MAJERUS PROLONGS LUXEMBOURG 'CROSS TITLE
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Christine Majerus was crowned Luxembourg cyclocross champion for the ninth time in a row on Saturday. Majerus, who is almost unrecognisable in the regular orange team outfit, secured the jersey for another year with a dominant win.
“It wasn’t a great day actually, I didn’t feel like it was rolling by itself, so I just focused on taking good lines and not making any mistakes,” Majerus said. “In the end, I won by a wide margin, but it was hard work.”
Situated in Kayl, Majerus knew the Luxembourg championships course from earlier races. “The course was like I remembered, a hard first part with the start and finishing straight on an uphill section,” she said. “Then lots of sticky mud and a lot of technical corners. I got to enjoy it a bit towards the end, as I became more relaxed about my lines.”
Majerus had to deal with the position of top favourite, which always brings a lot of pressure with it, but she handled it elegantly and focused on her own race. “I didn’t start too hard, because normally we race for under 40 minutes in Luxembourg. But as I complained about that last weekend, I kind of expected the jury to make us race longer this time, so I didn’t want to blow up during the race.”
“I didn’t feel great during the first two laps,” Majerus said. “But then the last three were okay, as I had a big lead and I could be relaxed and kind of enjoy it too.”
After a celebratory dinner with her cycling club, Majerus’s first priority is to recover well. “Last weeks were tiring and I feel I’m a bit on the edge with sickness as everyone around me is or was sick,” she said. “So I just try to stay healthy and take it race by race. If I still improve, that’s great. If not, it has still been a good preparation for road season.”
Majerus wasn’t the only Boels-Dolmans rider taking to the start of cross nationals today. In the Netherlands, Anna van der Breggen was off to a flying start, but took that word a bit too literally when she crashed and saltoed into the first mud section. “I’m a bit stiff and my ankle’s getting swollen now, but it’s nothing serious,” Van der Breggen commented. “It was worth it, I thoroughly enjoyed myself today.”
“Because of the crash, I never got to see the front of the race anymore,” she said. “But I did manage to get sixth in the end. But most important: I had a great day.”
Photo by Grand-Ducal Cycling |
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