Third in Maasmechelen Aniek van Alphen takes the result a "small victory": "We know that Fem is the best at the moment"
Cyclocross
Aniek van Alphen was on the podium of a World Cup cross on Sunday: in Maasmechelen the Cyclocross Reds rider finished third which, according to the rider herself, feels like a small victory.
"We know that Fem is the best at the moment, but I am happy to fight for a podium spot," Van Alphen explained. "It was a very tough race. With yesterday's race in legs it might have become a bit tougher. But I think the lap was better than last year. There were some technical parts, so I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it."
Van Alphen still had a prospect of second place for a long time, but in the end Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado proved to be the best behind Van Empel. "I know Ceylin is very strong, but she had a broken shoe. I know what that's like, it's not nice. Of course you want second place, but I knew it was going to be difficult. And I am very happy with third place."
The gap between Van Empel and the two pursuers was large, but Alvarado and Van Alphen in turn rode quite far ahead of the riders who were fighting for fourth place. Big difference, in short. "Maybe today. But I think everyone who finished after us is also strong. When everyone is having a good day, everything is close together. I'm happy that I was able to take third place, because it gives me confidence."
Read also
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Avoiding him is a good strategy, you get more wins and then you can compete in the TDF relatively relaxed. Pit yourself against Pogi and not only there will be no wins, it will be considerable mental setbackabstractengineer21-12-2024
- If you hold onto then, you blowup in a minute and then you finish 5 minutes down like Ben O'Connorabstractengineer21-12-2024
- Based on what argument?Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Agreed except the length of climbs, pretty sure you can stretch that to about a km unless we’re talking about half a dozen in quick succession.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Lot of contradictory information floating around world cup contenders, someone should do some tidying up.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- A bit much to suggest that Pogacar is better than MvdP on most terrains. The only terrain Pogacar is clearly better is long climbs, on any other terrain they are pretty even except flat cobbles and short and steep climbs (max a few 100 mtrs) where MvdP is clearly better than Pogacar.Velovibes21-12-2024
- The likelihood of RE improving enough at this point to outclass TP or JV is less than zero.verve82521-12-2024
- That’s the most stupid thing I’ve read for a long time, did you not go to school and learn even the most basic physics? Aero depends on one thing only, drag, drag depends speed and the relationship is squared and apart from maybe at zero or the speed of sound or due to side winds that relationship is valid at all speeds, it dies not “suddenly” start at a magic number. Very simply, the faster you go the more the effect becomes important. If you think 25km/h is needed to have noticeable effects you’re delusional, athletic WR are cancelled as soon as winds top 2m/s that’s 7.2km/h, why because the assistance is already too important at that speed and the times prove it. You don’t even consider wind which can significantly increase the effective speed for aerodynamics and you underestimate speed of climbs, 6% is ridden more at 30 than 25km/h, a speed at which early generation high rims were considered to have more advantages than disadvantages. And finally, as in normal races you can’t just switch bikes according to terrain, it’s pretty pointless to discuss climbs as a separate situation, the aero will have justified itself plenty during the rest of the ride.Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- If you look at how much TP progressed in that 1 1/2 years you can no longer say that’s nothing. If Remco improves as much he’s a challenger!Mistermaumau21-12-2024
- Froome wishing to ride the Vuelta...he won't even be selected for the team!frieders320-12-2024