Marion Norbert Riberolle rides away from Sanne Cant to win the Azencross Loenhout!

Through the mist and the fog, Marion Norbert Riberolle has won the Azencross Loenhour beating Sanne Cannt in muddy conditions with a last lap attack. Riberolle and Cant had been riding together, but Cant had no response to the attack on the last lap. Further back, Imogen Wolff of Team Visma | Lease a Bike finished third

It was a relatively light field, as many of the leading female cyclocross riders decided to stay at home. Still, at the end of 1 lap, there was a high quality leading four of Sanne Cant, Lauren Molengraaf, Larissa Hartog and Anna Kay who had battled their way to the front.

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The course became a mud bath, as riders struggled in the dirt and many unclipped and chose to run throughout the five laps of the course. It even became hard to see the riders at some points, as the mist and fog hid the riders from our screens. Both Molengraaf and Cant suffered falls into the mud on lap 2, and Cant's in particular was a hard fall but she was strong enough to recover.

Cant was Riberolle's closest rival, but looked as if that fall had taken something out of her in the final lap, but she still battled on. Next up for the cyclocross field is the World Cup Besancon, which was won last year by Puck Pieterse. The big news for that race is that it will see the return of Marianne Vos, as the eight-time cyclocross world champion returns to the field for the first time since January 2023. But will it be a winning return for one of the women's peloton's greatest ever riders.

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