European champion Sanne Cant (Enertherm-BKCP) won a muddy edition of the penultimate round of the BPost Bank Trophy in Baal, Belgium on New Year’s Day. After a lengthy pursuit of compatriot Ellen Van Loy (Young Telenet-Fidea), Cant accelerated away with half a lap remaining to claim the win. British champion Helen Wyman (Kona Factory Team) was third.
Cant extends her lead in the time-based classification of the BPo-trophy up to 3:51 over Jolien Verschueren (Young Telenet-Fidea), who lost 1:40 in Baal.
Cant suffered on a course that turned out to be much heavier than expected due to overnight rain. “The course is very tough, close to running. For the men it’s probably slightly easier but for us it’s very tough. I moved into the lead at the barriers and wanted to go flat out for the remainder of the lap. Apparently Ellen crashed. I think I already had a gap but I didn’t see it,” Cant told Sporza afterwards.
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The Belgian was forced to chase the early leader Van Loy, who enjoyed a great start. She quickly rode away from Pavla Havlikova (MRM-Avalon), Wyman, Cant and Maud Kaptheijns (AA Drink). Jolien Verschueren, meanwhile, had a typically slow start.
During the second lap Van Loy picked up the 15 bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint. Cant trailed the 35-year-old leader by 10 seconds. It seemed like Van Loy was up for a race-long solo effort, but by the end of the second lap Cant had made up some ground, coming back to 4 seconds. By that point, Wyman and Havlikova were battling for the third podium spot at 36 seconds, while Sophie de Boer (Kalas-NNOF), Elle Anderson (Strava) and Jolien Verschueren were about a minute down on the two protagonists.
By the midpoint of the race, Cant still hadn’t bridged up to Van Loy, though she managed to hold the gap to four seconds. The duo were clearly a level above the rest as Wyman was already 50 seconds back. Havlikova had a difficult lap, fading back behind Sophie de Boer. Verschueren distanced Anderson and tried to limit her losses.
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