Blanka Kata Vas wins the World Cup Maasmechelen as Lucinda Brand secures overall victory!
Cyclocross
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.
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- I know I just said I wouldn't feed the troll, but Tadej used to race cross, and is a former national champion. He's not a "crosser" but to say he'll never do CX is inaccurate (again)Evan10-03-2025
- you're saying this in a comment thread on an article specifically about Tadej and Jonas? The internet is about connection. People can connect without having to go off topic to argue or arguing for its own sake. The internet can indeed be a positive place where people agree on things. For the sake of dissent, you put forward very odd views that are poorly thought out. That's what trolling is. I'll stop feeding the trollEvan10-03-2025
- Any two matching riders are a spectacle in any race. Do we have to continually state the obvious by always referring to the same two, even if many strongly disagree and argue they are evenly matched in the races where they meet? Isn’t the point of the internet to enhance and further thought and opinion as opposed to agreeing on a very narrow consensus that kilks conversation?Mistermaumau10-03-2025
- As has been said many times, Jonas is a diesel, never going to focus on one day races, Tadej is a roadie, never going to do MTB or CX.Mistermaumau10-03-2025
- Unless you can ignore the winner to enjoy the rest if the race, hence the comment about using imagination. Easier to do during a race than retrospectively when you’ve discovered someone gets their titles, medals, prize money cancelled and disqualified. Of course, it helps if camera crew look for the action, some channels do better at that than others.Mistermaumau10-03-2025
- I think an article dedicated to Emielien Jeannière is also in order today, amazing performance. Let’s not forget that almost a decade ago he was also 2nd in an important race beating a certain TP.Mistermaumau10-03-2025
- More or less how I see it too. Jonas himself warned publicly 6 months in advance. We were warned of the slippery dry gravel BEFORE the race do riders had no excuse not to take it into account. It’s not for nothing Moho warned Tadej not to follow him downhill in MSR, not every rider has the same skills and each has to know his limit. Tadej was too focused on riding with Pidcock to check his limits. After that, yes of course in a peleton if one goes down (for whatever reason) in a critical place, they’re likely to take others within their limits with them, can’t do very much about that without destroying the sport, that will always be a risk to live with. It’s the same as with development in cars, drivers are made to feel safer so take more risk and become more dangerous to others.Mistermaumau10-03-2025
- I agree with everything he says about rider safety related to bikes and the riders themselves. Every bike company talks abou how many watts have saved off a 40k. Clothing is more aero. Materials are refined and made lighter than ever. All of which means more crashes. And then look at Jonas' tragic crash from a year ago. A bummer of a situation, yes - but Jumbo allegedly emailed the organizer about the bad roads. The organizer keeps them in. So Jonas knew there were bad roads, the organizer keeps them in - but who forced Jonas to go so fast or ride that corner in a group situation? back down, take a different line. races are rarely won on the downhills, they're lost. the organizers can only do so much. the tour of poland situation or leaving cars on the road IS bad. but rough roads? the riders need to own this too. As Tadej said, I was going to fast, and I crashed.mij10-03-2025
- Naaahhh... You are fantastic at all types of cycling, only need time to practice. I have seen videos of Tadej when was a child performing as a circus tightrope walker on a unicycle.
maria2024202410-03-2025 - I'm sure we have other top riders Mr M. All I was saying that it is a spectacle to watch this pair go head to head in races and grand tours. You always seem to want make more of what is said as though what is said isn't good enough and then off you go into a long discourse telling us about your extended thoughts on the subject?Cyclingsbestfan10-03-2025