Third title for Sanne Cant

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Sanne Cant (Boxx-Veldritacademie) captured her third successive title at the Belgian cyclo-cross championships in Hooglede-Gits. The 21-year-old from Ekeren easily held off her rivals at the former world championships course of 2007. On a soaked and muddy course in Hooglede she finished more than a minute ahead of her first rivals.

“It’s always good to raise your hands in the air. It’s a reward for all the work you put in it,” Cant said after grabbing her first win of the season.

“I grabbed the hole shot, went full gas in the first lap with the hope to get rid of them which succeeded. From there I listened to the public address to learn about the race situation. It was a relatively easy win but it’s a greasy course and you have to work all the time; there’s not a single spot where you can recover,” Cant said.

At 1:37 it was Joyce Vanderbeken (Decock-Sportivo) who won the battle for second place over Hilde Quintens (Melbotech). During the last lap the situation in front turned around a couple of times.

“I came here to finish second,” Vanderbeken said. “I wanted to stay ahead of my back sores. My back was taped in and I didn’t feel it. Hilde was strong and Ellen Van Loy too, early on. During the race I struggled and in the end second was a surprise so of course I’m very satisfied.”

Going into the last lap Quintens still had a nice gap on Vanderbeken but she started struggling to get through the mud. “I only started riding my bike in October. Coming here was a gamble but it worked out,” Quintens said. The 47-year-old stopped riding in 2007 but that end of her career due to illness didn’t please her. Now she’s back with a medal. “You can call me the Jeanni Longo of cyclo-cross. We’ll see about next season. I’ll take it how it comes,” Quintens said.

While Quintens was running out of gas Vanderbeken started going better. “In one of those muddy sections I saw here slowing down. It was like a red lap for a bull. I came back on her but then I crashed. It didn’t hurt but I was covered in mud which was annoying to handle the bike. The following uphill part was my section and from there it was full gas to the finish line,” Vanderbeken said.

More than a minute behind Quintens it was Kim Van De Steene (Meetjesland-Knesselare) who finished fourth, well ahead of Ellen Van Loy.

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