Joost!

Get this! Joost Posthuma took second place in the Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde, a three-day, four-event bike race in Belgium. He was 6 seconds behind the leader, Alessandro Ballan, in the overall general classification. And he came in 6th in this afternoon's time trial.

This is a major race in which the world's best professional cyclists compteted. It's an amazing achievement for him. Awesome. Really. I'm thrilled. You can read about it in CyclingPost.

The race report on Joost's web site says that "Posthuma started the day 13 seconds behind Ballan. He managed to bring the difference down to 4 seconds halfway throgh the time trial, but lost 2 of those before reaching the finish line." The site quotes Joost as saying, "I am happy with my podium spot. I went for all or nothing. The last five kilometers were hard because of the wind and because my legs were giving out." He also suffered from a leg wound that he got in a crash on the first day of the race. He'll be checking into a hospital to get it treated tomorrow.

Here's the Dutch of his statement: ""Ik ben content met mijn podiumplek. Ik ging voor alles of niks, ben volle bak vertrokken en wilde kijken waar het schip zou stranden. De laatste vijf kilometer deden pijn door de wind, zeker ook omdat ik al behoorlijk verzuurd was." Part of it has something to do with a fully loaded canal barge, a ship stranded on the beach, and savage looks. Anyone know Dutch?


Photo source: http://www.joostposthuma.nl/

From CyclingPost --

Time Trial results:

1. Stijn Devolder (Bel-DSC) 13'25"
2. David Millar (GBr-SDV) 0'07"
3. Vladimir Gusev (Rus-DSC) 0'09"
4. Sébastien Rosseler (Bel-QSI) 0'16"
5. Raivis Belohvosciks (Lat-SDV) 0'18"
6. Joost Posthuma (Ned-RAB) 0'19"
7. Olaf Pollack (Ger-WIE) 0'21"
8. Bert Roesems (Bel-PRL) 0'23"
9. Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu-DSC) 0'24"
10. Alessandro Ballan (Ita-LAM) 0'26"

Final general classification:

1. Alessandro Ballan (Ita-LAM) 12h48'07"
2. Joost Posthuma (Ned-RAB) 0'06"
3. Bert Roesems (Bel-PRL) 0'11"
4. Sergiy Matveyev (Ukr-PAN) 0'17"
5. Vladimir Gusev (Rus-DSC) 0'38"
6. Sébastien Rosseler (Bel-QSI) 0'45"
7. Kevin Hulsmans (Bel-QSI) 0'49"
8. Markus Eichler (Ger-UNI) 0'54"
9. Daniele Bennati (Ita-LAM) 0'55"
10. Luca Paolini (Ita-LIQ) 1'06"

Joost's web site has lots of photos. These two show members of his family -- mother, father, & sisters -- at a race held in Holland last month, the Tour of the Green Heart (the green heart being the central, tulip-growing part of the country).