{"id":404451,"date":"2026-01-12T10:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T10:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/404451\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T10:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T10:52:09","slug":"it-didnt-come-without-a-fight-tibor-del-grossos-dutch-title-turns-into-a-day-of-chaos-and-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/404451\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt didn\u2019t come without a fight\u201d \u2013 Tibor Del Grosso\u2019s Dutch title turns into a day of chaos and recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<br \/>\nDel Grosso had started as the clear favourite, but the race refused to follow a simple script. After early moves, <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/pim-ronhaar\" title=\"Pim Ronhaar\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pim Ronhaar<\/a> became his main rival, pushing him through the central part of the race.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst I was on the road with Pim. I seemed to finally beat him, but then Lars came with a few very strong laps at the end,\u201d Del Grosso said. \u201cIt certainly wasn\u2019t easy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Just as he thought the danger had passed, the race changed again.<\/p>\n<p>Crashes, chains and recovery<\/p>\n<p>The pressure was not only coming from rivals. Del Grosso also had to fight his own setbacks. \u201cI fell once as well. That wasn\u2019t ideal. And then I also dropped my chain,\u201d he said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t go without a fight, but I had the feeling that it was a heavy, underestimated race for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He explained the crash simply. \u201cI just slid away. I tried to cross a rut, but it was too slippery, so I slid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Each problem forced Del Grosso to recover again, while knowing that Van der Haar was closing in the final laps.<\/p>\n<p>Respect before and after<\/p>\n<p>Del Grosso said he never assumed the title was his, even before the start. \u201cI knew I shouldn\u2019t underestimate anyone,\u201d said the 22-year-old, who had also been dealing with a cold in the build-up to the championships.<\/p>\n<p>That feeling stayed with him until the very end, as Van der Haar\u2019s late charge brought real doubt back into the race.<\/p>\n<p>A jersey that means more<\/p>\n<p>Winning again meant more to Del Grosso than just another result. \u201cThat means a lot. It is very special to ride in such a special jersey, on a special bike,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>After a race defined by crashes, chain trouble and late pressure from two of the strongest riders in the country, Del Grosso\u2019s second Dutch title was not about dominance. It was about handling everything that went wrong and still finding a way to come back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; Del Grosso had started as the clear favourite, but the race refused to follow a simple script.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,80956,170521,135704,170522,82,142284],"class_list":["post-404451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-cyclocross","tag-lars-van-der-haar","tag-national-championships","tag-pim-ronhaar","tag-sports","tag-tibor-del-grosso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}