Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado rides solo to victory at Kermiscross in Ardooie
Belgian riders Marion Norbert Riberolle and Alicia Franck complete podium at midweek home cyclocross race

Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Fenix-Deceuninck) soloed to victory in Ardooie at Kermiscross on Thursday. A trio of Belgian riders were lined out behind the former World and Dutch champion, with Marion Norbert Riberolle (Crelan-Corendon) taking second, 28 seconds back, and Alicia Franck (De Ceuster-Bouwpunt) securing third, another 20 seconds down.
Julie Brouwers (Charles Liégeois Roastery CX), who is just 21 years old, sprinted ahead of Dutch rider Denise Betsema (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) for fourth place, the two dropping off the pace in the final laps and riding across the line a little more than a minute-and-a-half back.
A lead group of nine riders remained together through the first half of the race until Alvarado increased the pace to make an initial separation.
With three laps to go she was alone at the front, leaving Norbert Riberolle and Franck to chase. They were the only two to keep Alvarado in their sights for a time, until the Dutch rider stretched her advantage.
“At one point I accelerated without really attacking and hoped to get a few riders with me. But I was suddenly alone and so I had to continue solo," Alvarado told Het Nieuwsblad after her victory.
"Today was quite a difficult cross. You could never recover on this muddy surface, but you had to keep going, otherwise you would come to a complete standstill. I would have preferred a slightly better running surface today, but it is what it is."
Results
Results powered by FirstCycling
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!

Jackie has been involved in professional sports for more than 30 years in news reporting, sports marketing and public relations. She founded Peloton Sports in 1998, a sports marketing and public relations agency, which managed projects for Tour de Georgia, Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah and USA Cycling. She also founded Bike Alpharetta Inc, a Georgia non-profit to promote safe cycling. She is proud to have worked in professional baseball for six years - from selling advertising to pulling the tarp for several minor league teams. She has climbed l'Alpe d'Huez three times (not fast). Her favorite road and gravel rides are around horse farms in north Georgia (USA) and around lavender fields in Provence (France), and some mtb rides in Park City, Utah (USA).
Latest on Cyclingnews
-
Young British talent leads Picnic-PostNL's 'hunt for stage success' as team unveils Tour de France squad
Onley, Van den Broek, Barguil, Lund Andresen, Bittner also in a squad built to compete on all terrains -
'I opened a B&B, and now I'm national champion' – Why Filippo Conca's spectacular upset win means there will be no Italian tricolore jersey in the pro peloton
Club racer beat former teammates and rivals from pro peloton to clinch biggest victory of his career as Ganna says 'cycling is going to lose a lot' -
Mads Pedersen narrowly avoids disaster in crash with spectator during Danish Time Trial Championships win – Video
29-year-old knocks spectator over after being forced to evade slow police motorcycle during 41km race -
We took 16 pairs of aero socks to the wind tunnel to find which was fastest, and we're still shocked by the results
From Assos and AeroCyclingGear to NoPinz, Rule2, Sockeloen and Velotoze, we tested all the best aero socks on the market to find out whether all aero socks are created equal