Wyman wins Spa-Francorchamps

Helen Wyman (Kona) won the fifth round of the Superprestige cyclo-cross Ladies Trophy on a grey Sunday afternoon. On the extremely demanding course, the British champion preceded her compatriot Nikki Harris (Young Telenet-Fidea) and Dutch rider Sanne van Paassen (Bioteaful) on top of the Raidillon, the famous steep corner on the F1 car racing circuit of Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium.

“I’m very happy. When approaching the finish I had a small gap as I was able to ride over the final obstacle. I thought that if I reached the finishing climb with a gap that maybe I could hold it. It was very hard,” Wyman told Telenet TV.

Even though Wyman emerged as winner it was last year’s winner Nikki Harris who led most of the race. In contrast to Wyman, it was compatriot Harris who took a great start, leading ahead of Luxembourg champion Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans) on the rain-soaked course.

Harris kept increasing her lead over a chase group that featured Majerus, Wyman, Van Paassen. Ellen Van Loy (Young Telenet-Fidea), Jolien Verschueren and Elle Anderson (Strava) were close by.

Halfway through the race, Harris had a 13 seconds bonus over Majerus, Wyman and Van Paassen. Majerus was then dropped by Wyman and Van Paassen who came closer on leader Harris.

““My start wasn’t good which is unusual for me. I’m patient. I was able to come back slowly. I did well on the steep run-up but at the end Sanne always came back on me. I kept trying,” Wyman said.

When hitting the final lap Harris still had a gap of nine seconds over Wyman and Van Paassen. Early on in the final lap they managed to close the gap on Harris. While trying to slide through the mud in Francorchamps the British women distanced Van Paassen. Wyman managed to ride up the last ramp just before the Raidillon and reached the steep climb with a small bonus.

Wyman held on to her lead and won ahead of Harris and Van Paassen. Much later Majerus was a good fourth ahead Verschueren and US-rider Anderson.

Former Ladies Trophy leader Sanne Cant (Enertherm-BKCP) is injured and skipped this weekend’s racing action in order to be fit for next weekend. She currently has 60 points. Jolien Verschueren (Young Telenet-Fidea) was fifth in Francorchamps and takes over the series lead from Cant with 64 points. Only the six best results out of the eight Superprestige rounds are taken into account so Cant is still in a comfortable position.

Pavla Havlikova (MRM-Avalon Bikes) wasn’t present in Belgium. She won the EKZ CrossTour round in Eschenbach. Switzerland, beating Italian champion Eva Lechner (Colnago-SudTirol).

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