Fem van Empel defends her European title(Image credit: Getty Images)
Fem van Empel (Jumbo-Visma) powers through the mud(Image credit: Getty Images)
Annemarie Worst(Image credit: Getty Images)
Anna Kay(Image credit: Getty Images)
Laura Verdonschot (Image credit: Getty Images)
Ceylin Del Carmen Alvarado (Image credit: Getty Images)
Sara Casasola surprises with third(Image credit: Getty Images)
Fem van Empel celebrates her victory(Image credit: Getty Images)
Defending champion and overwhelming favourite Fem van Empel has taken a devastating victory in the 2023 European Cyclo-cross Elite Women's race.
Second at the finish line was Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, with Italy's Sara Casasola in third, but such was Van Empel's superiority that only one rider really counted on Sunday.
Undefeated this season to date, the defending champion took off on the first lap of the muddy, waterlogged course at Pont Château to go solo, and then continued unopposed all the way to the line to finish well over a minute ahead.
"The first lap I made too many mistakes so it was quite hard to get my rhythm," Van Empel said afterwards. "Luckily the plan was to attack on the first uphill part and that succeeded so I could improve my time and get a bigger gap."
Van Empel was already putting the power down on the first lap's climbs, moving ahead of 2020 Euro champion and 2022 runner-up Alvarado and their teammate Inge van der Heijden to reach the end of the first lap with a handful of seconds advantage. By this point, the Netherlands already had five riders in the top five and were clearly dominating the race, but Van Empel was once again a level above the rest.
With four laps to go, the gap had yawned to a whopping 26 seconds for Van Empel over her closest pursuer, with the first of what proved to be multiple pitstops barely delaying her. Alvarado, though, was struggling a little, and while Van de Heijden was able to catch her, Van Empel simply forged on with no problems at all.
The sun finally put in an appearance mid-way through the race, but there was no change in the state of affairs. Van Empel, meanwhile, was able to take advantage of her solo ride to pick ideal lines on the extremely difficult, rutted, course, not take risks, and push out her advantage even higher to over a minute. Although Alvarado was still solid in second, Van der Heijden, meanwhile, was suffering and had been overtaken by Italian rider Sara Casasola.
Echoing Zoe Bäckstedt's route to her U23 victory earlier in the day, the last lap became a virtual lap of honour for Van Empel. 'Only the weather can stop Van Empel', one specialist website claimed before the event, but not even the rain that returned with a vengeance in the closing moments of the race could stop her.
Having claimed her latest victory, and winning seven races in a row, Van Empel's rivals will surely be relieved to hear that she is now going to take a break for a while. "For now I will have some rest days, it's mentally quite hard to be at the start line as a top favourite."
"Physically I'm in very good shape but mentally it's quite hard to motivate myself each time, so now it's time for some rest."
However, the European title is safely in the bag for a second year running for Van Empel, and as a springboard to try to defend her rainbow jersey next February in Tabor, the omens could hardly be better.
Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
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