Wyman Third in Holland

 

Cyclo-Cross World Cup Round 9

Hoogerheide, Holland, 20 Jan 2008

Report & Images: Belinda Sinclair

Gabby Day runs with her bike on a tricky climb

 

The elite women's race at the 2008 round of the World Cup at Hoogerheide in the Netherlands, turned out to be a stonker of a race. By the time the forty four starters lined up, with Swift Racing's Helen Wyman and Gabby Day amongst them, the wind was blowing, the course was muddy from the morning's races, and was lined several deep all around with spectators. And they didn't have to wait long for the pattern of the race to emerge.

Germany's Hanka Kupfernagel stormed into the lead right from the start, scattering the field apart. The German was chased by an equally determined and strong looking Helen Wyman (pictured, right), 100 metres behind in second place, who in turn had a ten metre lead on the French World champion, Maryline Salvetat. With deep ruts and sharp turns causing more than a few problems for those left in their wake, the trio set about running their own separate race, and were largely untroubled as they pedalled and ran around the course. But it was Kupfernagel who dictated the overall pace and never looked under any real pressure as she steadily increased her lead.

As Kupfernagel flew up ramps and hills with apparent ease, and negotiated a range of mud, a battle between Wyman and Salvetat for second and third places began to heat up. The French woman managed to claw her way up to Wyman's back wheel, but Wyman was giving nothing away, and kept her at bay with some strong running and steady riding.

 

But eventually Salvetat edged ahead, and despite falling on a bend, grabbed second place and stayed there, forcing Wyman to chase hard. Roared on by strong English support around the course, Wyman looked like she might wrest the placing back from the World Champion, but in the end, she had to make do with a very credible and hard fought third, 1.08 behind Kupfernagel.

Speaking to her immediately afterwards, she reflected on her race:

"It was really hard out there today - windy and muddy. It was a great course though because it winds it way round lots of technical bits and I'm good technically But there was also lots of running because of the mud. That was good because it split everybody up and you had to keep going - even the bits where you could rest a bit were very short and they were downhill anyway, so you just had to go with it. I felt strong but Salvetat is very strong as well and she fought all the way round, and its all got to come right on the day. Next week (World Championships, Treviso, Italy) will be very important. "

Podium: l to r - Salvetat, Kupfernagel & Wyman

Meanwhile, Wyman's team mate Gabby Day, battled her way round to finish twenty ninth, 4mins 46 seconds behind the winner.

The elite men's race was won by Lars Boom of The Netherlands, while Arnaud Jouffroy of France took the junior men's race and World Champion title, and Niels Albert of Belgium won the men's Under 23 race and title.

 

Results

1 Hanka Kupfernagel (Ger) Focus 38m 50s
2 Maryline Salvetat (Fra) VSLL Castres 0.57
3 Helen Wyman (GBr) Swift 1.08
4 Stephanie Pohl (Ger) Team Getr䮫e-Hoffmann 1.40
5 Wendy Simms (Can) Kona-Yor Key Mortgage Team
6 Loes Sels (Bel) Vlaanderen - Capri Sonne - T Interim
7 Mirjam Melchers-Van Poppel (Ned) Team Flexpoint 1.43
8 Pavla Havlikova (Cze) KC Kooperativa SG Jablonec n.N 1.48
9 Nadia Triquet-Claude (Fra) UC Bassin Houiller 1.51
10 Veerle Ingels (Bel) AVB/USspa Cycling Team
other
29 Gabriella Day (GBr) Swift 4.46