Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Alpecin-Deceuninck) scored her sixth win of the season with a solo display at the eighth round of the UCI World Cup round in Namur.
The Dutchwoman led almost from start to finish in the race, holding off a chase from Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceunink) and Lucinda Brand (Baloise Trek Lions) to secure the win.
"I didn't expect to be this good," Alvarado said after the finish, according to WielerFlits. "I didn't expect to be in the lead alone for so long."
"I was still quite nervous before the start, but it went very well. I saw at the start that Puck had chain problems and Lucinda was behind, so I decided to move. I always wanted to win here. I've been trying for years and it's only the first time I've won here."
"I didn't expect it after an exhausting week. I was not yet fit enough to contest a double weekend but I felt very good today. After three laps I was at my limit. From that moment on it was important to fully climb the climbs and pace the remaining sections. I remained flawless on a technical level."
Alvarado hit the front of the race on the first lap while Pieterse suffered a chain problem and Brand slid out. She entered the second lap with a 15-second lead over her rivals, with no other rider getting back to her before the finish.
Pieterse was the rider who led the charge in pursuit of the 25-year-old, who has also won World Cup rounds in Dendermonde and Troyes, but she wasn't able to close the gap down on the technical course. She and Brand quickly settled into positions to fight for the remaining podium spots as they left the rest of the field behind, too.
The to-and-fro between Pieterse and Brand for second place saw Pieterse at one point fall victim to a cleat problem while Brand managed to distance herself from Pieterse in the middle of the race.
However, heading into the last lap, the distance between first and second was up at over 30 seconds, with Pieterse lagging another 15 or so seconds back. She rode a strong final to drag herself back up to Brand, setting up a sprint for second place after Alvarado had crossed the line to take the win.
In the end, Pieterse made it back across to Brand and had enough in the sprint finish to get past and take the second spot on the podium, 17 seconds down on Alvarado. Behind Brand, Sara Casasola (Fas Airport Services-Guerciotti) and Inge van der Heijden (Crelan-Corendon) rounded out the top five.
Results
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