Lars van der Haar: "It was just a nice battle. I just enjoyed it, Too bad I didn't win"

The Superprestige Niel ended with Lars van der Haar taking second place. As the race entered the final lap, he fought a duel with Laurens Sweeck, but the Belgian won.

"It was a nice battle," Van der Haar told WielerFlits. "Laurens is always a dangerous customer in the last lap.I played it the way I think I had to play it, but in the end he rode just three-quarters too far into the sand. I left a hole on purpose. If you ride really straight into the sand in the wheel, it doesn't work anyway. That's a risk, but it was the only chance for me to get through the sandbox properly. I'm going into it just a tooth too small anyway, I'm already starting to bite with the front wheel. It was to be hoped he had to get off the bike, but he did too late," explained van der Haar.

His shoulder dislocated before the start of the race and again during the race. However, van der Haar was able to pop it back during the race. "That's possible because it doesn't go out a hundred percent, it's actually half. I suffer from that sometimes, especially when I'm tired. And the last two weeks have just been really tough. Two laps before the end, it happened again. But with a few flapping motions, I luckily got it back in," said van der Haar.

Although the Dutchman was unable to take the top podium spot for himself, he enjoyed the race nonetheless. "It was just a nice battle. I just enjoyed it. It was a super nice race, a super nice crowd. Too bad I didn't win, of course, you want to, but the battle was very nice," concluded van der Haar.