Hat trick! Ceylin Alvarado wins the Strawberry Cross in Merksplas for the third year in a row: “I went very deep”

On Monday, Ceylin Alvarado won the third round of the Telenet Superprestige. Last year the Dutch also won in Merksplas and so today she started as top favorite in Merksplas. A fast cross was expected before the start and it was. Luxembourg’s Marie Schreiber and Italy’s Sara Casasola took off at breakneck speed.

Schreiber was clearly feeling good, because in the second of six laps she actually had an eight-second lead. Lucinda Brand, with fellow favorite Alvarado on her wheel, closed the gap and everything was very close again. Halfway through the race there were still seven leaders. Inge van der Heijden also made an impression in that group.

Lucinda Brand took the lead on the fourth lap and made a mistake, which held her up for the rest. Due to the hiccup with the others, Brand actually had a small gap, but that did not last long. Ceylin Alvarado beat her compatriot with Van der Heijden, Schreiber and Casasola.

On the penultimate lap, Alvarado left after a failed maneuver by Casasola, and the Dutch entered the final lap with a five-second lead. So it promised to be a very exciting final round. Alvarado’s lead grew in that last lap and so the Dutch woman seemed to be able to win in Merksplas for the second year in a row.

Alvarado made a mistake in the sandbox, but the lead was big enough to hold off Brand. In the meantime, he had distanced himself from Schreiber in the chase and so the second and third places were also known.

Ceylin Alvarado: “That last round was really tough”

Ceylin Alvarado already recorded her fifth victory of the season, but she certainly didn’t get it for free: “I went very deep in the final round. I knew it was difficult to close a gap on this course, but we have already seen that Lucinda (Brand, ed.) and I are evenly matched. I took my moment, but that last lap was really tough.”

Things almost went wrong at the last stretch of sand: “Yes, I was just tired and I was still thinking about it on the way, but halfway through that stretch something went wrong. I lost focus for a moment and then I tried to walk as fast as possible, but that was no longer fast. Brand was almost in my wheel, but I just kept driving, because the sprint was too short to really sprint.”