Vos wins Superprestige Diegem

Two days after her first win of the cyclo-cross season at the World Cup round in Heusden-Zolder, cyclo-cross World Champion Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv Women Cycling Team) won again at the Superprestige race in a snow-covered Diegem near Brussels, Belgium.

Vos sped away from her teammate, French Champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot in the final lap. Czech Champion Katerina Nash (Luna Pro Racing) finished third after losing contact with the leaders due to a hard crash.

UCI classification leader, World Cup leader, European and Belgian champion Sanne Cant (Enertherm-BKCP) was ill and called off her participation for Diegem.

Ferrand-Prévot and Chainel-Lefevre took the best start in sunny though cold Diegem. Sophie de Boer took a good start too but the Dutch rider quickly lost ground and eventually abandoned the race. Vos, Nash, Van Loy and Harris joined the French duo in front to create a lead group of six. Italian champion Eva Lechner (Rusvelo) missed her start and had to chase.

In front, teammates Vos and Ferrand-Pévot gapped the rest of the group before the end of the opening lap. Nash was the first chaser with the duo Harris and Van Loy a little further back. Nash kept the leaders in sight on the rollercoaster course that swerved through the town centre of Diegem.

Nash eventually caught up with the leaders before the race was halfway. By that time Harris was confronted with a mechanical.

Halfway the race, the three leaders had a comfortable lead over Van Loy, who was well ahead of Chainel-Lefevre and Italians Lechner and Valentini. During the second half of the race, Ferrand-Prévot was setting the pace seemingly without success until Nash crashed head-first into the barriers. The Czech champion lost contact with the leaders but continued her race.

Going into the last lap, the Rabo-Liv duo would fight it out for the victory with Nash still riding in third place. Van Loy was ahead of Lechner and Chainel-Lefevre.

Vos attacked hard in the final lap, making Ferrand-Prévot suffer hard to get back on her wheel. The gap was only a couple of metres until Ferrand-Prévot made a small mistake that caused the gap to grow.

Vos held on to her small lead until the finish line, winning ahead of Ferrand-Prévot. Nash grabbed the final podium spot. Van Loy finished fourth ahead of Lechner and Chainel-Lefevre. Arzuffi was seventh ahead of Helen Wyman (Kona Factory Team), Jolien Verschueren, Pavla Havlikova and Loes Sels.

In contrast to the elite men's category, there’s no general classification for the women.

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