Norway and finished second in the road race. In the Netherlands Ellen van Dijk won the Dutch time trial championships. Due to Van Dijks' good results in the time trials she was chosen to represent the Netherlands in the time trial at the World Championships in Stuttgart where she finished 17th.^[12] Due to her good results Ellen van Dijk became sportswomen of the year of Woerden.^[13] Van Dijk was invited to join the Dutch national track cycling team.^[14] At the national track championships she became Dutch champion in the individual pursuit, ahead of Marianne Vos and Kirsten Wild, and finished fourth in the scratch race and points race.^[15]

Ellen van Dijk became European Champion in the time trial and won the stage 2 of the 2008 Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin and the prologue of 2008 Tour Féminin en Limousin. An Van Rie won the Belgian Time Trial Championships. However, the largest victories were on the track. Ellen van Dijk became World Champion in the scratch and European champion in the Women's points race and Women's scratch. At the European championships she also won two silver medals. Willy Kanis won 4 times an individual event at the Track Cycling World Cups in 2008 and together with Yvonne Hijgenaar two times the team sprint event. The team finished 19th in the 2008 UCI Team Ranking.

During the years the team had mainly Dutch riders, including:
Ellen van Dijk (2006–2008)
Sharon van Essen (2004–2006)
Loes Gunnewijk (2004–2005)
Chantal Beltman (2004–2006)
Yvonne Hijgenaar (2008)
Willy Kanis (2008)
Roxane Knetemann (2008)
Vera Koedooder (2004)
Iris Slappendel (2004–2006)
Annemiek van Vleuten (2008)

During the last two year the team had also riders from other countries, including:
Katie Brown (2007)
Anita Valen (2007)
Liesbet De Vocht (2008)
Tina Pic (2008)
An Van Rie (2008)

Ages as of 1 January 2008.

Rider Date of birth  Liesbeth Bakker (NED) (1986-07-01)July 1, 1986 (aged 21)  Martine Bras (NED) (1987-05-17)May 17, 1987 (aged 20)  Nikki Butterfield-Egyed (AUS) (1982-04-12)April 12, 1982 (aged 25)  Ellen van Dijk (NED) (1987-02-11)February 11, 1987 (aged 20)  Lorian Graham (AUS) (1977-11-08)November 8, 1977 (aged 30)  Yvonne Hijgenaar (NED) (1980-05-15)May 15, 1980 (aged 27)  Marit Huisman (NED) (1989-03-01)March 1, 1989 (aged 18)  Willy Kanis (NED) (1984-07-27)July 27, 1984 (aged 23)  Roxane Knetemann (NED) (1987-04-01)April 1, 1987 (aged 20)

Rider Date of birth  Kristy Miggels (NED) (1980-08-06)August 6, 1980 (aged 27)  Tina Pic (USA) (1966-05-09)May 9, 1966 (aged 41)  Martine van der Herberg (NED) (1989-11-24)November 24, 1989 (aged 18)  An Van Rie (BEL) (1974-06-09)June 9, 1974 (aged 33)  Annemiek van Vleuten (NED) (1982-10-08)October 8, 1982 (aged 25)  Monique Verstraten (NED) (1983-04-24)April 24, 1983 (aged 24)  Liesbet De Vocht (BEL) (1979-01-05)January 5, 1979 (aged 28)  Jaccolien Wallaard (NED) (1982-09-30)September 30, 1982 (aged 25)

Sources^[16][17]

Guest riders

The team had Felicia Gomez and Linn Torp as guest riders during the Tour of New Zealand and Gomez also during the Geelong Tour.