2006 Vrienden van het Platteland season

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The 2006 women's road cycling season was the seventh season for the Vrienden van het Platteland (UCI code: VVP) cycling team, which began as Ondernemers van Nature in 2000.

One of the main new recruits for the team was former junior rider Ellen van Dijk.^[1] In March Ellen van Dijk became University World Champion at the 2006 World University Cycling Championship in the women's road race.^[2] and finished second in the women's time trial.^[3] The other main victories for the team were Flèche Hesbignonne by Chantal Beltman and stage 2 of the Tour Féminin en Limousin by Ellen van Dijk. At the national championships Sharon van Essen finished second in the road race and Iris Slappendel won the bronze medal in the women's time trial. At the end of the year the team ended 12th in the UCI Team's Ranking with Chantal Beltman as the best individual at the 30th place in the UCI Individual Women's Road Ranking.^[4] Van Dijk was also active on the track and won the bronze medal at the 2006 Dutch National Track Championships in the women's individual pursuit.

Roster

Ages as of 1 January 2006.

Sources^[5]^[6]

Results at the 2006 UCI Women's Road World Cup races
#	Date	Race	Country	Best rider	Place
1	26 February	Geelong World Cup	Australia	-	-
2	5 March	New Zealand World Cup	New Zealand	-	-
3	2 April	Tour of Flanders for Women	Belgium	Netherlands Chantal Beltman	27th
4	19 April	La Flèche Wallonne Féminine	Belgium	-	-
5	23 April	Tour de Berne	Switzerland	-	-
6	7 May	GP Castilla y Leon	Spain	-	-
7	27 May	Coupe du Monde Cycliste Féminine de Montréal	Canada	-	-
8	28 July	Open de Suède Vårgårda	Sweden	-	-
9	30 July	Ladies Golden Hour	Denmark	-	-
10	26 August	GP de Plouay	France	-	-
11	3 September	Lowland International Rotterdam Tour	Netherlands	Netherlands Ellen van Dijk	6th
12	10 September	Rund um die Nürnberger Altstadt	Germany	-	-

Results in other major single day races
Date	Race^{[M 1]}	Rider	Place
23 March	World University Championships – Women's time trial	Netherlands Ellen van Dijk	2nd place, silver medalist(s)
25 March	World University Championships – Women's road race	Netherlands Ellen van Dijk	1st place, gold medalist(s)
15 July	European Road Championships – Women's under-23 road race	Netherlands Ellen van Dijk	10th

The team finished 12th in the UCI ranking for teams.^[4]

Individual UCI World Ranking ^[4]
Rank	Rider	Points
30	Netherlands Chantal Beltman	223
74	Netherlands Ellen van Dijk	58
86	Netherlands Iris Slappendel	47
123	Netherlands Sharon van Essen	30
376	Netherlands Moniek Rotmensen	2

^ ^a ^b ^c "Van Dijk en Leezer naar Vrienden-ploeg" (in Dutch). wielerrevue.nl. 26 September 2005. Archived from the original on 13 December 2014. Retrieved 13 December 2014.
^ "Opnieuw twee studentenwereldtitels Nederland" (in Dutch). wielerrevue.nl. 25 March 2006. Archived from the original on 13 December 2014. Retrieved 13 December 2014.
^ "Gunnewijk en Van Ruitenbeek wereldkampioen studenten" (in Dutch). wielerrevue.nl. 23 March 2006. Archived from the original on 13 December 2014. Retrieved 13 December 2014.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Ranking - Cycling - Road 2006 Women Elite UCI Ranking Individual Final result". UCI. Archived from the original on 10 September 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
^ "2006 Roster". cyclingarchives.com. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
^ "2006 Roster". cqranking.com. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
^ ^a ^b "2006 Vrienden van het platteland". procyclingstats.com. Retrieved 1 March 2014.

List of 2006 UCI Women's Teams and riders

Date	Nation	Race	Cat.	Winner
11 June	France	Flèche Hesbignonne	1.2	Netherlands Chantal Beltman
22 July	France	Stage 2 Tour Féminin en Limousin	2.2	Netherlands Ellen van Dijk