Image 1 of 9
World Champion Fem van Empel slogged her way through muddy, greasy conditions to victory in Gavere, going clear in the second lap to clinch a hard-won solo triumph.
A training crash and knee injury had forced Van Empel to miss the preceding World Cup round, and she was a low-key seventh in her previous race at Namur.
“Every win is very important, but the last days were not easy for me,” Van Empel said afterwards, “But I showed my condition is good, so I’m really happy.”
She agreed that the victory was important, too, to show that her knee was in good condition, saying “For now, yes, the running part was also good, so I’m happy.”
71 riders got underway on a chilly, overcast day over the constantly undulating, very muddy course, but Van Empel was already into the lead after barely half a lap. Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck), meanwhile, shadowed the Visma-Lease a Bike racer closely, grinding her way ahead of Blanka Vas (Canyon-SRAM) to make it look like a two-rider race from the get-go.
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…