Reigning girls’s world cyclocross champion Fem van Empel says that she won’t cut back her cyclocross calendar to spice up her highway ambitions.
The 22-year-old took a tenth cyclocross win of the season on the World Cup spherical in Benidorm on Sunday, beating Lucinda Brand to victory after a tense and thrilling race on the Costa Blanca.
After the UCI Cyclocross World Championships in Liévin in two weeks, the Dutch rider will flip her consideration to the highway. She’ll begin her marketing campaign on the girls’s Milan-San Remo Donne on March 22, the place she’ll be working for Marianne Vos.
“I’ll journey Milan-San Remo in a serving function,” Van Empel instructed Sporza. “Depending on my kind, we’ll see the place I will likely be firstly after that.
“The spring Classics swimsuit my profile greatest. But I wonder if it’s real looking to win there within the quick time period. Then every little thing would actually should go properly.”
With Wout Van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel each driving decreased cyclocross campaigns this season to swimsuit their highway ambitions, questions have been requested if Van Empel – solely on her third season as a part of the elites – will do likewise sooner or later.
“That will not be but the case,” she insisted. “I’ll proceed to ‘cross, as I did this season, in order that I can practice for the highway in between. I’ll definitely not in the reduction of on my cyclocross calendar, as a result of I feel ‘cross is way too lovely.”
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Like Van Aert and Van der Poel, Van Empel is one other prodigy of the game, with two world titles beneath her belt already and one other in her sights. Expectations are excessive, however then once more, they at all times have been.
“I needed to cope with stress and expectations from outdoors at a younger age,” she mentioned. “I did not know find out how to cope with that. Now I’m making an attempt to grasp that higher and higher. But that isn’t at all times straightforward.”
Van Empel is not infallible, although. Last season, she dominated girls’s cyclocross with 19 wins from 21 begins. This season, she has been crushed seven occasions in 17 begins, and was as soon as once more pushed in Benidorm by the skilled former world champion Brand.
A big group of 11 riders got here into the ultimate lap along with Brand driving the tempo on the quick course. However, Van Empel got here out from behind her rival on the obstacles part as each dismounted and ran.
As the pair remounted collectively, Van Empel had the ability to take the lead and maintain off her rival on the sprint for the road, taking her third consecutive win in Benidorm.
“The method I win right this moment can be particular and likewise reveals my struggle. I’m very happy with my season and positively with this victory. Every 12 months it is thrilling right here, it is a tremendous race,” she mentioned.
“Lucinda saved the door closed properly. She did not go away any area, so the planks have been truly one of many final potentialities to discover a hole. It was simply full throttle on that plank after which a dash for the asphalt.”
Van Empel added that she was at all times in management through the race, although nearly all of the six-lap occasion noticed a big group of favourites on the entrance.
“At the beginning, I used to be centered, and I used to be in first or second place the entire race. I used to be in management,” she mentioned.
Van Empel has structured her cyclocross season in a different way this marketing campaign by incorporating highway coaching camps. She has additionally taken World Cup wins at Antwerp, Gavere, and Besančon, alongside the UEC European Championships, Koppenbergcross, and Exact Cross races in Beringen and Kortrijk.
“I will be very happy with my winter in the meanwhile,” she mentioned. “I received all of the crosses I had set my sights on. For the remaining, I solely did not end on the rostrum as soon as [in Namur – Ed.]. I had a whole lot of dangerous luck then.
“If you allow that ‘cross out of the equation, I’m driving an excellent season up to now. I do not fear anymore when I’m firstly of a cross. I attempt to rely alone power, that provides me confidence.”