Ceylin Alvarado settles for silver: "On the one hand I'm disappointed, but on the other hand this is the best I could do today"

Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado does not like to lose and it is not nice to be a rider in an era with Fem van Empel - and also Puck Pieterse and Shirin van Anrooij. After her second place at the European Cyclocross Championships, she smiled regularly as always, but it was also clear that the current situation is not entirely to her liking.

Until two years ago, Alvarado was the great hope of Dutch women's cyclocross. She won a lot and had the world at her feet, until she suffered a setback. First there was a disturbed blood count, followed not much later by a wrist injury. In the past two winters she was a bit behind the times and so it is nice to see her from the front again.

The problem is: winning is almost impossible. Alvarado came second in Beringen, Overijse, Maasmechelen and now at the European Championships. She came third in Waterloo and only won when Van Empel did not participate in Ruddervoorde. Hard to deal with, right? "I would like to win every weekend, but we have to accept that Fem is very strong at the moment. I still start every week wanting to win, but that also depends on the course and the conditions. Maybe one day I can beat her," she confides to In de Leiderstrui.

When asked if she is disappointed with silver, she laughs. Followed by a more serious tone: "It's 50-50. On the one hand I'm disappointed, but on the other hand this is the best I could do today. Fem is always very strong, even today. She earned it, so that's okay. The mud strips suited me better, but the last part with the climbs was for her. She made a difference there too."