Rigard van Klooster

Speed skating

Rigard van Klooster started his sports career with speed skating. He started with speed skating when he was very young and started competing in 2002 and rode his first national junior championship in 2006 as a B-junior. Since the season 2007–2008 Van Klooster skated for Gewest Noord-Holland/Utrecht and was a trainee at the APPM-team since the 2008–2009 season. As an elite athlete Van Klooster competed in 2010 and 2011 at both the Dutch Allround Championships and Dutch Single Distance Championships. At the 2010 Dutch Allround Championships he finished seventeenth after becoming on three distances fifteenth.

Track cycling

A wingate test in early 2011 showed that Van Klooster had potential for track cycling. After some track cycling sessions the KNWU offered van Klooster a place in the development team and a room in Papendal, near the velodrome in Apeldoorn. Van Klooster took the offer and quit speed skating. He rode his first international competition at the Trois Jours d'Aigle where he finished 13th. Two weeks after riding the two days of Wien, Van Klooster became the Dutch national sprint champion for Amateurs begin December. Later that month, after getting an elite license, he placed 4th in the 1 km time trial at Dutch national track championships and 7th in both the keirin and the sprint.

Van Klooster competed in the International Track Grand Prix of Alkmaar, Perth, Colorado Springs, Cottbus and Vienna. In Vienna he won bronze in the team sprint. Based on his results he qualified for the 2012 European Track Championships where he finished 6th in the team sprint (together with Hylke van Grieken and Matthijs Büchli) and 12th in the keirin. At the UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classic in Glasgow he competed in the keirin. He finished twice third and did not reach the second round.

Track cycling

Personal records