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A 2018-2019 World Cup hat trick for Vos at Zolder

Jenn Jackson the top Canadian of the seventh round

December 26, 2018
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Marianne Vos won her third World Cup of the 2018-2019 season on Wednesday in Zolder, Belgium, to increase her lead in the standings with two rounds remaining. It was Vos’s seventh win on the Zolder course. The seventh round of the World Cup was the last of the Belgian rounds. Jenn Jackson was top Canadian at 28th.

The earlier Junior men’s race had seen Canadians Paul Mysko and Ryan Maclean come in 46th and 58th respectively. Gunnar Holmgren was 37th in the U23 men’s race and Nicolas Diniz 47th.

Jenn Jackson, Ruby West, Dana Gilligan, Sidney McGill, and Magdeleine Vallieres Mill joined Maghalie Rochette in Zolder’s 87-strong field of riders in three-degree temperatures. A crash right off the bat held up several riders and made Denise Betsema pit early. Vos grabbed an early lead and forced a gap. Rochette was 19th and Jackson 33rd on Lap 1. After 3.21-km Vos, Cant and Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado were together in front.

Vos and Cant went clear on Lap 2, but Lucinda Brand and Alvarado joined them by the end of the second circuit. Jackson had pulled herself up to 30th and Rochette had some kind of problem that dropped her to 37th. West was 38th, Vallieres Mill 48th, Gilligan 70th and McGill 80th.

On Lap 3 of six, the leading group swelled but Vos thinned it out again by the midway point of the race. Brand, Cant and Carmen Alvarado were still there. Jackson was 27th after three laps.

Vos suffered a mechanical on Lap 4 and lost the leading group. Maud Kaptheijns took her place. Cant hit the gas in an attempt to permanently unhitch the World Cup leader. Cant, Brand and Kaptheijns finished the lap 6-seconds ahead of Vos’s chase group.

At the start of the penultimate lap, Vos’s group made it over and Brit Nikki Brammeier led the little train. Jackson was 29th and Rochette 34th. Vos pushed on with only Brand able to match her. Alvarado brought Cant and Kaptheijns over before the bell.

A leading group of five couldn’t shake one another in the first third of Lap 6. Brand and then Vos did the pushing. A piece of tarmac gave Vos the opportunity to thin things out and then Brand made a mistake that put her in arrears.

Vos held onto the lead for the win. Vos had a 41-point lead over world champion Sanne Cant going into the round and now leads by 56. Cant’s third place was her first World Cup podium of the season. Rochette is 20th in the World Cup standings.

Only two World Cup rounds remain: January 20 in Pont-Château, France, and January 27 at Hoogerheide, the Netherlands. The World Championships are February 2 and 3 in Bogense, Denmark.


2018-2019 UCI Cyclocross World Cup, Round Seven, Zolder, Belgium, Elite Women
1) Marianne Vos (The Netherlands) 48:50
2) Lucinda Brand (The Netherlands) +0:01
3) Sanne Cant (Belgium) +0:06
28) Jenn Jackson (Canada) +2:39