Belgian champion Sanne Cant (IKO Enertherm-Beobank) won the fifth round of the IJsboerke Ladies Trophy in Antwerp, Belgium on Saturday afternoon. Cant outsprinted Sophie de Boer (Kalas-NNOF) at the end of a thrilling final lap, with Katerina Nash (CLIF Pro Team) in third at 45 seconds back.
"It probably looked good on TV and I enjoyed it too," Cant told Sporza after her win. "I'm pleased with the final part of the race as the first part was a disaster. Sprinting against Sophie isn't easy but it worked out."
Former World champion Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv) made a succesful cyclo-cross comeback in Antwerp by finishing fourth. Current World champion Thalita de Jong (Rabo-Liv) finished one spot further back in fifth place at just over a minute from Cant but remains in the lead of the IJsboerke Ladies Trophy time-based general classification. De Jong's bonus over Cant is halved and she's now only 1:07 ahead of the Belgian rider and 1:24 in front of De Boer.
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"I already knew before the race it would be hard today. My first passage through the sand was a poor one and my courage dropped below freezing point. Mentally it was hard. The last few laps my sand-riding was fluent, at least to my standards but by then the others were gone," De Jong told Sporza.
The day before the tough World Cup round in Namur riders were expected to take it easy in Antwerp, at the fast course on the Schelde river banks. At least, that was what World Cup leader Sophie de Boer intended to do before she suddenly had a bonus of 15 seconds after the first of six laps. "It wasn't my goal to attack straight away. I tried to ride around my anaerobic threshold because tomorrow I've got a jersey to defend," De Boer told Sporza.
Also at the start line in Antwerp was Marianne Vos. She had a back-row start position but at the first corner she was already featuring in the top 10. A few moments later Vos was already popping up in third place behind fast starters Sophie de Boer and Thalita de Jong. Behind Vos was Maud Kaptheijns (Steylaerts-Verona) and those four Dutch riders survived the first cut. The rest of the field was already trailing by 8 seconds and the first major sand section was still to come up. That's where De Jong started to struggle. She blocked the road for Vos and Kaptheijns, offering a major bonus to De Boer. After the opening lap De Boer was 15 seconds ahead of chasers Kaptheijns, Vos, De Jong and a returning Cant.
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