Natascha den Ouden

Last updated

Natascha den Ouden
Personal information
Born (1973-01-24) 24 January 1973 (age 51)
Galder, Netherlands
Team information
Current team AG Insurance–Soudal–Quick-Step
Discipline
Role
  • Rider (retired)
  • Team manager
Professional teams
1991–1992Jamin
1995Amev
1997Grisley
Managerial team
2019– Rogelli–Gyproc–APB

Natascha Knaven-den Ouden (born 1973) is a cyclist, physical therapist and cycling team manager from the Netherlands. [1] Den Ouden is a four time Dutch National Cyclo-cross Champion. In her active days there weren't any international cyclo-cross championships yet. She won silver in the individual pursuit, at the 1989 World Juniors Track Cycling Championships in Moscow. At that tournament she became friends with Servais Knaven, with whom she married and got four cycling daughters: Britt, Senne, Mirre and Fee. [2] They all ride for AG Insurance-NXTG, the development team of which Den Ouden is the owner, co-founder and team manager. [3]

Contents

Women's cycling in development

Missing international women´s cyclo-cross races

The first official Dutch National Cyclo-cross Championships for Women were held in 1988, and Den Ouden was only 14 when she won the silver medal. The women had only one category, which started in the same race as the 15 and 16-year-old boys, but they started one minute later. This meant that the best women had to overtake the slower boys, who didn't want to step aside nor get beaten by a girl. [4] Den Ouden dominated the next championships, and only didn't get gold when she fell twice with a concussion (Gieten, 1991), [5] or didn't compete because she had a torn ankle ligament (1995) [6] or quit crossing (1993). She won her fourth title in 1994, which was the first women-only championships race, with 45 riders. [4]

Den Ouden raced in cyclo-cross as a training for the next road season. She excelled at cyclo-cross when it was still regarded as a men's sports. She regularly requested to participate in men's (junior) crosses, but was denied access. In 1994 she was quoted: 'In Belgium I recently had yet another discussion with an official about women on a cross bicycle. This man said: 'It's way too dangerous to let women ride in the woods.' [7] The Royal Dutch Cycling Union didn't want to organise more than a few women's crosses, because of their low profile, [6] but that's what you get when you don't send invitations and don't promote women's races. The UCI swiftly denied a request to have a demonstration women's race at the 1996 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships, but they were very interested in organising a silly mixed madison race with famous veterans, and women.

It was the organisation of the UCI World Cup Cyclo-cross Heerlen that launched the first international women's race in October 1995. It was international, because three Great-Britain riders joined the field of 21 Dutch riders. Den Ouden won the 11,5 km race in 30:13, followed by Isla Rowntree (GB) at 1:53 and Dutch Champion Reza Ravenstijn at 2:10. [8] Den Ouden was no longer active by the time that the first World Championships were organised in 2000. The European Championships and international competitions started at an even later date.

The first non-national women's road team

Competitors in women's cycling races had traditionally been divided into national teams. Olympic Champion Monique Knol was not happy within the Dutch national team and founded her own independent women's road team in 1991, with Den Ouden in its ranks. The intended main sponsor abandoned the project before it started, [9] and then the Dutch chain of candy stores JAMIN stepped in. The first (semi) professional women's cycling team was born.

Major results

Sources: [10] [11] [12]

Cyclo-cross

1988
2nd National Cyclo-cross Championships
1989
1st MaillotHolanda.svg National Cyclo-cross Championships
1990
1st MaillotHolanda.svg National Cyclo-cross Championships
1991
2nd National Cyclo-cross Championships
1992
1st MaillotHolanda.svg National Cyclo-cross Championships
1994
1st MaillotHolanda.svg National Cyclo-cross Championships
1st Zevenbergen
1996
2nd National Cyclo-cross Championships
1997
3rd National Cyclo-cross Championships

