"We are looking at the new Vos" - Pauwels Sauzen manager on Fem van Empel

Fem van Empel has been in a dominating streak since the cyclocross season started, but Pauwels Sauzen - Bingoal will not benefit from her talent from January onwards. The Dutch supertalent has signed for Jumbo-Visma, and will be a teammate of Marianne Vos as the year changes, someone who she has been compared with.

In an interview with Het Niewusblad, Pauwels Sauzen - Bingoal team manager Jurgen Mettepenningen said that “Fem has the ambition to ride the Tour, Strade Bianche… We couldn't offer her that. Her contract expires at the end of December, but it actually contained a clause to bind her to us even longer."

"However, I didn't want to bother with that. No one benefits from an unhappy Fem. And I can't and don't want to get in the way of someone with so much talent if she can't achieve her goals in our team," he continued. The 20-year old has developed within the Belgian team, but with the women's calendar and popularity rising, and her talent on the road proven aswell (van Empel was third at the under-23 European Championships earlier this year) several of the World's best teams seeked to sign her.

Since the cyclocross season has started however, her results have been nothing but impressive. Last year she had taken wins at Val di Sole and Flamanville, but in the 2022-2023 season she has only failed to win in 1 of 6 races. The 3 World Cup rounds that have taken place so far in Waterloo, Fayetteville and Tabor have all seen her take the win, and she is the main favourite to win the competition - with other goals likely to emerge later in the season.

“When I see Fem cycling, I often think: we are looking at the new Vos," Mettepenningen continued. "She has the same bike and the same sprint. And she's just as all-round. Fem wants to develop on the road, on the mountain bike and in cyclocross, but I think that in the long term she will have to limit herself to two disciplines, which she can then combine at the highest level.”