Fem van Empel dominates World Cup Antwerpen and takes over cup lead; Brand and Schreiber on the podium
Cyclocross
The sandy course of the World Cup Antwerpen gave way for Fem van Empel to win the first round of the key cup this Sunday. The World Champion has taken over the cup lead after a great solo win, unmatched in the Belgian course.
The race started off with a classic holeshot from Marie Schreiber with gaps opening quite quickly in the very technical and sandy course of Antwerpen. Lucinda Brand and Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado had a poor start and by the time Fem van Empel hit the front with 7 minutes of racing, her main rivals were nowhere to be seen, and van Empel attacked Schreiber to go solo in the second lap.
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Van Empel was completely in control, technically riding a superb race that saw her increase her gap by the lap, whilst the rest of the field rode for secondary spot. Van Empel won the first round of the World Cup and takes over the lead, on the day she also shared that she will only miss one round which will be the Italian race in Cabras.
Lucinda Brand rode a consistent race with a strong pace and within the competition, she was the one coming closest to van Empel, racing to send on the day, whilst Marie Schreiber completed a very strong ride to finish on the podium of a World Cup race for the second time in her career. Sara Casasola and Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado finished fourth and fifth on the day.
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- yeah, that’s a more fair assessment. “reaching mathieu’s level” doesn’t mean you’re planning to replicate his whole career. the former IS doable, potentially. it’s just the latter that likely is not.OCexile25-12-2024
- That’s not entirely true. Every person follows their own development path and peaks differently. Remco and Primoz had hardly started cycling before elite level. Jonas was pretty much under the radzr until he unexpectedly had to take over responsibility at JV. Some guys only get real good in their thirties others have peaked mid-twenties. You can’t tell in advance how and upto what level they will progress, obviously his career might not have MVDPs length but nothing says he could not end up doing a few seasons at his level.Mistermaumau25-12-2024
- well, del grosso is 21 right now. when mathieu was a year younger than that, he was already winning elite level world championships, not U23. i think del grosso will be a very good pro for years, but if he was really going to be the next van der poel someday, he’d already have to be at that level right NOW. van der poel was showing signs of true greatness when he was 15-16. THAT’S what generational talent looks like.OCexile25-12-2024
- Yeah.... gear 😅.mikolajjj24-12-2024
- It shouldn’t be about expectations in the first place should it? Besides, if you look at everyone’s calculations as a whole they don’t add up in the first place. There’ll be 2-3 riders with a 50% chance, a dozen with 10 or 20% and dozens more with a 5% so we’re expecting at least 2 if not 3 winners. Remind me again who won before her? Says it all about using data to decide on participation.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- Ok, happy I’m not too interested in this team coz’ the account of what happened is really hard to follow.Mistermaumau24-12-2024
- The UCI is worse than USA CyclingVeganpotter24-12-2024
- It's not like they wanted her to not win😅 She had an outstanding Olympics. But there's a reason why she wasn't expected to win the road race and that's ok. Things like this happen and it's great...better than seeing expected winners win.Veganpotter24-12-2024
- Bruyneel ? The man with a lifetime ban from cycling...why do you keep giving him and his doper mate, Armstrong, a platform?DJ24-12-2024
- yeah, agree. on the subject of being a “complete rider,” i do think that’s getting more interesting. mathieu seems to have decided he wants to get much better at climbing the the high mountain passes. he appears to be looking for new challenges, which should be interesting to watch. in most cases you’d dismiss a goal like that at age 30, but it’s mvdp. he’s never going to climb with the real climbers, but if he can improve enough it could open up stage wins when the parcours isnt just purely toothy and punchy.OCexile24-12-2024