Ceylin Alvarado opens her Cyclo-cross season with a podium!
Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado celebrated the start of her 2024-2025 Cyclo-cross season with a strong second place at the opening round of the Exact Cross series in Beringen. This was also her debut with the FENIX-Deceuninck jersey, after racing under Alpecin-Deceuninck for the past five years.
Alvarado crossed the finish line 42 seconds after world champion Fem van Empel and 34 seconds ahead of Lucinda Brand. The FENIX-Deceuninck rider started the race with a lead but a crashed on the second lap forced her to change her bike. However, she quickly got back and managed to regain positions throughout the muddy course.
Van der Poel wins his first Gravel World Championship
With a spectacular solo win in Leuven, Mathieu van der Poel is the new Gravel World Championship. The victory further confirms his cycling versatility and multidisciplinarity, adding an eight World Champion title to his palmarès.
“It was a big goal for me. It’s super nice to add another rainbow to the collection, in another discipline as well, so I’m super happy with this one. It’s super nice also to finish the season like this. It’s amazing,” said Van der Poel in a post-race interview.
The Dutchman wrote aggressively throughout the Belgian course, attacking early and going briefly solo after 60 km and later again with 13.5 km before the finish line. “I just wanted to make the race as hard as possible because I knew on the local lap with a big group it could be a difficult situation for me. I tried to put everyone on the limit. When Florian (Vermeersch) went, we had a good cooperation. My legs were also hurting. You never know in a sprint, especially on a gravel bike, so I tried one last time on the hardest section of the course, and it’s always nice when you find yourself alone like this.”
The Gravel rainbow jersey is the last in a list of eight World Championships won by Van der Poel, including one on road (2023) and six in cyclo-cross (2015, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024).
Second for Christina Schweinberger at Binche Chimay Binche
The fourth edition of Binche Chimay Binche pour Dames finished with a bunch sprint which saw Christina Schweinberger crossing the finish line second. Her FENIX-Deceuninck teammate Marthe Truyen was fifth.
The 117.2-km-long course is known for its final climb along the famously cobbled Rue de la Pepinière, which must be completed less than a kilometer before its also cobbled finish. The race, held between the Belgian cities if Binche and Chimay in Wallonia, is one of the last dates in the road calendar.
