"Her level is really good" - Team SD Worx hope Blanka Vas can emulate Fem van Empel's multi-discipline success

Returning to cyclocross action recently, Team SD Worx's 22-year-old Hungarian talent, Kata Blanka Vas has big ambitions over the coming few months as her coach Lars Boom explains.

"The most important thing now is to get into a rhythm by racing every weekend, so that the body gets used to this effort again. That's not easy when you've been out for so long, so we expected that," Boom says in conversation with In de Leiderstrui, referencing Vas's somewhat slow start to her campaign, finishing 13th at the latest UCI World Cup round in Flamanville.

Although, as mentioned, Boom and Team SD Worx have a lot of faith in Vas, the competition is high currently with the likes of Fem van Empel, Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, Lucinda Brand and more. "We train together, so we see what she does," Boom continues. "Trainings are different from fifty minutes of full-on cyclocross. Her level is really good, but she will have to improve in the coming weeks, because the level is extremely high."

"With her injury it is difficult to estimate what she can do next, because we do not know what her body will do in the near future. We do hope that she might be able to benefit from this period towards the World Championship and be a little fresher than the other girls. We hope she can perform a good part two of the cross-season," he concludes. "We are trying to broaden her base on the road in the summer, which she can only benefit from in cyclocross. We see it as a win-win situation, where we hope that she can always continue to do that combination. She already took a very nice victory on the road in the Giro, in a very difficult stage. She is really growing as a person, but of course she is still just a young woman."