For Denise Betsema, the cyclo-cross season is not going as she had hoped. The 30-year-old lady of Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal started her season late after a training accident, after which she never really got into the groove. She discussed her lesser results, moments of improvement and her goals for the remainder of the cyclo-cross season with IDLProCycling.com!
It's the evening cross of Diegem, about two minutes after 'Deniesoverseas' finished twelfth across the finish line in Flemish Brabant. "I didn't feel good on the bike from the start here in Diegem. I immediately felt that I didn't have the best legs," was the initial verdict. "Then I also had mechanical problems. My chain got stuck at the front. So, it's really a series of bad luck. And then you're not feeling good on the bike at all. You loose morale a bit."
The post-race assessment described above seems somewhat indicative of Betsema's season, who had a particularly hard fall on the asphalt during a summer training ride, resulting in a long recovery process. This meant that she had to start her season late, including a significant training deficit.
Returning to racing after such a severe crash was also mentally very challenging, as the mother of two children told us at the end of October. Despite endless bad luck, Betsema does not get discouraged easily. "The morale is really there. That's always the case with me, right," she winks. "Indeed, it's not a great season, but fortunately, we have seen an upward trend in recent weeks. This is unfortunately a bit of a setback," she refers again to the disappointing race in Diegem.
"In the previous races, I really did see moments of improvement to cling to," she continues about the rest of the season. "This is a bummer, but I can get over it fairly quickly. A disappointing race like this just means I'm seriously grumpy for an evening, and really disappointed, and then I start focusing on the next race. For me, that's Hulst. And then it's already 2024. New year, new opportunities, as they say."
So what are Betsema's specific priorities for the rest of the cyclo-cross winter? "I definitely want to focus on the X2O Trophy. That's why I'm also extending my season until after the Cyclo-Cross World Championships. Finishing high in that general classification is certainly still on my list. Besides that, the Cyclo-Cross World Championships are of course also very important."