Road cycling

1992
2nd National Time Trial Championships
1993
3rd National Time Trial Championships
1994
3rd National Time Trial Championships
4th Overall GP du Portugal Féminin
1st Stage 2
1995
3rd National Time Trial Championships

Track cycling

1989
2nd Silver medal blank.svg Individual pursuit World Juniors Track Cycling Championships
1990
Junior National Championships
1st MaillotHolanda.svg individual pursuit
1st MaillotHolanda.svg Points race
1994
National championships
2nd Individual pursuit
3rd Points race

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sven Nys</span> Belgian cyclist

Sven Nys is a former professional cyclist competing in cyclo-cross and mountain bike. With two world championships, seven world cups, and over 140 competitive victories, he is considered one of the best cyclo-cross racers of his generation, and remains a prominent figure in cyclo-cross. Apart from cyclo-cross, Nys is also fivefold national mountainbike champion, and has competed in that discipline in two Olympic games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marianne Vos</span> Dutch cyclist (born 1987)

Marianne Vos is a Dutch multi-discipline cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Team Visma–Lease a Bike.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ASWH</span> Dutch association football club

ASWH, short for Altijd Sterker Worden Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, is an association football club from Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, Netherlands. The club was founded in 1929. It won section championships in 1949, 1959, 1961, 1970, 1883, 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2005. In 2005 ASWH also won the Dutch Championship of Amateur Soccer and the Dutch Championship of Saturday Soccer. Ascending gradually through the ranks, ASWH played 2019–2022 in the semi-professional Tweede Divisie. In 2023, it joined the Vierde Divisie, after relegating twice for the first time in the club's history. In 2023–2024, ASWH operates 70 teams in competitions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vrienden van het Platteland</span>

Vrienden van het Platteland was a Dutch UCI women's road cycling team that existed in the 2000–2008 road cycling seasons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RKSV Nuenen</span> Dutch football club

RKSV Nuenen is a football club from Nuenen, Netherlands. The first squad of Nuenen is playing in the Sunday Hoofdklasse since 2016. The first women squad plays in the Hoofdklasse for women since 2014 or 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thalita de Jong</span> Dutch cyclist

Thalita de Jong is a Dutch racing cyclist, who currently rides for Dutch amateur team JEGG–DJR Academy. In 2016, de Jong won the elite women's title at the Dutch National Cyclo-cross Championships, the UEC European Cyclo-cross Championships and the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexis Ryan</span> American racing cyclist

Alexis Ryan is an American racing cyclist, who rides for American amateur team L39ION of Los Angeles. She is the sister of fellow racing cyclist Kendall Ryan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicky Zijlaard</span> Dutch cyclist

Nicky Zijlaard is a former Dutch professional racing cyclist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kortebaanschaatsen</span>

Kortebaanschaatsen refers to an old form of Dutch ice skating tournament that goes back to the 18th century. It is not to be confused with the modern speed skating sport known as short track speed skating. The sport is similar to harness racing and is similarly set up in two straight lanes of 160 meters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fem van Empel</span> Dutch cyclist (born 2002)

Fem van Empel is a Dutch professional racing cyclist. In January 2021, she won the women's under-23 race at the 2021 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships. During the 2022–2023 season she won the women's elite race at the World Championships and the European Cyclo-cross Championships. On 22 January 2023, she secured overall victory at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup (2022–23). On 16 Feb 2023 at Brussels, Fem clinched the X20 Badkamers Trophy. The previous week, her first race in the World Champions jersey, competing in the X20 Badkamers at Lille she finished 1st doing a "Pidcock" across the finish line. In the cyclo cross season 2023 to 2024 Fem was first in her first eleven races. Having finished the previous season with five successive firsts, it brought her run of first places in top level Cyclocross to sixteen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janine Wegman</span> Dutch Hammond-organist and artist

Janine Wegman was a Dutch Hammond-organist and artist based in Rotterdam. She was one of the first Dutch people to be openly transsexual.

