USA’s Katherine Compton in the Women’s category and World Champion Lars Boom (Rabobank) in the Men Elite category both grabbed their second win in a round in the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup presented by Safety Jogger in Nommay, France. Boom beat World Cup leader Sven Nys in the sprint while Compton finished solo after a hard race on a soaked course.

Two in a row for Compton while Kupfernagel strengthens lead
The fifth round of the UCI Women World Cup presented by Safety Jogger ended with an impressive solo from Compton that had started in the fourth lap when she left World Champion Hanka Kupfernagel (Germany) behind. Before that the duo had already distanced the rest of the field right from the start on a tough, muddy and thus slippery course in Nommay.

Thanks to her second victory in a row in the World Cup Compton moves up to third place in the World Cup rankings while Kupfernagel extended her already comfortable lead over Daphny van den Brand (Netherlands) with ten more points.

Van den Brand featured in the chasing group behind the two leaders but she couldn’t respond to an acceleration from USA’s Georgia Gould during the third lap and finished fourth. That third place from Gould was more than impressive since this was her first ever appearance in the World Cup.

Boom holds off Nys in sprint
Ten riders battled for the victory in the sixth World Cup round of the Elite Men category until half the race on the demanding course in Nommay.

Previously Belgium’s Sven Vanthourenhout (Sunweb-Projob) had been riding alone in front a couple of times. In the sixth lap World Champion Lars Boom from the Netherlands exploited a collision in the pit zone to sneak away from the leader’s group. Boom’s move was marked by Belgian Bart Wellens (Fidea Cycling Team) and later also by local rider Francis Mourey (Française des Jeux).

One lap later Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet-Tonissteiner) recovered from the pit incident and moved up towards the three leaders. A few moments later – with a little more than two laps to go – the decisive move was made by Nys and Boom. A late reaction from Wellens put the leaders under pressure but in the end a two-man sprint would decided the race and it was Boom who clinched his second win of the season in a World Cup round.

Nys extends lead in World Cup rankings
Boom didn’t start in the previous two World Cup rounds and meant no threat for Nys in the World Cup rankings where the Belgian is comfortably leading over compatriots Wellens and Kevin Pauwels (Fidea Cycling Team). The latter took over the third spot from Czech Republic’s Zdenek Stybar (Fidea Cycling Team) who struggled in the French mud and finished seventeenth.

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