April 10, 2004 – It was a warm, sunny, beautiful spring day in the north of Holland for today's 202Km Ronde Van Drenthe. Well, not really, but at least the rain let up soon after the start so that the riders had the benefit of racing on mostly dry roads for this demanding event, in its 42nd edition. Although considered by many to be a “sprinter's” race, the distance, winds and the 12 sections of bread-loaf pave totaling about 27Km, create more of a hard-man event than an event for the fast men.
Thirteen teams took to the start in Hoogeveen with team cars packed with spare wheels for the grueling day. The Navigators' strategy for the day was good positioning, attentiveness, luck and good positioning. Just 10Km in the race a trio of riders decided to go on the attack. With the course changing direction every few minutes, their advantage never gained more than a handful of seconds. The next escape, at about km-45 was more of a split in the peloton, than a real attack. With several strong members of the Rabobank, Bankgiroloterij and Barloworld squads in the mix, it was up to the Navigators men to bring it all back together. After several kilometers of hard work, the peloton was back together, but it was certainly a wakeup call to stay vigilant, and in good position.
After several more k's of racing, a group of 6 slipped away in anticipation of the first section of pave, coming at km-72. Containing no major threat to steal the race, the peloton was content to let the escapees gain almost three minutes. Hitting the pave on the narrow roads caused chaos as the riders alternately fought for position, held their bars tight and tried to stay upright, pick the smoothest lines over the bricks, and then close the gaps that the pave inevitably created. The first sections came in quick succession, barely allowing the riders time to loosen their grip on the bars, before starting the fight to the next section.
Over the next 60Km of road and pave, interspersed with short jaunts through the small towns along the route, the six leaders slowly lost their advantage to the peloton. Entering the 10th section of pave, an attack by Erik Dekker (Rabbobank) was matched by seven others, including Navigators' David McKenzie. The leaders; Dekker and teammate Joost Posthuma, McKenzie, Rudi Kemna (Bankgiroloterij), Simone Cadamura (DeNardi), Jeroen Boelen (Van Hemert), Germ Vanderburg (Bert Story Piels), and Folkert DeHaan (Apac) had a gap approaching 1-minute at km-131 and the final section of pave. The strong chase from behind, led by the Barloworld and AXA squads, kept the pressure on the leaders. Over the next 40Km the leaders were only able to gain an advantage of 2:10, a tenuous lead with more than 25Km remaining in the race.
The leaders pressed on, and with just 20Km to the line, and two trips up the short and steep Vam Berg, word came that a chase group of six were now closing in at 1:12 behind.
The leaders were now fighting for survival, and with 12Km to go, an attack by Dekker split the leading group. Driving hard and on his own, Dekker quickly built a lead of: 20 over McKenzie, Kemna, Cadamuro and Posthuma. Kemna, last year's winner, and Posthuma had no motivation to contribute so the work to maintain position fell squarely on the shoulders of McKenzie and Cadamuro. David McKenzie was clearly the stronger of the two and the gap came down to just 12-15 seconds, where it stayed for most of the remaining distance to the finish line back in Hoogeveen. As the racers reached the last kilometer flag, it was clear that they would not be caught from the group behind, and that barring incident, Dekker would stay away for the win. In the sprint to the line and 2nd place, Navigators' David McKenzie had the strength to hold off the others and claim the 2nd step on the podium, with Cadamuro claiming 3rd. Navigators' Mark Walters led the charge from the chasers to take the group sprint, and 9th place in the race. For Ernesto Colnago, it was a 1-2 day, as both McKenzie and Dekker were racing their Colnago C-50 HP bikes.