Fem van Empel was back to her winning ways again at the UCI World Cup Round #8 event in Antwerp, Belgium on Sunday. At the finish, van Empel had 34 seconds on her main rival, Puck Pieterse, and 1:12 on Shirin van Anrooij, who placed third.
How It Happened
Lap 1 started with Pieterse once again attempting to throw off her rivals with a fast start. However, this time around, Fem van Empel was prepared to challenge Pieterse and the two exchanged the lead for the duration of lap 1.
As lap 2 got underway, the leaders Pieterse and van Empel had gap of 7 seconds on their closest rival, Shirin van Anrooij. Neck and neck, Pieterse and van Empel battled it out, exchanging the lead throughout lap 2. Pieterse was quicker on technical sections, like the barriers, due to her hopping skills, but van Empel had the edge with overall power on the flat grassy sections.
Lap 3 saw the two leaders still together, head-to-head, with van Anrooij falling back to 20 seconds. But soon, the differences between the two leaders came. On a long grassy section, van Empel put out some power and quickly opened a gap of 5 seconds on Pieterse. Pieterse was able to hold the gap at 5 seconds for lap 3, but could not close it.
By lap 4, van Empel had 7 seconds on Pieterse and was able to increase this lead by almost 10 seconds by the end of the lap.
On lap 5, bell lap, van Empel led Pieterse by 16 seconds. Followed by Van Anrooij at 48 seconds. As the lap progressed, van Empel gained time, with the help of Pieterse, who by mid-lap had slowed down, resigning herself to 2nd place.
Race Insights
Fem van Empel looks to be back to her winning ways. A flat period in November, along with some tactical errors and mechanical issues in races, had many fans wondering whether she had lost her winning edge. Today she showed that is not the case, and that she does, in fact, still have her winning edge.
Puck Pieterse figured out how to beat van Empel in round #6 and #7: go from the gun on tricky, slippery, technical courses, preferably with barriers. Now she just needs for the right course and conditions to come along again. Which may be the bigger problem. Van Empel’s secret weapon is the same as Mathieu van der Poel’s – raw power – and that’s hard to beat. To win in the future, Pieterse will need to force a technical race on van Empel and slow the race down on the pure power sections where van Empel has the advantage. All of which is easier said than done.
