I was born in Drachten, Friesland, but only after two years my parents, sister and I moved to Enschede. I grew up doing a lot of iceskating. During highschool I trained 3 - 4 times a week on the ice, but this technical sport didn't really suit me. I crashed often during races and it was not really the question how my race went, but if I managed to get to the finish line. However, the preparation for iceskating was mostly on the bike and this suited me much better. It was an easy desicion to continue in cycling at the age of 14. I first tried the mountainbike for a few years but due to a lack of technical skills (again ha-ha) I didn't see an international carreer happening for me. And that was my aim! When somebody told me about the GOW cyclocross competition I was hooked immediately . This beautiful sport suits me naturally and most often I stay on my bike!
Ups and downs. Victories and dissapointments. It's all part of the journey. Top sport formed me as a person. I learned to focus on long term goals, to get back up on my bike when I fell off, to find happiness during periods of injury and to push my body and mind in ways I never thought it was capable of. My first years in cyclocross I was sponsored by Henk Beumer - Goossens Bike Shop. With two bikes and a few sets of wheels my dad and I drove to Belgium each weekend on our 'highway to gold'. Results improved and I changed teams a few times. It was Marc De Laet who gave me my first professional contract, just after I got my Bachelor's degree at the age of 23. This changed everything. Finally I could focus 100% on cycling and shortly after that I won my first races. For a long period of time I raced for Belgian teams untill I got a phone call in the beginning of 2016.
I was asked by Henry Martens - owner of Breepark - if I was interested in a private sponsorship. After several converstations we decided this would be a golden oppertunity for the both of us. Rapha was added to my team and I prolongued my sponsorship with SRAM and ZIPP. Rapha designed the most beautifull kit ever for me and I'm still very proud to wear this.
Altough our collaboration started with success when I won the World Cup overall classification, we also had to face dissapointment. The 2016-2017 season was outstanding. With a World Cup win, 5 other victories and 17 podium places, my season was very successful. During the summer of 2017 I was very eager to improve this, but instead it all went differently. In december I had to decide to quit my season and focus on 2018-2019. I'm very grateful to have sponsors who support me during success and failure and couldn't be more happy to keep everyone by my side!
This summer I will do everything I can to prepare as best for my next season. With the European Championships in my home country and the World Championship in the beautifull Denmark, I'm more than ever motivated to make it my best season ever. Follow me on my journey.