Wyman takes solo win at Flandriencross

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British champion Helen Wyman (Kona Factory Team) won the third round of the BPost Bank Trophy in Hamme, Belgium, on Sunday afternoon. The 34-year-old held off European and Belgian champion Sanne Cant (Enertherm-BKCP) to take her first win of the season. Compatriot Nikki Harris (Young Telenet-Fidea) finished third and joined Wyman on the podium.

Jolien Verschueren (Young Telenet-Fidea) struggled against the wind on the technical course but remains leader in the Bpost Bank Trophy by half a minute over Harris.

Wyman took a good start on the muddy and technical course in Hamme. She ran away from her rivals in the first of five laps on an off-camber section at the Durme river banks. Behind her, Cant made too many mistakes and ran into bad luck to get back on the British winner.

“I thought, just ride hard, get a good start and see what happens. I had a small gap from the beginning but Sanne came really close but then had a mechanical or something. Then it was one lap to go. I wanted to win. Haven’t had a win since nationals in January. It was really important for me.” Wyman told Sporza.

During the second lap Wyman picked up 15 bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint, with Cant taking 10 seconds and Harris the remaining five. Wyman had a bonus of 10 seconds over Cant after two laps of racing, with Harris following at short distance. Series leader Verschueren already trailed by 38 seconds.

Cant got going and powered towards Wyman with a good passage through the mud early on in the third lap. Cant skipped a bike swap and at the end of the tricky off-camber section next to the Durme she bridged up with Wyman. A few seconds later she had a chain problem and was forced to run on towards the pit. Harris briefly passed Cant but when hitting the final lap Cant caught back up with her, trailing Wyman by 16 seconds. Again Cant tried to get back to the front, leaving Harris behind.

“The crowds were going crazy for Sanne. The people were really cheering for me, it was fantastic but for Sanne everybody goes wild, she’s Belgian. As the cheer was getting closer to me I knew she was coming closer. I knew that if I went into the BMX track with five or ten seconds then it’s hard to close that gap,” Wyman said.

Cant came back to seven seconds when hitting the tricky bMX-labyrinth just before the finish line. “I made too many mistakes so I think it’s my own mistake that I didn’t win today. The mechanical is due to the course and is part of racing. Otherwise I might have bridged up with her but even then I hadn’t won yet,” Cant said.

Wyman stood tall and grabbed a nice victory. Cant finished at eight seconds while Harris trailed Wyman by 24 seconds. Pavla Havlikova (MRM-Avalon), Ellen Van Loy (Young Telenet-Fidea) and strong runner Sophie de Boer (Kalas-NNOF) were the next to reach the finish more than a minute behind Wyman.

Verschueren finished seventh at 1:29, enough to hold on to the overall lead. She explained that she didn’t have a good day. “I lost a huge amount of time in the technical sections. I didn’t have my usual power too. It was a bad day. I love mud but not the corners,” Verschueren said.

The next round of the Bpost Bank Trophy is held on December 5 in Essen, Belgium.

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