Boxing Day belongs to Fem van Empel! World champion takes dominant solo win at World Cup Gavere

The fabulous Fem van Empel has again proven her superiority over women's cyclocross, taking a dominant solo victory this Boxing Day at World Cup Gavere from Lucinda Brand and Puck Pieterse.

Thanks to the rain, leaving a large section of the Gavere mud unrideable, it was a real test of the rider's running ability. Early on, the big two of Fem van Empel and Puck Pieterse came immediately to the fore and by the end of lap 1, had a 10 second gap to the second group of Lucinda Brand, Zoe Backstedt and Blanka Kata Vas.

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10 seconds is by no means a decisive gap though and on lap 2, Brand began to really try and close things up. As more of the lap went by though, the world champion also put the hammer down at the front, gapping Pieterse and moving clear solo.

Extending her advantage over the course of lap 3, Van Empel started the penultimate lap clear by over 20 seconds, a gap that only extended further as Pieterse slid out on lap 4, drawing Brand back into the battle for 2nd place with Vas also not completely out of the running just yet. After another couple of small errors from Pieterse, Brand actually went straight past the Dutch prodigy and began to lead the chase of Van Empel.

As Van Empel took the bell though, there was little drama in terms of the victory, with Brand now 33 seconds down and Pieterse 41 seconds back. Although victory looked settled, there was still drama in the fight for second as Pieterse caught back up to Brand. As it turned out though, it proved to be nothing more than a last gasp move from Pieterse as when Brand kicked again, the overall World Cup leader forced her way clear from her younger compatriot, finishing 2nd behind Van Empel.

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