Alvarado recovers from last-lap crash to win GP Leuven

Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Alpecin-Fenix) bounced back from a final-lap crash to win the 2020 GP Leuven on Saturday, beating Denise Betsema (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) in a two-up sprint. 

The world champion fell on the grass going around a left-hand bend early on the last of seven laps of the race, which this year is the fourth round of the Ethias Cross series. 

She quickly remounted and re-took her place in what was by then a five-rider lead group, along with Betsema, Lucinda Brand (Telenet Baloise Lions), Annemarie Worst (777), and Manon Bakker (Credishop-Fristads). 

Those riders had emerged as the strongest after Frenchwoman Perrine Clauzel (As Bike Cross Team) had made the early running, impressively handling the steep wooded banks before fading later in the race. 

Alvarado’s crash wasn’t the only dramatic moment on the final lap, as Brand, who had come through to the front after being mostly at the back of the group, crashed going down one of those banks mid-way through the lap. 

The recent Jaarmarktcross winner quickly got up and kept her lead as the others adjusted their lines, and even managed to restring her chain as she ran up the next bank. However, back on the grass, Betsema surged past, and Alvarado was the only one with the power to follow. 

The pair hit the pump track sections with a small lead and emerged together onto the tarmac to contest the finish. With a stronger sprint in her locker, Alvarado made no mistake and dispatched Betsema to reverse the result of the last round of the Ethias Cross from Beringen a month ago. 

Brand outsprinted Worst for the final podium spot, while Bakker trailed across the line for fifth place, with a much larger gap back to the rest of the field.