Fem Van Empel, a 19-year-old pro rider from the Netherlands, has won the UCI World Cup race in Val di Sole after Marianne Vos suffered a finale to forget.
The World Cup meeting is taking place on snow in the Italian Alps in a bid to showcase cyclocross for inclusion in the winter Olympics. And as the pressure was on, Vos (Jumbo Visma) was frustrated by the conditions.
She suffered a mechanical, which she frantically tried to put right, and lost about 50 seconds. In the closing stages of the race she also fell while running up hill, with Van Empel (Pauwels Sauzen Bingoal) right behind her.
And on the final corner, as Vos overtook her rival going up hill, she then clipped a post and crashed. Van Empel took a few seconds to untangle herself from the fallen Vos's bike and when she did she then powered into the finish to win by six seconds from Vos.
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Maghalie Rochette (Specialized-Feedback Sports) took 3rd place, just 11 seconds down on winner Van Empel, who is the reigning U23 cyclocross world champion.
