Sanne Cant (Crelan-Fristads) soloed to victory to claim her 14th straight Belgian Cyclocross national championship title in Lokeren on Saturday. Marion Norbert Riberolle and Alicia Franck rounded out the podium.
The 32-year-old closed out her cyclocross season with the commanding performance. She announced this week she had given up hope of landing on the podium at the UCI Cyclocross World Championships.
“It doesn’t look like I will suddenly have great medal chances in Hoogerheide in three weeks’ time,” Cant told Sporza, adding she would refocus on joining her new WorldTour team Fenix-Deceuninck. “Then it seems better to us to take a few weeks of extra rest and to shift the focus more quickly to the spring on the road.”
There were some doubts that Cant could continue her streak after she skipped the majority of the kerstperiode races in December. Norbert Riberolle was considered a favourite to dethrone her rival.
However, the formerly French rider suffered mechanical problems in the opening lap and had to mount a chase from a distance.
Norbert Riberolle closed down the gap to Franck on the second lap and got as close as 30 seconds to Cant but couldn’t close the distance and finished in tears at 1:20. Franck finished a distant third at 2:05.
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