Madelon Judith Beek is a Dutch former softball player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petra Beek</span> Dutch softball player

Petra Danielle Beek is a Dutch former softball player. She played as a catcher for the Netherlands women's national softball team and HCAW.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sint-Michielsgestel</span> Place in North Brabant, Netherlands

Sint-Michielsgestel is a village in the municipality of Sint-Michielsgestel, Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Lorsheyd</span> Dutch footballer

Barbara Lorsheyd, also spelled Barbara Lorsheijd, is a Dutch footballer who plays as goalkeeper for Eredivisie club ADO Den Haag and the Netherlands national team.

Manon van Raay is a Dutch footballer who plays as midfielder for ADO Den Haag in the Eredivisie.

Wiëlle Douma is a Dutch footballer who plays as defender for ADO Den Haag in the Eredivisie. She grew up in Friesland and played with the FC Wolvega and Heerenveen youth teams, before playing for SC Heerenveen Vrouwen for six seasons. She transferred to ADO Den Haag in 2021. Douma is able to play in both the left- and right-back positions.

Janou Levels is a Dutch professional football player who plays as a defender for Bundesliga club Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Levels has captained the Netherlands women's national under-23 football team, and she has been capped for the Netherlands national team twice. She previously played for Dutch teams CTO and PSV.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elze van den Ban</span> Dutch urban planner

Elizabeth Frederika van den Ban, known as Elze, was a Dutch urban planner and chief engineer of the Rijkswaterstaat at Zuiderzee Works where she introduced curvatures rather than straight lines into the urban planning process of polders and dikes. Van den Ban was the first woman from the Netherlands to graduate as a civil engineer in Delft, where she worked as a civil engineer.

SS <i>Benbrack</i> British steamship

SS Benbrack was a 19th-century British merchant steamship, built before 1883.

References

  1. "Natascha den Ouden gaat met haar opleidingsteam naar de Tour". nporadio1.nl, BNNVARA, De Nieuws BV (in Dutch). 19 July 2022.
  2. "Een goed gesprek met de familie Knaven". Bicycling.com (in Dutch). 24 June 2018.
  3. "The complete line-ups of our three teams". aginsurancenxtg.be. 21 October 2022.
  4. 1 2 Dick van Gangelen (29 January 1994). "Den Ouden voelt zich wereldkampioene veldrijden". delpher.nl (in Dutch). Algemeen Dagblad.
  5. "Veteraan Stobbe pakt kampioenstrui". delpher.nl (in Dutch). Dagblad van het Noorden. 14 January 1991.
  6. 1 2 "Pech en smalle paden hinderen Groenendaal". delpher.nl (in Dutch). De Volkskrant. 9 January 1995.
  7. "Citaten". delpher.nl (in Dutch). Algemeen Dagblad. 17 January 1994. In België had ik laatst met een official weer een hele discussie over vrouwen op een crossfiets. Zegt zo'n man: 'Het is veel te gevaarlijk om vrouwen in het bos te laten rijden'. Nederlands kampioene veldrijden Natascha den Ouden in De Stem.
  8. Léon de Kort (30 October 1995). "Vrouwen winnen terrein". delpher.nl (in Dutch). Algemeen Dagblad. Pages 16 (results: Wielrennen) and 17
  9. Tim Overdiek (2 March 1991). "Uniek initiatief Monique Knol ontbeert gezonde financiële basis". delpher.nl (in Dutch). Het Parool. De ploegsamenstelling: Monique Knol, Monique de Bruin, Els Koolloos, Ester van Verseveld, Natascha den Ouden, Chantal van Geffen, Angela van Smoorenburg (NED), Nele d'Haene (BEL), Inga Thompson (USA), Jutta Niehaus (GER), Danny Bonnoront en Valerie Simonnet (FRA).
  10. "Natascha Den Ouden". www.cyclingarchives.com. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
  11. "Natasha den Ouden". FirstCycling.com. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
  12. "Natascha den Ouden". www.procyclingstats.com. Retrieved 20 November 2022.