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Pssst! The latest insider news: Niki Terpstra returns to the track.
19/10/2024
Dear Team MILRAM fans,
my first season with Team MILRAM is over now. Well, almost. Now it goes on the track. On Monday, I’m going to start at the Sixdays in Amsterdam. My last road race was Paris – Tours, since then I’ve been preparing for the track. Although I could be on vacation now like most of my team-mates I’m looking forward to the track season. For this is where I started cycling.
There used to be a parking space close to our house, where we always cycled after school. So my way actually was from the parking space to the cycling club. The hall of Alkmaar was only about 20 kilometers away, so it was clear that I’d get on the track. And somehow I did quite well. After all I was Dutch Junior Champion. In the past, people only knew me as a track rider, but I always did both: track and road. Only that I was more successful on the track. And this finally cleared my way for becoming a pro cyclist. Only after winning the silver medal at the World Championships in 2003 did I get the publicity and chance to become a pro on the road. That was my dream. There aren’t so many highlights on the track, actually only World Championships and Olympic Games.
My last appearance on the track was in November at the Worldcup in Sydney. Rank four in Team Pursuit and Madison. That wasn’t so long ago.
Riding on the track is a good preparation for the coming season, especially with regard to the technique. But power and speed are trained as well. Fortunately, it’s not difficult to get used to it again. You can’t forget it if you already learned it as a young rider. I hope the track season will also be a good end to my season. At the beginning of the year I wasn’t so strong, I had to get used to the ProTour level first. But then I did better month after month and even participated at my first three weeks’ tour, the Vuelta. That was one of the reasons for me to sign at Team MILRAM. I wanted to do the Grand Tours. So one of my dreams came true and I can still do track races. What more do I want?
See you soon,
Niki
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