Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado celebrates victory at Superprestige cyclocross at Heusden-Zolder(Image credit: JASPER JACOBS / BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images)
Alvarado moved ahead half-way through four of the five laps round the Zolder motor race track when she dropped van der Heijden on a short but punchy uphill section and from thereon the Dutch racer gained time steadily to the finish.
Series leader Denise Betsema was forced to settle for fifth and is now only one point ahead of Alvarado with three rounds remaining, while Van der Heiden is just three points back.
“I found the first two laps were quite tough to get to the front,” Alvarado, whose victory in Zolder was preceded by two second places in the same race in 2020 and 2019, said afterwards, “but then I got into my stride.”
“I think I was the strongest rider in the race, I had more power on the climbs and I could use that to get rid of Van der Heijden. And on the second try, it worked.”
“From then on, I wanted to ride alone because I know it feels really good when you cross the line alone.”
The former World Champion shot away in the opening lap with Italian National Champion Silvia Persico and Betsema in hot pursuit. But their gap was never enough to keep their pursuers at a distance and eventually Brand bridged across with van der Heijden.
As a four times former winner in Zolder and a runner-up at Gavere World Cup on Monday, shaking off Brand was always going to be key to her rivals' strategies and Betsema made much of the early running, surely with that in mind.
But by the fourth lap of 3.15 kilometres on a dry but chilly day, Alvarado had made some repeated accelerations, former U-23 World Cyclocross Champion Van der Heijden was the only one able to go with her and Brand found herself shadowed by Persico with very little collaboration. With the pursuit at a stalemate between Brand and Persico behind, with Betsema a little further back, the lead group of Alvarado and Van der Heijden, then, were in the perfect position to battle for victory.
Like Brand, Van der Heijden might have been feeling Monday’s effort in her legs, but in any case when she made a mistake on a climb, Alvarado showed no mercy. For the last lap and a half, the gap hovered between five and 10 seconds, but Alvarado was in full control on the more technical sections, and on such a fast course, a lone pursuit was never going to be easy.
While Brand put Van der Heijden and Persico under pressure behind, eventually going clear from the Italian for third, none of them could catch Alvarado ahead. “I think I was the strongest rider there,” Alvarado said later as she powered towards her third victory of the 2022 season and on Tuesday’s evidence, it was hard to disagree.
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Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
