Cant wins in Lille

Belgian champion Sanne Cant (Enertherm-BKCP) excelled on the fast sand course and finished solo, winning the final round of the Bpost Bank Trophy in Lille on Saturday. Ellen Van Loy (Young Telenet-Fidea) was second at 33 seconds back. British champion Helen Wyman (Kona) finished third at short distance.

In the final round of the Bpost Bank Trophy, a second place from Van Loy within a minute from sand specialist Cant was more than enough to secure the overall victory in the series.

It’s the first major victory for 34-year-old Van Loy, a former volleyball player, who finally manages to turn her consistency into a victory. It was a proud Van Loy who crossed the finish line in Lille. “Absolutely. I worked really hard for it. I’m really glad and proud that I can round up the podium in first place,” Van Loy told Sporza.

Last year, Cant beat then World champion Marianne Vos in the sprint. This time around, there was no Vos and no World champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot at the race.

The deficit of 1:54 on Van Loy turned out to be way too much for Sanne Cant to make up in the final race on a course which is only a few kilometres away from her home. One week after finishing as runner-up at the World Championships, Cant clinched her 19th victory of the season.

“I rode last weekend’s frustration out of myself today. I tried to go for the overall win but this course is superfast and then it’s very hard to create a big gap,” Cant told Sporza.

Van Loy had a good start in Lille and then found herself in the company of Cant and Wyman. The first chaser was Sanne van Paassen ahead of Loes Sels. During the second of five laps, Cant upped the pace in the sand, gunning for the bonus seconds at stake in the intermediate sprint. First Wyman got dropped. When Van Loy struggled to get through a sand chicane Cant was gone.

Making up nearly two minutes on Van Loy proved to be virtually impossible on Saturday afternoon. After three laps of racing, Cant was still no more than 15 seconds ahead of Van Loy. Not too far behind her Loes Sels overtook Van Paassen and bridged up with Wyman. Van Paassen rode at short distance back.

Another troubled passage of the sand chicane cost Van Loy some time and when hitting the final lap Cant was leading her by half a minute. Sels and Wyman were 10 more seconds behind, fighting for third place.

Cant made no mistakes in the final lap and won. Van Loy had to push on to hold off Wyman and Sels to secure second place. In the end, she was 33 seconds behind Cant, celebrating her overall victory when crossing the line. Wyman rode away from Sels in the final corners, taking third place. Sels was a disappointed fourth, well ahead of Van Paassen.

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