{"id":194240,"date":"2023-11-06T19:28:25","date_gmt":"2023-11-06T19:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=194240"},"modified":"2023-11-06T19:28:25","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T19:28:25","slug":"van-empel-wins-second-successive-european-cyclo-cross-titles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/11\/06\/van-empel-wins-second-successive-european-cyclo-cross-titles\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Empel Wins Second Successive European Cyclo-cross Titles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fem van Empel of the Netherlands and Belgium\u2019s Michael Vanthourenhout defied rain and lots of mud to win their second UEC European Cyclo-cross Championships in succession on Sunday. The competition, which was held in the western French commune of Pontch\u00e2teau, was disrupted by an unusually intense storm, named Ciar\u00e1n, which struck large parts of Europe, flooding roads, cutting power and killing at least seven people in Italy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As a result, all races that had been scheduled for Saturday were postponed for one day, and only the mixed relay, which was won by the host country France, could be held as scheduled, on Friday. Another consequence was that by the time the last scheduled race, the Elite Men\u2019s, was held on Sunday afternoon, the rainfall, which continued intermittently on race day, and the effect of six races held on the same course on one day \u2013 Junior Men and Women, U 23 Men and Women and Elite Men and Women \u2013 much of the course had been transformed into a muddy swamp, with ankle-deep ruts filled with water in some places. It is a testimony to the skills of the riders that there were not more crashes or more DNFs (did not finish).<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old Vanthourenhout took to the course like, um, a fish to water. He took a clear lead early on the second of the eight laps, stretching it to 0:21 at the beginning of lap 3. Though the lead subsequently decreased, it never fell below 0:14 until the final 100 meters, when he slowed to celebrate his victory. Vanthourenhout won the U 23 world championship in 2015 but has had few major victories since. However, he has now become the first rider since Mathieu van der Poel to win two European championships in succession. Van der Poel, who won the UCI world cyclocross championship in February, took three European titles between 2017 and 2019.<\/p>\n

\"Fem<\/a>
Dutch Ceylin Del Carmen Alvarado (L), Dutch Fem Van Empel (C) and Italian Sara Casasola (R) celebrate on the podium after the Elite Women’s race at the European Cyclo-cross Championships. \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis season was not going well, so I\u2019m happy for this win,\u201d Vanthourenhout said after the race. \u201cI felt from the beginning that I had good legs today and it was enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s Cameron Mason finished second, 0:09\u00a0 behind the winner, with two-time European champion (2015, 2021) Lars van der Haar another 0:10 behind in third.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old cyclocross phenom van Empel, who also won the UCI world championship in February, took control of the Elite Women\u2019s race at the start of the second of six laps and never looked like losing. Her lead over her nearest rival, fellow Dutch rider and 2020 European champion Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, was 0:59 at the end of stage 3 and 1:35 at the finish line. Italy\u2019s Sara Casasola used a late run to finish third, 1:56 behind the winner.<\/p>\n

Asked what her near-term plans were, van Empel told Eurosport, \u201cIt is mentally very hard to be a top favorite at the start line. I feel good physically, but I\u2019m going to rest.\u201d She may be resting up for next year\u2019s road racing season. Van Empel joined Jumbo-Visma this year and won a stage of the Tour de l\u2019Avenir and finished eighth in the UEC European Under-23 Championships<\/a>, after finishing third in that race in 2022.<\/p>\n

In addition to the mixed relay, France also won both junior races, with C\u00e9lia Gery winning the women\u2019s division and Aubin Sparfell the men\u2019s. Jane Zoe Backstead won the women\u2019s U 23 European title and Jente Michels of Belgium won the men\u2019s U 23 championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fem van Empel of the Netherlands and Belgium\u2019s Michael Vanthourenhout defied rain and lots of mud to win their second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":194241,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[328],"tags":[7449,7450,5929,7451,5928],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-194240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-outdoor-mountain","tag-2023-european-cyclo-cross-championships","tag-european-cyclo-cross-championships","tag-fem-van-empel","tag-jane-zoe-backstead","tag-michael-vanthourenhout","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"\nVan Empel Wins Second Successive European Cyclo-cross Titles - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fem van Empel of the Netherlands and Belgium\u2019s Michael Vanthourenhout defied rain and lots of mud to win their second UEC European Cyclo-cross\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/11\/06\/van-empel-wins-second-successive-european-cyclo-cross-titles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Van Empel Wins Second Successive European Cyclo-cross Titles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fem van Empel of the Netherlands and Belgium\u2019s Michael Vanthourenhout defied rain and lots of mud to win their second UEC European Cyclo-cross\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/11\/06\/van-empel-wins-second-successive-european-cyclo-cross-titles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-06T19:28:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2023\/11\/Fem-van-Empel-profimedia-0819892210-CVR.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"990\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"660\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tereza\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Siegfried Mortkowitz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/11\/06\/van-empel-wins-second-successive-european-cyclo-cross-titles\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/11\/06\/van-empel-wins-second-successive-european-cyclo-cross-titles\/\",\"name\":\"Van Empel Wins Second Successive European Cyclo-cross Titles - 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