Nash takes victory in Baal

Katerina Nash (Luna Pro Racing) continued her winning ways of 2014 into 2015. Two days after beating world champion Marianne Vos (Rabo Liv) in Loenhout she won again on Belgian soil on New Year’s day. It’s her twelfth victory of the season.

During the seventh and penultimate round of the Bpost Bank Trophy-series in sunny Baal the 37 year-old US-resident beat Belgian riders Sanne Cant (Enertherm-BKCP) and Ellen Van Loy (Young Telenet-Fidea) - Vos didn’t race in Baal. Overnight series leader Sophie de Boer (Kalas-NNOF) abandoned, passing on the BPost-series lead to Van Loy. She now holds a 1:54 lead over Cant.

A group of four formed the first lead group on a course that featured a lot of sticky mud. The group consisted of fast starter Van Loy joined by Nash, Cant and Harris. Wyman and Havlikova were the first chasers. Series leader Sophie de Boer was never in the mix on Thursday and she pulled out of the race after the opening lap, indicating she was in no condition to race. Her departure adds five minutes to her scoreboard which meant that with three laps to go Van Loy was the new virtual leader of the BPost-series.

Harris was unable to keep up with the pace set by Nash. Little later Van Loy and Cant were dropped too. The Czech champion created a 15 seconds gap on the two Belgians. Behind them Harris was leading Wyman and Jolien Verschueren. Nash easily held on to her lead, grabbing yet another win on European soil. Cant dropped Van Loy and finished as runner-up, half a minute behind Nash. Van Loy kept pushing until the finish line, working for her series lead, finishing at 43 seconds. Harris, Verschueren and Wyman were the next to cross the line.

Full results