After five weeks off, the Superprestige series was back for its fifth round on Monday, the sandy, rainy Zilvermeercross, in Mol, Belgium. Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, victor in Sunday’s Zonhoven World Cup, won her fourth Superprestige round of the season. The top Canadian was Siobhan Kelly in 43rd.
Preliminaries
Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado was determined to win her fourth Superprestige crown, but taking three of the first four rounds put her only one point ahead of Lucinda Brand. Last year the Mol race was part of the Exact Cross series, with Brand triumphing. There was no Fem van Empel, Marie Schreiber, Sara Casasola, Puck Pieterse or Annemarie Worst, who broke two fingers on Sunday in the Zonhoven World Cup.
The Canadian contingent was Katja Verkerk, Christiane Bilodeau and Siobhan Kelly.
Inge van der Heijden claimed the hole shot on Lap 1, with Alvarado and Brand close behind. Jinse Peeters was also up there. Alvarado had some trouble in one of the sandy sections and dropped to third. There was a 25-second gap back to fourth. The first 2.78-km circuit was completed in 7:19.
Brand went to the front at the beginning of Lap 2 of 6. On the sandy lakeside, Alvarado tried to seize the reins, but Brand was full of intent. Bilodeau was the top Canadian at that point. Sanne Cant led the closest chase 42 seconds back of the leading trio.
Van der Heijden took the lead at the beginning of Lap 3. Cant dropped her chasemates on the lakefront, but she had a lot of work to do if she wanted a podium.
On Lap 4 van der Heijden started to lag and had trouble on the lake front, prompting Alvarado to push. On the long sandy run, Brand couldn’t unclip and fell over. Alvarado carried on solo, taking 10 seconds into the penultimate lap.
The penultimate lap was where Brand scrambled to get on even terms with her great rival. The gap was reduced to five seconds.
More struggles in the sand didn’t help Brand’s bid to come back on the bell lap. Brand might’ve finished over a half minute behind, but she has been on a podium of all 17 races she’s contested this season. Van der Heijden clung on to third, and jumped over Casasola into third in the standings.
The next round is December 30 in Diegem, Belgium.
2024-2025 Superprestige, Round 5, Mol
1) Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (The Netherlands/Fenix-Deceuninck) 43:10
2)…
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