Roelof Thijs Cup: Iwema wins, Reitsma second / Ice route

There was plenty to celebrate for Dutch fans in the race for the Roelof Thijs Cup, as Jasper Iwema and Sebastian Reitsma in particular produced strong races in the heats. In the heat, Iwema only had to concede defeat to the fast Czech Lukas Hutla in a surprising run and several lead changes, while Reitsma scored twelve points in the heat in fighting style.

Hutla was on track for a long time, remaining unbeaten in his four starts, but was unlucky to retire in his final race and also suffered an engine failure. Hutla’s bad luck brought Jo Saetre, who had scored 13 points, directly to the final with Iwema, while Hutla had to enter the repechage to meet Reitsma, Swede Filip Jager and Austrian Martin Posch.

Hutla, on a bike borrowed from Marc Geyer, had another bad luck last summer when he went out with a broken fuel pipe and was a spectator in the final after winning four races. Jager won here ahead of Reitsma, who followed his compatriot Iwema to the final.

In the first test of the final, Jager won the opening lap, but was overtaken by Iwema after the first corner and crashed in the last corner on the second lap with no outside influence, so the race restarted without the Swede. In the replay, Iwema won the start, but Reitsma overtook Iwema at the finish line. He was able to attack on the last lap and win the race ahead of his partner Reitsma and Norway’s Saetre.

The best German in the field was Maximilian Niedermaier, who scored six points in his first three races, but also received two zeroes. For Marc Geyer, the first race started in second place, but the Hessian fell back to last place.

In his second race, Geyer was again in second place, had good speed on the outside line, but crashed and lost points. As the race progressed, Geyer earned three more points and finished 14th.

Geyer: “The race was fun as usual. The goal today was to be in the top 10, not to be last and not to get injured. We didn’t manage to be last, but unfortunately we didn’t manage to get into the top 10. I’m happy so far, I’m going well and now I’ve had an outside ride. I had set the rear wheel too lean and as a result the bike went through the corner well, but then it suddenly wobbled backwards on the exit.”

Paul Cooper, who raced on ice for the first time as an athlete, improved from run to run and even managed to win the 16th run of the day. In his final run he crashed out of the grid when Leon Kramer crashed in front of him in the lap and then scored two points to finish eighth with seven points.

Ergebnisse Roelof Thijs Pokal Heerenveen/NL:

1. Jasper Iwema (NL), 14 original points
2. Sebastian Reitsma (NL), 12
3. Jo Saetre (N), 13
4. Filip Jaeger (S), 12
5. Lukas Hutla (CZ), 12
6. Martin Posch (A), 10
7. Leon Kramer (NL), 8
8. Paul Cooper (GB), 7
9. Maximilian Niedermaier (D), 6
10. Michal Knapp (PL), 6
11. Isak Dekkerhus (S), 5
12. Atte Suolammi (S), 5
13. Niek Schaap (NL), 4
14. Marc Geyer (D), 3
15. Tim Dixon (GB), 1
16. Kevin Arzl (A), 1

Final Place Heat: 1. Jager, 2. Reitsma, 3. Posch, 4. Hutla (a)
Final: 1. Iwema, 2. Reitsma, 3. Saetre, 4. Jager (St)