Leon van Bon,
The importance of being constant

By Edward Swier

Cycling buffs gave the young Leon van Bon raving reviews. His break through came about in 1992. Van Bon won a silver medal in the points race at the Barcelona Olympics. He went on to build an impressive career as a professional on the road, with stage victories in both Tour and Vuelta, a bronze medal at Worlds and two national road titles.

And what is happening today? He is back to his winning ways, on the track, almost as good as in his youth. ,,I think I would be an excellent addition to the Olympic pursuit team.'' Leon van Bon (born January 28th 1972) likes to be clear. If you ask him to give advice to people thinking about buying an Antares his answer is simple: ,,Do it. Just do it.'' Van Bon really enjoys riding the rollers. ,,I was never one to fall off one of those, I’m pretty agile, but with Antares there is no more fear off that at all. It is a very nice machine.'' Antares is his loyal companion during the Sixday season. ,,I primarily use the Antares to maintain my velocity, my suppleness. It’s not like I would train for three hours on it, Tacx offers plenty of more suitable trainers like the Bushido. The fact of the matter is that the Tacx products are an excellent solution, especially with a winter like the one we are having this year in Holland.''

Developing
In December Van Bon won the Sixday in his in boyhood hometown of Apeldoorn. And that was no coincidence. After already finishing second three times, he finally struck gold with Pim Ligthart and Robert Bartko by his side. And in Rotterdam Van Bon was in contention for a long time as well. ,,It is of course important to have a strong partner. And you will only get one if you are a constant performer yourself. I’m really

developing my skills.'' Van Bon has returned to his first love. ,,Track racing is kind of where I started out. I’m good at it. But if you are trying to say that I did not like road racing you couldn’t be more wrong. What I liked most was combining the two. But when I was a professional road cyclist I had to quit racing track.'' When Rabobank did not renew his contract at the end of 2007, Van Bon chose to keep racing, for the fun of it. ,,But taking it very serious at the same time. Otherwise you’d be giving the people I am competing against too little credit. I still do everything I need to do, and abstain from many other things.'' The Marco Polo team gave him the opportunity to see a lot of the world and to get back into track racing. ,,The team is still looking for a major sponsor, and my program for the road in 2010 is still uncertain.'' Fact is that he was riding in a fully black pair of shorts this winter. Tacx thought helping one of the biggest talents in the past two decades was the right thing to do.