Compton captures Kalmthout World Cup

Katie Compton (Planet Bike) netted her third World Cup win of the season in Kalmthout, Belgium. Fresh from grabbing her seventh US title Compton waited until the third of five laps to surge away from Sanne van Paassen (BrainWash) and Katerina Nash (Luna). World champion Marianne Vos (Nederland Bloeit) needed a lot of time to reach the front of the race due to a bad start position. She arrived at the head of affairs too late to threaten Compton and eventually finished as runner-up 30 seconds behind the American champion.

"I just like this course a lot: it's super fun and technical," said Compton. "First I got stuck in traffic after a slow start. Patience was key today. I was just waiting to move up. Once in front I put the pressure on because Marianne [Vos] was coming fast."

Czech champion Nash claimed the last podium spot ahead of new World Cup leader Van Paassen. Previous leader Daphny van den Brand (ZZPR.nl) didn't start in Kalmthout due to illness.

Van Paassen was pleased to see that despite the lack of wins she's now in the lead of the World Cup. "Everybody seems to be skipping some rounds so maybe I should stay home next week to celebrate Christmas," Van Paassen joked. "It's clear you have to be up there every race. Holding the jersey motivates me for the remaining rounds."

Vos, the reigning cyclo-cross world champion, had to start at the back of the bunch. As she has been focusing on the track rather than cyclo-cross in recent weeks she hadn't gathered any UCI cyclo-cross points so far. Despite the disadvantage, Vos managed to move up 40 places and into seventh place after a single lap. Five riders were leading the race at that moment: Van Paassen, Nash, Cant and Hanka Kupfernagel (Itera-Stevens) were the early leaders, and they were joined by the end of the first lap by Compton.

The pace set by Nash during the second lap put Kupfernagel in trouble. Vos quickly caught up with the strong German rider who won the previous day's Scheldecross. At the end of the second lap, the four remaining leaders had 12 seconds on Vos and Kupfernagel.

Van Paassen and Compton battled for the lead position going into the third lap while Cant started losing ground. Once Compton accelerated, however, there was no longer talk of a lead group. By the time Nash maneuvered past Van Paassen, Compton was gone. Compton showed her excellent skills, particularly on a technical twisting section that featured some deep mud.

While Nash and Van Paassen were forced to hop off the bike, Compton powered away. A little later, Vos came through showing the same skills.

With two laps to go Compton had six seconds on Nash, her closest pursuer; Vos was riding in fourth place 17 seconds down on the leader. In the same muddy section Compton repeated her feats of the previous lap while Nash got stuck and Van Paassen actually crashed into the mud.

"It's too bad because I was starting to go better. From then on I felt cold and got cramps," Van Paassen said.

With one lap to go the three chasers behind Compton joined together and trailed the leader by 23 seconds. Compton was consistent in front and easily held on to her lead, winning on "home" soil. "When travelling to Belgium we live only three kilometres away from the course so this felt like a home race," Compton said.

Behind her all three chasers started to stumble but Vos managed to shake off Nash and Van Paassen and claimed second place, 30 seconds down on Compton.

"There's still room for improvement as I crashed twice during the last lap," Vos said.

For the third time Nash finished third in a World Cup race this season and this time it was received with mixed feelings. "Vos caught up with us on the pavement and I happened to crash right behind her. Afterwards I still came close but not enough; I'm pretty happy though," Nash said.