Yara Kastelijn and Marianne Vos had to settle for a secondary role in the superprestige cross in Diegem. Yara had to leave the race while Marianne finished as 9th. Sanne Cant was the fastest in the pleasant evening race.

“The start itself might not have been great, but I managed to quickly get to the front. On the first lap, I made some technical mistakes which I could luckily correct rather well”, says Marianne in a race analysis.

On the second lap, our Dutch cyclo-cross champion slowly lost the momentum. “I simply did not have the strength anymore to participate, which is exactly what you need on this tough course”, she says. “I had hoped to take the next step after Zolder which unfortunately did not work out as planned.”

There is not much time to analyse the race in Diegem. Marianne will be back in action in the GP Sven Nys on New Year’s Day. “I feel that I am not yet at the top of my condition and I want to do everything to get to the highest level that I can reach.”

Yara races her next cross in Huijbergen on 6 January. She had to drop out of the race in Diegem due to a shoulder injury.