Rotterdam, 16 January 2009 

Today the 'Ronde van het Groene Hart' cycling event foundation and Eneco have announced that Eneco will be the new naming sponsor of the Eneco Ronde van het Groene Hart. This is, besides the UCI ProTour race Eneco Tour, Eneco's second major cycling event of which it is both naming and main sponsor.

Jeroen Overgoor, Eneco's Director of Communications and Public Affairs: "Eneco has drawn up an ambitious plan concerning professional bicycle racing, touring events and cycling. In our view cycling represents environment friendly mobility which does not require any energy, except for the energy provided by the cyclist. Supporting major events such as the Eneco Tour and the Eneco Ronde van het Groene Hart also offers us the opportunity to make top level cycling races accessible to the general public. The Eneco Ronde van het Groene Hart is furthermore unique because of its sustainability theme, for which we can provide relevant input from an energy point of view."

Paul Nouwen, Chairman of the Ronde van het Groene Hart Foundation: "We are naturally very pleased to welcome Eneco to our event. A better match than one between the energy company with the highest sustainability level in the Netherlands, which in addition is enthusiastic about bicycle racing, and our event will be hard to find."

The Eneco Ronde van het Groene Hart will take place on Sunday 22 March. The event will start in the city of Zoetermeer and finish in Woerden. The course includes the four major cities Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Rotterdam which are located around the Groene Hart region. Already several UCI ProTour teams have signed on to participate in the touring event which falls into the 1.1 category of the European Continental UCI Calendar.

The Eneco Ronde van het Groene Hart is part of the larger Maand van het Groene Hart happening, which includes various events relating to the Groene Hart region.

About Eneco

Eneco (http://corporatenl.eneco.nl/) is one of the three leading energy companies in the Netherlands. It applies an integrated distribution strategy and specialises in the production, transmission, trading, supply and metering of energy (electricity, gas and heat) and related products and services. Eneco is making a transition to becoming a sustainable energy company and will make substantial investments in the area of sustainable energy during the coming years. In total the company serves approximately two million business and domestic customers. Eneco employs 5,300 people who are mainly located in the Zuid-Holland and Utrecht provinces. The head office is located in Rotterdam. In Belgium Eneco operates from its office in the city of Mechelen.