They fell over in droves on Saturday afternoon. First Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado at the change point, then Lucinda Brand on a dirty uphill section. Ultimately, they fell nineteen seconds short of the battle for victory with laureate Fem van Empel, which was a shame for the tension in the match. Afterwards, both ladies provided text and explanations flash interview.
First of all, Fire. She was on Van Empel’s wheel when she crashed uphill. ‘I lost the rhythm for a moment and then wanted to click out, but I got stuck because of all the clay that was in the pedals. Truly a classic ‘topple’ party. I couldn’t have been smaller at that moment. I think that without the fall I would really fight for victory until the last stretch, but that is a different story and no longer counts. Fortunately, I was able to increase my lead in the rankings,” said the Dutch champion, who was visibly somewhat irritated.
Read more below the photo
Alvarado can soon laugh about the crash: ‘Otherwise today is just fine’
At first glance, Alvarado seemed even stronger than Brand and bizarrely crashed in the transition zone. She was of course disappointed afterwards, but she could also laugh about her fall. “The fall, yes… I think that cost me a few places here,” says the lady who was confident in today’s victory. ‘In the end I’m just fast and I come third, and I’m actually happy with that now.’
“Delivering and picking up the bicycles just didn’t go as smoothly as it should have,” she gave a reason for the fall. ‘The bike bounced, I tried to jump on it but it went completely wrong. It was unexpected for that bike to bounce. I then jumped half wrong, I didn’t have a good grip on the bike either…’, says Alvarado, who takes matters into his own hands. ‘I felt better than I thought today. I’ve had some hard weeks of training and didn’t expect much from this weekend. I felt good. I’ll take that with me.’
