"I'm definitely looking forward to that" - Fem van Empel heads to World Cup opener high on confidence after Urban Cross rout
Cyclocross
Back in the field for the first time in just short of three weeks at Urban Cross Kortrijk on Saturday afternoon, Fem van Empel showed she hadn't lost a step as the world champion thundered to a dominant victory.
“This feels great. I am happy to be back and starting with a victory is always fun," the Dutchwoman reflected in her post-race interview afterwards. “I haven’t been sitting still, so I was confident. But the weather was quite different than when you train in warm temperatures. There may have been some doubts about that, but otherwise no doubts.”
Whilst it was dry, the coldness of the conditions and the sharpness of the wind actually led to Van Empel's aggressive start to the race. "It was very cold. That's why I rode fast from the start, to keep myself a bit warm," she explains. "The wind was blowing very hard. That also made it more cold."
Following this winning return to action, Van Empel now also heads to the World Cup opener in Antwerp this Sunday full of confidence. "It's the first World Cup, with a large field of participants and a nice course. I'm definitely looking forward to that," she previews. "I have trained quite a lot. But we will see how it goes in the coming weeks."
| 01 | van Empel Fem | - | 41:57 |
| 02 | Norbert Riberolle Marion | - | + 47 |
| 03 | van der Heijden Inge | - | + 59 |
| 04 | Cant Sanne | - | + 02:12 |
| 05 | Franck Alicia | - | + 02:13 |
| 06 | Wolff Imogen | - | + 02:35 |
| 07 | Peeters Jinse | - | + 02:44 |
| 08 | Kay Anna | - | + 02:53 |
| 09 | Baroni Francesca | - | + 03:16 |
| 10 | Van Sinaey Xaydee | - | + 03:27 |
| 11 | Kalis Bloeme | - | + 03:37 |
| 12 | Sonnemans Sara | - | + 04:14 |
| 13 | Crees Xan | - | + 04:15 |
| 14 | Clauzel Perrine | - | + 04:19 |
| 15 | Day Elena | - | + 04:29 |
🚵🇧🇪 | Terug van een korte 'pauze', maar nog altijd even goed. Een oppermachtige Fem van Empel wint in Kortrijk! 🥇🇳🇱
— Eurosport Nederland (@Eurosport_NL) November 23, 2024
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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