Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Fenix-Premier Tech) claimed her second national cyclo-cross title on Sunday, soloing to the victory at the Dutch National Championships in Huijbergen after an assured ride.
Her teammate and 2025 champion, Puck Pieterse, finished second after the pair had pushed on as leaders early on in the race, with the eventual winner going solo midway through the laps, not to be caught.
Lucinda Brand (Baloise Verzekeringen-Het Poetsbureau Lions) finished third, marking the first time this season she's finished outside of the top two in a 'cross race, having taken 17 wins and three seconds so far this winter.
For Alvarado, this is her third successive win of the season, and her second time pulling in the Dutch champion's jersey, after previously taking the elite cyclo-cross title in 2020.
After threats of snow disruption, the women's race got underway on a clear, fairly dry course on Sunday afternoon.
It didn't take long for the main protagonists to ride away from the rest of the bunch, with Pieterse, Alvarado and Brand emerging as early leaders in Huijbergen. Three quite quickly became two, as the Fenix-Premier Tech duo distanced Brand and settled in to work together.
On the third lap, Pieterse had a crash, allowing Alvarado to push on solo. She soon started to lap riders too, passing several backmarkers as she pulled out her lead over her teammate, though the gap was never enormous.
Despite Pieterse's best efforts, she couldn't quite close down Alvarado, and the older rider soloed to the win. Pieterse took second, with Brand third, in what many may have predicted as the podium at the start of the day.
Earlier in the day, Isis Versluis took the victory in the junior women's race, whilst Leonie Bentveld (Pauwels Sauzen-Altez Industriebouw) finished fifth in the elite race to claim the U23 title.
Results
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