Eight months after becoming world champion in Zolder, Thalita de Jong captured her second jersey of the year on Sunday as she won the European title on a Sunday Sunday afternoon in Pont-Château, in the Loire-Atlantique region of France..
The 22-year-old Belgian gapped her rivals halfway through the race and reached the finish solo.
"It was such a nice feeling to come solo to the finish," De Jong said. "It was like a time-trial. I'm a specialist so it was good for me today. Of course I also want to get the third jersey at the national championships and of course again at the World championships."
Compatriot Lucinda Brand (Netherlands) was best of the rest, beating local favourite Caroline Mani (France) in the sprint for silver. Defending champion Sanne Cant (Belgium) eyed a third consecutive European title but she only managed a sixth place.
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The course at the Coët Roz forest holds a lot of cyclo-cross history. Pont-Château previously organised the European championships in 2005 and the World Championships in 1989 and 2004. The first half of the undulating course on the Coët Roz domain twists a lot. Halfway through the 2620-metre-long lap there are two sets of stairs. The key obstacle of the course features at the end with a long climb topped with two barriers and another long climb towards the finish.
Straight after the start the two British riders among the 29 starters took each other out. Helen Wyman was unable to avoid touching the rear wheel of Nikki Brammeier in the first corner and both riders went down at high speed. Jolien Verschueren (Belgium) also lost contact with the main group in the crash.
Only 18 riders survived the scrummage after the start. Due to the demanding nature of the course the front group was quickly reduced in numbers thanks to the pace set by Sophie de Boer (Netherlands), Christine Majerus (Luxembourg) and Mani. By the time De Jong moved to the front in the third of seven laps the front group was down to seven riders: De Jong, Brand, De Boer, Cant, Ellen Van Loy (Belgium), Mani and Alice Maria Arzuffi.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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