By Brecht Decaluwé in Hoogerheide, Netherlands
The elite women's World Championship cyclo-cross race on Sunday seemed awfully familiar to winner Marianne Vos. She gave her Dutch fans something to cheer when she won the final sprint against German Hanka Kupfernagel and American Katie Compton. Vos was racing in her home country, as she did in 2006 in Zeddam, when and where she won her first cyclo-cross World Championship.
"I hope the Worlds will be held in Holland again soon," joked Vos, happy with her win.
"There were a lot of similarities, although back then I was more of an outsider. The top-two were the same back then. I told myself not to think about it, but I did it anyway," Vos said.
Vos launched her attack with 200m to go and her sprinting skills proved too much for her two challengers, who had used up much of their energy trying to get rid of her throughout the rest of the race. Vos had hung tough onto Kupfernagel's wheel as the German did a sort of one-woman time trial to bridge the pair back up to Compton, who had escaped early in the race.
"I was confident when we entered the road with the three of us, even though the finish is always a little further than you would think at first," Vos said.
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