"I hope that I will be at 100 percent again by next week" - Fem van Empel overcomes illness to make it 11 straight wins this winter

The dominance Fem van Empel holds over women's cyclocross shows no signs of slowing down. Despite battling an illness, the 21-year-old world champion made it 11 straight wins to start the winter in Antwerp.

“I'm very happy. My start was quite good from the second row,” recapped van Empel in her post-race interview. “During the race I felt very strong. I kind of miss being able to push myself to the limit because of last week (her illness ed.). It was a very tough race. But I had a lot of confidence, I jumped over the beams the first time.”

For much of the first half of the race, van Empel struggled to rid Lucinda Brand from her company. Although she did manage to drop the former world champion eventually, van Empel admits her attack was something of an accident.

“I actually didn't even realize that she wasn't going along with it. Then you try to put pressure on her," she explains. "I felt like it was tough. It took me a while to get into it, but it felt good. It is an advantage that I have been able to do a little less in terms of training, although that may also mean I will fall short in the coming weeks. I hope that I will be at 100 percent again by next week and that we will have such great matches again.”