Check out last week’s events with our weekly recap!
26 December Heusden-Zolder (BEL)
What happened
The Elite Women’s podium in Heusden-Zolder was a copy / paste of that a week earlier, with Dutchwomen Lucinda Brand, Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado and Annemarie Worst finishing in that order. However it was a far cry from the solo win Brand was able to enjoy in Namur: she had to fight to the end in Heusden-Zolder, with an unexpected final burst from Alvarado forcing Brand to put in an extra surge that enabled her to take victory by one second. Worst held off last year’s winner Marianne Vos (NED) to take 3rd. Despite slight disappointment at being unable to claim race victory, Alvarado takes over from Katerina Nash (CZE) in the overall UCI World Cup standings, albeit by just one point. With two rounds remaining, Brand jumps from 12th to 5th in the standings.
After skipping the first three rounds of this season’s UCI World Cup, the Netherlands’ Mathieu van der Poel has been on a winning streak that continued in Heusden-Zolder with his fourth consecutive World Cup victory. Six seconds further back, Laurens Sweeck won the sprint against fellow Belgian Quinten Hermans. After his second place in Namur a week earlier – where he suffered two fractured ribs - Belgian Toon Aerts put in a courageous ride to finish 14th in Heusden-Zolder despite crashing early on and fighting back from last place. Aerts holds onto his World Cup lead ahead of Michael Vanthourenthout. Winner of the first three rounds, Eli Iserbyt – who slipped to second in the standings after abandoning in Namur – moves down another spot to third after finishing 13th in Heusden-Zolder