Sanne Cant (Belgium) beat Lucinda Brand (Netherlands) to the European title.(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Maud Kapthijns (Netherlands).(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Annemarie Worst (Netherlands).(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Lucinda Brand (Netherlands).(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Ellen Van Loy (Belgium).(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Sanne Cant (Belgium) flanked by Lucinda Brand (Netherlands) and Alice Maria Arzuffi (Italy).(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Sanne Cant (Belgium).(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Sanne Cant (Belgium) with Lucinda Brand (Netherlands) and Alice Maria Arzuffi (Italy). (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Lucinda Brand (Netherlands), Sanne Cant (Belgium) and Alice Maria Arzuffi (Italy) on the podium in Tabor.(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Sanne Cant (Belgium) out-sprints Lucinda Brand (Netherlands).(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Sanne Cant (Belgium) added the European crown to her world title.(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
The elite women's race at the European Cyclo-Cross Championships.(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Loes Sels (Belgium).(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Nikki Brammeier (Great Britain).(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Denise Betsema (Netherlands).(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Eva Lechner (Italy).(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Pavla Havlikova (Czech Republic).(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Helen Wyman (Great Britain).(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Sanne Cant (Belgium) en route to the European title.(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Alice Maria Arzuffi (Italy) battles with Sanne Cant (Belgium).(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Sanne Cant won her third European title in Tabor.(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Sanne Cant (Belgium) sprinted to her third European Cyclo-cross Championships victory in Tábor after a close-fought race. Her win makes it the second year in a row that the reigning world champion has gone on to capture the European title.
Lucinda Brand (Netherlands) repeated her 2016 silver medal position, this time losing out on the line to Cant rather than Thalita De Jong. Alice Maria Arzuffi (Italy) finished third, 15 seconds back.
"I'm very, very happy," Cant said after the race. "It was a hard race with the attacks uphill; the course was very heavy because it's so fast.
"I had a lot of problems with my health the last few weeks. This is my third win of the season so I hope it goes better and better now and I can win some more races. Now I'm going to enjoy this one."
The quick course, consisting of dry grass and mud, has a long history in cyclo-cross at this level. Tábor hosted a World Cup race up until 2013, and has also hosted three World Championships, the last of which was held in 2015 and saw Cant take silver.
A quick start from the Dutch team saw the front of the peloton fracture early on, with Cant, Brand and Annemarie Worst (Netherlands) the major beneficiaries. The trio opened a gap on lap one, while Maud Kaptheijns (Netherlands), Ellen Van Loy (Belgium) and the Italians Arzuffi and Eva Lechner led the chase.
Rather surprisingly, it was the closest Kaptheijns would get to the lead. The Dutchwoman has enjoyed a blazing start to the season, winning a round of the World Cup as well as sweeping the opening four Superprestige rounds.
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Instead it was Arzuffi who took the initiative from the chase group, bridging over the eight-second gap on lap two and making it a leading foursome. As the Italian got across, Worst looked in trouble and was soon dropped, leaving what would turn out to be the final podium at the front of the race.
Over the three remaining laps it was game of cat and mouse, and attack and counter-attack between Cant, Brand and Arzuffi. Each woman spent time on the front and off the back, as Worst, Kaptheijns and the rest disappeared from sight.
The final lap saw Brand fall into trouble on an early technical section, but Arzuffi's pace proved to be a bluff. After Brand caught back on midway through the lap, she and Cant attacked the climb after the barriers, distancing the Italian for good.
After that it was a battle for prime position in the final sprint. Cant diligently stuck to Brand's wheel in the closing stages, conserving just enough energy to power past around the final corner and take the white-and-blue banded jersey on the line.
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor, later being hired full-time. Her favourite races include Strade Bianche, the Tour de France Femmes, Paris-Roubaix, and Tro-Bro Léon.
