Continuing her great run of recent form, Helen Wyman (Kona / FSA Factory Team) finished in 3rd place today in the European Championships. The predicted heavy rain stayed away until after the race had finished to leave the riders competing in dusty conditions in Hoogstraten, Belgium.
It was the Dutch riders that put the hammer down right from the start, with Daphny van den Brand gaining a small advantage in the first half lap. Helen sat calmly in 3rd place and used the road section to return to the front along with Marianne Vos at the end of the first lap.
These 3 then tried to force an advantage on the following riders, but it was not significant, Katrina Nash chased hard from behind and it was soon coming back to together. Vos took this as notice to attack and jumped to the front of the race on her own. Helen then settled into the chasing group of 5 riders, picking her moment to try to get away.
Coming into the last lap, Daphny had a small advantage over Helen, who had managed to jump away from the other chasers. Helen set about catching 2nd place but it wasn’t to be.
It was Helen’s first major championship medal and comes in a fine run of form. ‘I came really close to a medal in the Euro’s a few years ago, but a double puncture stopped that attempt. I’m just so happy things have gone my way and I’m able to be on the podium in a major championship.’
‘I have a great crew of people behind me as well as Kona, and it’s the work that these people put in that helps me keep improving year on year. Cyclo-cross is strange sometimes and I have been on the end of some fairly bad lack in the last couple of World Champs, so I’m really glad to have done this for everyone that kept believing in me.’
‘I have to put my head down now and work hard to close the gap to Vos and Compton, and fingers crossed that can start in Nommay next week. Then I’m off on a training week in some warmer weather to get my self ready for the next part of the season.’
Brief Result
1 Marianne Vos (Netherlands) 0:38:40
2 Daphne van den Brand (Netherlands) 0:00:37
3 Helen Wyman (Great Britain) 0:00:42
4 Katerina Nash (Czech Republic) 0:00:50
5 Pavla Havlikova (Czech Republic) 0:00:55
6 Sanne van Paassen (Netherlands) 0:01:08
7 Christel Ferrier-Bruneau (France) 0:01:31
8 Caroline Mani (Italy)
9 Joyce Vanderbeken (Belgium) 0:02:00
10 Sanne Cant (Belgium) 0:02:04
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