Vos wins Zolder World Cup

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Marianne Vos (Waowdeals Pro Cycling Team) sprinted to a career seventh win in cold but sunny Heusden-Zolder (Belgium) on Boxing Day, at the seventh round of the Telenet UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup. Vos held off in-form Dutch champion Lucinda Brand (Team Sunweb) and world champion Sanne Cant (Corendon-Circus). Thanks to her third World Cup win of the season, Vos extends her lead in the World Cup standings over Cant from 41 to 56 points.

"The Zolder course suits me very well. I love to race here. A World Cup win is always great, especially when wearing this kit," Vos said in the post-race flash interview, referring to her World Cup leader's jersey.

The three protagonists escaped a large lead group at the end of a tactical race on the dry thus fast course up and around the Terlaemen car racing circuit. A few big names were missing out in front due to a big crash shortly after the start. Annemarie Worst (Steylaerts-777) - third in the World Cup standings - and mountain bike star Jolanda Neff (Trek Factory Racing CX) were included in the crash and had to start chasing at the very end of the big field with 87 starters. Neff lacked the speed to move back to the front while Worst showed that she was capable of a top result in Zolder, eventually finishing ninth and salvaging her World Cup position.

In front, Vos kicked off racing with a blisteringly fast start. Cant and her young teammate Ceylin Del Carmen Alvarado (Corendon-Circus) were the first to bridge up towards the end of that opening lap. Early in the second of six laps, also Brand and Nikki Brammeier (Mudiiita) joined the front of the race. Halfway the race, also Maud Kaptheijns (Crelan-Charles), Loes Sels (Pauwels Sauzen-Vastgoedservice) and Katie Compton (KFC Racing) bridged up. That group quickly split up again when Brand upped the pace again.

Vos had a scare halfway the fourth lap when her chain dropped on a bumpy section of the course. She ended up getting back on her bike between a dropped Compton and chaser Eva Lechner. The pace in front wasn't very high and before the end of that lap, Vos made it back to the front. "I think I have to thank my compatriots for that," Vos said. "It was an annoying moment but I knew there was time enough to get back, and so I did."

A group of eight riders hit the final lap together, featuring Brammeier, Vos, Brand, Cant, Kaptheijns, Alvarado, Sels and young Inge van der Heijden (Waowdeals Pro Cycling Team). Brand and moved battled for the lead position ahead of the off-camber section halfway the course. "It was all or nothing at the end of the race. Lucinda made a nice move just before the descent but I knew I had to be ahead of her in the technical section. I had to dig very deep. It was great," Vos said.

Vos captured the lead and kept the pace high on and after every obstacle. She spotted that Brand lost a few metres and she never allowed her compatriot to close it back down. Brand did what she could on the long finishing straight but she had to bow for Vos; Cant didn't have the power to fight along in the final metres.

"It was a blistering fast course and the race was very tactical. There were many riders in front and I lost energy in the battle for positions. It all came down to the closing lap and I was barely able to keep up with Marianne and Lucinda; more wasn't possible," Cant told Sporza.

Alvarado won the battle for fourth place and moves into the lead of the World Cup standings in the Women Under 23 category. Kaptheijns was fifth, then Sels, Brammeier and Van der Heijden. As said, Worst finished ninth just behind the front group. Lechner closed out the top-10.

The next World Cup round will be contested next month in Pont-Chateau (France) on 2019, January 21.

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