Blanka Kata Vas wins the World Cup Maasmechelen as Lucinda Brand secures overall victory!

In the second to last race of the women's cyclocross World Cup season, Blanka Kata Vas has taken victory at the World Cup Maasmechelen. Vas took the win on the last lap ahead of Zoe Backstedt and Lucinda Brand, who sealed the overall win of the World Cup.

From the very outset, the World Champion Fem van Empel took the lead. The first lap saw a leading group emerge including van Empel, Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado and Blanka Kata Vas. One rider who had a bad start was Puck Pieterse, who dropped to twelfth.

But then to everyone's surprise, van Empel made a mistake on the second lap and lost significant time. By lap 3, van Empel was 30 seconds behind the leader who at that point was Zoe Backstedt and Vas, closely followed by Lucinda Brand and Pieterse. On that same lap, van Empel suffered a fall, as things seemed to be unravelling for the world champion.

And it was Zoe Backstedt who entered the last lap with a 5 second lead, looking to pick her up very first world cup win. But then disaster struck, and Backstedt suffered a fall, and Vas sailed on through and into the lead. From there, Vas managed to hang on for the victory, as a disappointed Backstedt was left to think about her last lap mistake and settle for second. Lucinda Brand took the final place on the podium, and with it the overall world cup victory.

That leaves just one more race for this women's world cup season, which has flown by. The final race is tomorrow, at the World Cup Hoogerheide.