The Dutchwoman left
Denise Betsema and
Shirin van Anrooij behind quite early in the race. "That was actually not the intention. After all, it was still very long to ride alone in the lead. However, I did notice that the legs were good. I made an attempt to ride away, and I succeeded. Then you just have to keep it up," explained Van Empel.
It also served as a training season for the European cyclocross championships. " I didn't ride around to grab as many seconds as possible. I saw this race mainly as good training for next Saturday. Normally I always train on Wednesdays in Alphen, but I wanted to finish an intensive training on Tuesday, and I think it worked out nicely,” concluded Van Empel.