Van Empel also in Maasmechelen Femtastic: 'On the 'hups' I still tried to challenge myself'

Five out of five: Fem van Empel is so far the woman of this cross country winter. In the second World Cup cross in Maasmechelen, the Dutchwoman from Jumbo-Visma also showed everyone her heels, which she was obviously very pleased with. IDLProcycling talked to the quality rider from Noord-Brabant afterwards!

'It really wasn't as easy as it looked,' was Van Empel's first response in the flash interview. 'It was actually quite difficult, especially the first round. I had a good start. The opening lap, however, the feeling was not too good. That did improve from the second round.So all in all, I'm happy with how it went.' Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado was able to follow Van Empel for a while, but after a fall - resulting in a ugly bloody knee - she had to let go of her rival. From then on, Van Empel thus rode alone.

'You definitely have plenty of time to think then, although it's pretty hard to ride an entire race alone,' she revealed a good half-hour after the race. So how does she keep it fun? By sprinting up hills. 'It's mostly riding tight pace so they can't come back. 'I still tried to challenge myself,' she implied with an infectious smile. 'And fortunately people along the side helped me with that too,' she said earlier.

Van Empel targets Kopppenberg and European cyclocross championships in near future

What now? 'The important thing is to stay healthy and not do too much,' Van Empel is clear, before sharing her near future plans with us. 'On Wednesday I will ride theKoppenberg and then I will go on to the European Championships, so then the first part of the season will be over for me. The Koppenberg is one of my favorite races, so I don't want to miss it. I definitely want to win there. From theEK course in Pontchateau, I have only watched videos so far," the Brabant native said;

Van Empel seems to be winning everything there is to win. She seems to be doing even better than last year, when she also did well in the cyclocross. I try to do my own thing and not look at the others too much, then I'm also in my own focus," is her answer to our question about who will be competing against her in the near future. 'And we're going to see some beautiful battles this winter, I'm convinced of that.'

'I was just talking about it with my dad last summer,' she recalled in the flash interview. 'We concluded that it would be crazy if I did even better than last season. But so far, in terms of profit margin, things are actually going better," the North Brabant native jubilated. 'I know it's very special and I enjoy every moment. There really will come a time when things will be less good, but I can live with that too.'