Winning the seventh World Cup race of the season in Heusden-Zolder will certainly be a fond memory for Sanne Cant. First and foremost it was a thrilling and undecided race for a long time and especially in the final laps between the World Champion, Eva Lechner and Katie Compton.
It wasn’t until the final lap when the reigning World Champion of team was able to break away and win the race with three seconds ahead of Compton and six seconds over Lechner. This way she extended her lead in the World Cup overall ranking. But primarily this win will go down in history as her 100th victory in the Elite category for which she was given a big cake with the number ”100” written on top of it at the award ceremony.
Sanne Cant was the first from the starting line to enter the course and kept the tempo high during the first laps. Yet, since a large part of the field stayed close on the difficult and varied course next to the former Formula 1 race track, the 27-year old slowed down a little.
Subsequently the lead changed between her, Eva Lechner, Lucinda Brand and Katie Compton. Also present in the head group was Marianne Vos, joined by Pauline Ferrand-Prevot who caught-up strongly from a way-back starting position to eventually finish fourth. ”Midway through the race I felt a little weak, so toned down a little and continued to ride a controlled race.” Cant said. In the finally she was back to her full strength and was able to fulfil her high expectations.
Sanne Cant celebrated her first Elite victory as an 18-year old in Italy. Among her now 100 wins are eight Belgian Championships, three European Championships, one World Championship and many victories in the World Cup, the Super Prestige race series and the DVV Trophy race series, in which she won the overall multiple times.
She said about her 100th win: ”This is a very beautiful victory, I am especially proud of this 100 win, not only because many top-level riders were at the start.”
