It was a historic victory for Fem Van Empel at the 2025 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Liévin, France.
Her third successive Women Elite UCI Cyclo-cross World Champion title sees her join the Netherlands’ Marianne Vos and Belgium’s Sanne Cant as the only riders to have dominated the category over such a period of time (Cant won three consecutive years, from 2017 to 2019, while Vos celebrated six victoies between 2009 and 2014).
The Oranje riders quickly led the action, with Fem van Empel, Lucinda Brand and Puck Pieterse setting the pace from the start. Hungary’s Blanka Vas tried to get in the mix, but was distanced on the second lap. The same fate befell Pieterse a couple of laps further into the race. Brand put the hammer down with two laps to go but Van Empel managed to get back inside the final lap and eventually claim victory after a thrilling battle.
“I really had to go deep for it,” Van Empel explained. “It was a tough battle and mentally it was quite hard. This is quite emotional. Lucinda was a great competitor today. I have lots of respect for her and I’m happy for her as well with the podium, and also for Puck coming in third place. We did a really good job.”
Pieterse resisted the return of another Dutch rider, Inge van der Heijden, to take the bronze medal and thus replicate last year’s podium, in the same order. The same three stars had already dominated the 2023 race, when Pieterse took the silver medal ahead of Brand.
photo ©SprintCyclingAgency
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