"I can hopefully get a contract for 2025" - Taco van der Hoorn boosts career prospects with victory at Elfstedenrace after nightmare spell

Taco van der Hoorn has not had it easy over the past couple of years. But on Wednesday afternoon at Elfstedenrace 2024, the Intermarché - Wanty rider took his first victory in nearly two and a half years.

“Really, I get emotional about it. It’s very special to win here,” the Dutchman reflected openly in a post-race interview with Wielerflits afterwards. “It’s been extremely difficult for a very long time. Black, unclear and doubting whether I would ever get healthy again. At some point it went well again, I could train again and do things that make you feel like a cyclist again. That in itself was super special.”

After more than a year's absence after a horrific crash at the Tour of Flanders in 2023, Van der Hoorn's career at the top level looked as if it might have been over. Even now, the 30-year-old's future is unclear as he nears the end of his Intermarché - Wanty contract with no 2025 deal on the horizon. Van der Hoorn is now hopeful, this emotional victory at Elfstedenrace can boost his hopes of securing a deal for the next season.

“I trained super hard to get back. I noticed in the Tour of Germany and in the BEMER Cyclassics that I was back in good shape quite quickly. The races were all quite easy, so I couldn't show much. I was annoyed about that. It was a tough race now and I could hit the mark. In terms of power and level, I knew I was at my old level, but it was frustrating that I couldn't show it," he concludes. “I wanted to have one outlier, the goal was to show once that I was completely back. That is not possible in every race, it also has to be a bit of luck. Paris-Tours is also tailor-made for me and then I will go to China. And then I can hopefully get a contract for 2025. I have shown in the past that I can do it, I can do it now too, so I will definitely succeed next year. It was already clear to me that I was back, but now everyone has seen it.”