Marion Norbert-Riberolle crawls onto the Merksplas podium despite bad start: "When I saw Annemarie, I was very motivated to take the third place"

Marion Norbert-Riberolle rode a strong race in the Superprestige Merksplas. Despite a mediocre start, the Belgian still finished third behing Ceylin Alvarado and Lucinda Brand.

"After the first lap I wasn't in a good position, but I got better every lap," said Norbert-Riberolle in a quick interview afterwards. "When I saw Annemarie, I was very motivated to take the third place."

It was a technical and difficult course in Merksplas, according to Norbert-Riberolle. "I was lucky to do race recon with Sanne. She takes the best lines, so I had a good teacher for this course."

Norbert-Riberolle then emphasized again that she often does not get off to a good start. "I'm not very good in the first laps of every race. I don't know why, but I'm trying to work on that. I just have to keep going. The team kept motivating me every lap. That helped a lot. I kept believing that I could return. I hope this will go better and that I will have a good race tomorrow. My whole family will be there."