Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Fenix-Deceuninck) won the third round of the women's Cyclocross UCI World Cup on a dramatic afternoon in Namur, repeating her victory from 2023.
World Cup leader Lucinda Brand (Baloise-Trek Lions) made a poor start but picked her way through the field brilliantly in pursuit of Alvarado to place second, just a handful of seconds behind.
Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck), on her cyclocross season-debut was third, unable to keep the pace with Alvarado as she attacked in the second half of the six lap race. Meanwhile, world champion Fem van Empel (Visma-Lease a Bike) had a torrid race, crashing at least four times and finishing well off the pace in 7th.
Alvarado, Pieterse and Blanka Vas (SD Worx-ProTime) led the race in the middle section before Alvarado made her decisive move. However, it was in-form Brand who was on the charge, and Alvarado was away of that as she began to tire in the last lap.
"In the first part I felt very good and then the fatigue kicked in," Alvarado said afterwards. "Also with my glasses I couldn't see anything because of the mud, but i didn't want to throw it away because then the mud would get in my eyes. That also made me make a few mistakes. But in the end I still managed to keep her behind me."
Alvarado praised Brand for her gutsy performance, but in the end she knew that she was the best on a course that suits her characteristics perfectly.
"[Brand] was really strong today. She did really well and she came very close because of my mistakes in the last lap. Otherwise I think I could have a bigger gap but that's how it is and I'm very happy that i could keep her behind me," Alvarado concluded after winning her first World Cup race of the season.
How it Unfolded
Namur is renowned as one of the most difficult courses in the sport of cyclocross and today's women's elite UCI World Cup race reinforced that reputation.
Luxembourg champion Marie Schreiber (SD Worx-ProTime) got off to a characteristically strong start as the riders climbed from the very beginning. In the first lap, she stretched the field out with just her team-mate Blanka Vas able to hold her wheel. Favourites Fem van Empel, Puck Pieterse and Lucinda Brand seemed to struggle to keep up with the leaders during the opener, with Van Empel suffering two early crashes.
In lap two Vas led solo, with Schreiber dropping off the wheel and being caught by Pieterse, who had a string of other contenders behind including Zoë Backstedt (Canyon-SRAM) and Ceylin Alvarado. Brand and Van Empel were together another 20 seconds back. Van Empel's race for the win was over before the end of the second lap after a third crash, which resulted in mechanical issues with her Cervélo.
Ahead, as the riders ticked through the line, Alvarado had joined Vas in the lead, seven seconds ahead of Schreiber, Pieterse and others. Brand was making her way through after a disrupted start. Pieterse made the most of the technical sections of the course to close in on Alvarado and Vas, but Alvarado was pushing on, making it difficult for the others. She had a six second lead heading into the fourth lap of six.
Last year's Namur winner Alvarado broke the resistance of Vas and Pieterse on lap four, stretching her lead out beyond twenty seconds. Brand had picked her way through the field to sit fourth and was closing in on those ahead.
Brand was on the charge on the challenging off-camber section, flying straight past Pieterse and Vas, able to ride the following section as the others ran. Still there was a long way to go to catch a solid-looking Alvarado. As Alvarado went through the bell, Brand was 22 seconds down, with Pieterse a further 6 back.
Alvarado crashed mid-way through the final lap, but her lead seemed solid enough to hold Brand off. But Brand had closed, and was once again seamless on the off-camber section, riding almost double the distance that Alvarado managed.
Brand was less than ten seconds behind Alvarado as the pair approached the final corners, but 2020 world champion Alvarado had enough of a buffer to hold on to the lead and claim the win at Namur for a second year in a row.
Results
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