Reigning cyclocross world champion Fem van Empel had a weekend marred with crashes and incidents as she completed fourth in Hoogerheide and sixth the day prior to this at Maasmechelen. The Visma-Lease a Bike rider referred to as Sunday’s effort an ‘off day’.
The 22-year-old was within the podium struggle at Hoogerheide earlier than sliding out on a slippery nook and using 53 seconds after Lucinda Brand (Baloise Glowi Lions) took victory, leaving Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Blanka Vas (SD Worx-Protime) to take the opposite spots on the rostrum.
“The feeling was a lot better than yesterday. I got here again sturdy and rode nicely till the crash,” Van Empel mentioned.
“Of course, it will’ve been nicer if it had been a terrific weekend, however I’m feeling good and really assured heading into subsequent week’s World Championships.”
As a comfort prize, Van Empel took runner-up honours within the World Cup collection with 276 factors, nicely behind Brand however holding a 23-point benefit over Vas after the eleventh and last race.
There actually wasn’t a variety of celebration for Visma-Lease a Bike, because the doubleheader of racing proved to be extra subdued with the crashes. Van Empel’s teammate Marianne Vos, an eight-time ‘cross world champion, suffered crashes at Maasmechelen, ending thirteenth, which was her finest end of simply 4 World Cup begins, and in Hoogerheide.
On Sunday, Vos pulled out at Hoogerheide when she skilled calf ache from a fall within the first lap. The workforce acknowledged “over the following few days, her restoration will probably be intently monitored” for a begin subsequent weekend.
Vos hoped to select up key rating factors to enhance her gridding place for subsequent weekend at Liévin however had one other crash within the mud on Sunday. The Dutch rider will now must battle by means of the sphere on the elite girls’s race subsequent Saturday if she goes to be in medal rivalry.
“It is what it’s,” Vos informed Wielerflits. “At Maasmechelen I did not transfer up immediately. Then it’s actually troublesome. It actually turns into a struggle. I truly received into my rhythm nicely, so I used to be very comfortable there.
“Of course, you simply hope for an excellent begin there [in Liévin]. But if I began on the entrance row, it would not change a lot about my ambitions.
“Although in fact it’s important to be real looking: if you cannot go straight to the highest ten from the primary lap, it is a large effort to get there.”
Vos additionally had a message for her younger teammate Van Empel, who’s hoping to defend her world title within the elite race at age 22.
“No matter how younger she is, she already has fairly a little bit of expertise,” Vos mentioned.
“She has additionally proven in latest weeks, months and years what she is able to. At Maasmechelen it wasn’t fairly straightforward, however she simply has to remain calm. The kind is there. She simply has to trip her personal race subsequent week.”
Van Empel was prepared for the problem. One of her high opponents will probably be Vas, the Hungarian rider rising from the weekend as an outdoor favorite for a historic first girls’s world cyclocross title for her nation.
“There are a variety of women in good condition in the intervening time, so I count on an thrilling battle,” Van Empel mentioned in regards to the subsequent weekend in Liévin.
“The coming days will primarily be about restoration to make sure I’m recent firstly in France on Saturday.”
