Fem van Empel alone in the world, Célia Gery ninth

Fem van Empel alone in the world, Célia Gery ninth
Fem van Empel alone in the world, Célia Gery ninth

CYCLO-CROSS WORLD CUP 2024-2025 – Fem van Empel left her rivals no chance today in Besançon. She is ahead of her compatriot Lucinda Brand, and the Hungarian Blanka Vas. Brilliant ninth place for Célia Gery.

Besançon today hosted the traditional French cyclo-cross World Cup round. And the least we can say is that all the big names in the discipline met in at the start of the afternoon. After the morning frost, the ground became greasy over the course of the day's races, giving rise to greasy and sometimes slippery ground.

Fem van Empel kills the suspense

From the first hectometers of the race, Fem van Empel was positioned in the lead, time to see the Luxembourger Marie Schreiber, author of the best start, making a mistake on a slope. Then in management throughout the laps of the race, the Dutchwoman never seemed to be worried. The reigning world champion being in fact on another planet, the other girls fought for runners-up. In this little game, the Hungarian Blanka Vas and the Dutch World Cup leader Lucinda Brand broke away quite quickly and put up a great battle for the podium. Until the penultimate lap, when Brand carried out a decisive attack by finishing strong, as usual, to finish second and consolidate his place as leader overall in the World Cup.

Vos and Géry: the show 20 years apart

Behind, the disappointment came from Ceylin Alvaradowinner of two rounds this year, who never seemed in the rhythm, just like Marie Schreiberperhaps handicapped by her premature fall. Conversely, Marianne Vos broke the screen. Starting from the last row, the experienced 37-year-old Batavian continued to move up positions to finally finish in an incredible fifth place, just behind the Briton. Zoe Backstedtfor his first cyclo-cross of the season. A little further, her junior, 19 years old, the Frenchwoman Célia GéryHope 1, had an absolutely remarkable race. She achieved her best result in the World Cup with a promising ninth place. Hélène Clauzel follows it directly in the ranking and completes the top 10.

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