Nash nails home win at last

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Katerina Nash (Luna Pro Team) finally won the World Cup round in Tabor, only 20km away from her town of birth, finishing with a handful of seconds over veteran Daphny van den Brand (AA Drink-Leontien.nl) and last year's World Cup winner Sanne van Paassen (Brainwash Wielerploeg).

The US-based rider checked out her opponents during the first laps and then slowly headed forward. In the final two laps Nash put her two Dutch rivals in trouble with some strong climbing. Due to the absence of leader Katie Compton (Rabobank - Giant-Offroad) it is Nash who becomes the new leader in the World Cup. It's her second ever victory in a World Cup round after winning in Roubaix last year.

Hanka Kupfernagel (Stevens) got off with the best start in Tabor, but it was British champion Helen Wyman (Kona Factory Team) who quickly took over the command during the first lap, but her pace didn't cause major damage behind her.

By the end of the opening lap the pace dropped back and on the line a group of eleven riders were together. Lucie Chainel-Lefevre (France) made up for her bad start position by bridging up to this group right at the finish line.

Last year's World Cup winner Van Paassen started upping the pace during the second lap with Van den Brand marking her. Behind them Nash realized she had to move up as several women started losing ground. Only five women were left in front after two laps: Van Paassen, Van den Brand, Nash, Chainel-Lefevre and Kupfernagel. The latter lacked race rhythm and the German star dropped back after a fierce acceleration from Nash.

During the fourth lap Nash showed that she would do all she could to grab the win, and kept a furious pace at the front. Chainel was the next to crack but the two Dutch women, Van Paasseen and Van den Brand, were glued on Nash's wheel. Behind the three leaders Chainel rode alone in fourth place while Kupfernagel was caught back by local rider Pavla Havlikova (Telenet-Fidea).

In the final lap Nash once again unleashed her power on the uphill stretches in the Tabor city park. This time Van den Brand quickly dropped back and also Van Paassen cracked when she was unable to close the small gap on the Czech/American rider in front of her.

Eventually Nash managed to stay upright in the technical descent and she captured a glorious win in front of her home crowd.

Behind her Van Paassen clearly dug too deep to come back on Nash as Van den Brand easily got past her and grabbed second place at six seconds.

Chainel was fourth, and small Havlikova was extremely pleased with her fifth place just ahead of Kupfernagel. Sabrina Schweizer (Focus Mig Team) held off a disappointed Wyman and Sanne Cant (BKCP-Powerplus) for seventh place. Sophie de Boer (Telenet-Fidea) closed down the top ten in Tabor.

Full Results

Elite Women - World Cup standings after 2 rounds