Vos takes a win, making it look easy

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Marianne Vos won the World Cup round in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium, on Saturday. The World Champion blasted away from the competition during the first lap and was never caught. World Cup overall leader Katie Compton needed time to recover from a poor start, but eventually strengthened her overall lead by finishing second, one spot ahead of Dutch Champion Daphny van den Brand.

"I felt good and got away well," Vos said. The Dutchwoman pulled off the hole shot. After only a few corners, only Van den Brand was left to mark her wheel. The latter didn't have a good day and fell off Vos' pace by the end of the first lap.

"When you notice that there's a gap, then you're going full gas, of course. For me, this is a good confirmation of my form," Vos said to Cyclingnews.

Behind Vos, there was a battle going on for second place between Compton and Van den Brand. After Van den Brand dropped from Vos, Compton had caught her by about the half-way point, and eventually Compton left her behind, too.

Runner-up Compton was relieved that she kept the World Cup lead despite a terrible start. "I missed my pedal, again," Compton said, referring to other poor starts this season.

"My starts are worse this season, but my racing improved, luckily. I'm just off my game at the start, I need to work on that. I was calculating during the race, and I thought it was my last day in the [leader's] jersey. Suddenly I noticed Daphny a little further ahead and from then on, I really got going. The gap with Marianne remained the same but it was too big to close it down," Compton said.

Van den Brand commented that she didn't have a great day. "I didn't feel great today. I had a hard time dealing with the cold water on my legs and couldn't get going. Maybe I didn't train enough this week due to the foul, snowy weather. For the World Cup, I have to hope that the others have a bad day in order to win it," Van den Brand said to Cyclingnews.

Behind the three women who're dominating the women's category, Hanka Kupfernagel finished best of the rest by holding off the two Sanne's. Kupfernagel claimed fourth place ahead of Sanne Van Paassen and Sanne Cant. "I saw that the other two weren't that fresh anymore and had a go during the final lap. I'm happy that I had a gap over them at the finish because the crowds were all cheering for Sanne. I feel good and I hope that I can stay healthy during the next five weeks, then everything is possible at the World Championships," Kupfernagel said to Cyclingnews.

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