European champion leads from the front to take solo victory ahead of Marianne Vos
Daphny van den Brand (AA Drink-Leontien.nl) won her first World Cup race of the season, taking her second victory in the Duinencross in Koksijde, Belgium. The European champion beat World champion Marianne Vos (Nederland Bloeit) – in her first race of the season – by a distance of thirteen seconds after managing to distance her compatriot in the latter stages of the race.
US champion Katie Compton (Rabobank-Giant) marked her return to European competition with third place in the race that she has won twice in the last three years.
Van den Brand hit the front early and managed to open up a commanding lead inside the first lap. Not having raced so far this year, Vos started from a long way back in the grid, but eventually fought her way to the front and managed to bridge across to her compatriot in the lead.
The two Dutch women rode together for some time before van den Brand accelerated in the final lap. Vos’ lack of race sharpness finally showed on the exhausting sandy course, and the World champion was forced to watch her compatriot ride away to victory.
Compton, having only recently returned from the US and her double victory in Louisville, managed to hold off the rest of the field, to finish just eighteen seconds behind Vos.
In the absence of World Cup leader Katerina Nash (Luna Chix), and with the competition’s second place rider Sanne van Paassen (Brainwash) finishing fourth, it was a double-day for van den Brand as she took over the leader’s jersey. After fourth place in Plzen and second in Tabor, the Dutchwoman now has a total of 150 points, and leads her compatriot van Paassen by fifteen.