Shirin van Anrooij fends off Fem van Empel to take solo X2O Trofee Koksijde win
A battle of the youngsters in the Koksijd♏e sand as Brand rounds out th𓂃e podium

In her first race of 2023, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Shirin van Anrooij (Baloise Trek🍸 Lions) returned to the top step of the podium,🍌 storming to a solo victory in the fifth round of the X2O Trofee in Koksijde.
Van Anrooij fought off a race-long chase from another Dutch 20-year-old, Jumbo-Visma's 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Fem van Empel. The European champion was targeting ꧋her 12th win of the season but was forced to settle for second place, 14 se🎀conds down after never quite getting in touch with her rival.
Former world champion 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lucinda Brand (Baloise Trek Lions) rounded ou🙈t the podium some way back at 1:09 down on her teammate after she and the rest of the chasers consistently lost time on the two young leaders.
Further back, Ceyli🐻n del Carmen Alvarado (Alpecin-D🉐eceuninck) took fourth place at 1:52, while world champion Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) took fifth at 2:18 in her first 'cross since November.
"Last year during the World Cup I really made a go to try and win my first ever World Cup – at least that's what I was thinking," Van Anrooij s💧aid after the race. "It's changed from not being a World Cup anymore, but it's such a special race and it's super cool to win this one.
"I finally had a good start for once, I think for one of the few times this season. I wanted to ride my own lines through the sand and I did that from the first strip. After that, it was just about not ꦗmaking any mistakes.
"There were a lot of backmarkers who didn't really move to the side. T𒉰hat caused me to make some mistakes and I felt [Van Empel] getting closer. The only times I looked back I saw that she wasn't quite getting there. I got away slightly on the long climb, and I also put emphasis on the sand strips before recovering in between. That worked well."
Van Anrooij had hit the front of the race in the very first of five laps in the Belgian coastal town, but never quite managed to fully𓃲 shake off Van Empel,🅠 despite dispatching the rest of her rivals with seeming ease.
The start of the race was marred by a mass crash in the peloton as riders came into ဣcontact with the barriers, though the main favourites escaped the carnage to push on at the front.
Van Anrooij, who finished 2022 in top form with three wins in a week, was joined in the lead by Van Empel and Brand as well as Alvarado and Inge van der Heijden (777), though she would mak🔴e a solo push for the lead well before the riders 💜passed the line to start lap two.
She already enjoyed a lead of 10 seconds at that point, with the quartet 🐎coming together in the chase before Van Empel set offꦿ in solo pursuit.
On the third lap, Van Empel came close to making the catch and setting up a grand battle for victory, but a small mistake set her back after she was forced to put a foot down. Van Anrooij made no errors, however, instead continuing on alone on💦 the road to another win.
She held a consistent gap over Van Empel as the rest only ceded more time with each lap – 15 seconds to start lap four, and 11ღ seconds to start the final circuit.
Brand continues in the lead of the X2O Trofee standings despite not winning any of the five rounds so far. Her 26-second lead has now increased to 49 seconds, with Van Empel jumping o🅠ver Alvarado into second overall, while Alvarado is third at 1:17 and Denise Betsema (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal), who finished sixth on the day, in fourth at 1:54.
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Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contribuꦡtor and later being hired full-time. Before joining the team, she had written for numerous major publications in the cycling world, including Cycling Weekly and Rouleur.
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