Sand crusader Cant moves into BPost lead with Scheldecross win

Sanne Cant (Enertherm-BKCP) won the fifth round of the BPost Bank Ladies Trophy, the Soudal Scheldecross in Antwerp, Belgium, on Saturday afternoon. On the sand course next to the Scheldt river, Cant gapped British champion Helen Wyman (Kona Factory Team) during the final lap. Sophie de Boer (Kalas-NNOF) captured her first podium spot of the season at short distance behind.

Cant becomes the new series leader in the time-based Ladies Trophy classification as previous leader Jolien Verschueren (Young Telenet-Fidea) only managed a seventh place at 1:17 from the winner.

“It was good fun but super hard. I clearly felt that I lacked race rhythm. Of course it was fun to win anyway,” Cant told Sporza. The Belgian and European champion skipped racing last weekend due to a rib injury. “I felt it more than I hoped for, having pangs of pain at my side. Hopefully it’ll be better tomorrow.”

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During the opening lap, Pavla Havlikova (MRM-Avalon) lead-out the field of 54 women from 10 countries. The Czech rider quickly opened up a gap on the Young Telenet-Fidea duo of Nikki Harris and Ellen Van Loy. Wyman and Cant were a little further back. In the same order the women passed the intermediate sprint, with respectively 15, 10 and 5 bonus seconds on offer. Overnight Ladies Trophy leader Verschueren had her usual bad start and was stuck in traffic outside the top 10.

Halfway through the second of eight laps the lead group consisted of six riders, including Havlikova, Harris, Van Loy, Cant, Wyman and De Boer. Maud Kaptheijns (AA Drink) was the sole chaser at a long distance. During the next laps, Van Loy, Harris and Havlikova discovered that the sand sections were too hard for them. De Boer emerged as the best of the rest with great running skills in the first twisting sand section. Halfway through the race Cant and Wyman had a bonus of nine seconds over De Boer. Harris, Van Loy and a strong Kaptheijns were 15 seconds down on the two leaders.

Cant powered away during the fifth lap as Wyman came to a standstill in one of the 180 degrees corners in the first of two long sand sections. Wyman was caught back by De Boer and the duo trailed Cant by seven seconds with two laps to go. Wyman managed to keep the pressure on Cant in the sand sections during the penultimate lap. Cant figured it was too early to go the distance and she awaited the British champion. “The latter kept the speed high in front, which made it hard for De Boer to close the final metres on the two leaders. Harris and Kaptheijns were the first chasers at nearly half a minute from the three protagonists.

In the final lap, De Boer quickly got dropped in the first sand section with Cant riding flawlessly through the sand, which put Wyman at a handful of seconds. This time Cant didn’t fade and she collected a deserving victory. Wyman was satisfied with second place, rolling in at eight seconds. De Boer captured the final podium spot at 20 seconds.

Kaptheijns won the duel from Harris for fourth place at 31 seconds behind Cant. Van Loy was sixth at 50 seconds. Throughout the race Verschueren gave what she had but on these courses she’s no match against Cant. She trailed the winner by 1:16 and drops to second in the Ladies Trophy classification. Havlikova and Loes Sels (Young Telenet-Fidea) finished at 1:40 and 1:43. The gap with the rest of the field was massive, with Karen Verhestraeten (Kleuren Op Maat) closing the top 10 at 3:13.

The next round of the BPost Bank Trophy is December 29 in Loenhout, Belgium.

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