Video: Hole in ice trips Dutch speedskater just before finish line

Dutch speed skater Elma de Vries just missed winning the Alternative Eleven Cities tour by tripping on a hole in the ice just before the finish line.

"I was perfectly placed and clearly faster. Then suddenly there's this hole that I hit and I fall flat forward", the disappointed skater said to NOS after the race. She still thought she might make it. "I see the arc coming at me and thought I'm sliding far enough, but it was ten meters short and the others sped right past me."

Crispijn Ariens took the title in the men's category. "This is by far the most beautiful, the most beautiful of all", he said after the race. "I had to attack in the closing stages, because I wanted my name on that trophy. And I did it!"