Van Empel does not always enjoy all those victories: "Starting as the top favorite is mentally really hard"

"I had trouble getting into my rhythm, and then I planned to attack on the first uphill stretch, which went well. After that, I gradually increased my lead," Van Empel first analyzed in the flash interview. Not much later at the press conference, she starts with a smile as well. "It always feels good to win a jersey. I train in the European Championship jersey and race in the rainbow jersey."

Yet one remark she made on television after the finish lingers: "Starting as the top favorite is mentally really hard. Physically, I'm doing really well, but mentally it's really hard to stay focused," she said. Later, speaking to IDLProCycling.com, among others, she elaborates: "Physically, I'm okay to race a lot, but mentally it's tough. People expect me to win everything. They expect a lot from me, and it's a problem to stay focused then. I have to deal with that, but it's also nice that I can now take a mental break for a while."

Because the European Championship was the last appointment for Van Empel in the first cyclocross block of this winter. "I'll be back at the end of November in Kortrijk, so I'll skip two," she says. There won't be a vacation, partly because a short city trip to Paris fell through. "The plan was to head to Paris Saturday afternoon, but we had to skip it when the European Championships were postponed by a day. Now we're heading home, for a few days off the bike."

Only two cyclocross races, and then Van Empel will be back. After that, she will be present at the major events, but not too many. "I love the combination of road cycling and cyclocross. In 2024, I will compete a bit more on the road, although I don't know in which races yet. I love cyclocross the most, so I definitely want to keep doing that." It's no coincidence she was already doing so well these past weeks and rode the European Championship - unlike Puck Pieterse and Shirin van Anrooij. "The plan for the season was to be very good from the start. Not peak form, but obviously it's going very well at the moment. But as I said: mentally it's harder than physically, so I'm going to rest and then get back to cyclocrossing quickly."