{"id":619120,"date":"2025-12-08T02:04:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T02:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/619120\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T02:04:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T02:04:14","slug":"im-super-happy-to-be-back-shirin-van-anrooij-on-her-first-world-cup-podium-in-over-two-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/619120\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I’m super happy to be back’ – Shirin van Anrooij on her first World Cup podium in over two years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shirin van Anrooij<\/a> clinched her first UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup podium for over two years and hopes to be competing for victories in the forthcoming weeks.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old has had a turbulent few years after a rib injury ended her season early in 2023, before missing last \u2018cross campaign to undergo iliac artery endofibrosis surgery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The former junior and under-23 cyclocross world champion last clinched an elite World Cup podium at Benidorm in January 2023. However, Van Anrooij continued her comeback to the sport with an impressive third place finish in Terralba, Sardinia<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m getting closer and closer back to a good cyclo-cross shape,\u201d added Van Anrooij.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m super happy to be back. It’s really beautiful after two years to be back on the podium of the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

The warm conditions in Sardinia followed earlier storms, making for a course consisting of a mixture of deep surface water and sand, mixed with hard wooded ground.<\/p>\n

Race winner Lucinda Brand described the conditions on one section as more like \u2018aqua biking\u2019 than cyclocross.<\/p>\n

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Despite a slower start, which put her down in 18th, Van Anrooij came storming back through the chasing groups.<\/p>\n

Just as Van Anrooij reached the leading quartet, her Baloise Glowi Lions team-mate Brand launched the winning move.<\/p>\n

Brand built an unassailable winning margin as Van Anrooij put some stinging attacks into the chasing group, but was matched by Aniek Van Alphen (Seven Racing).<\/p>\n

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Van Alphen finished stronger to take the runner-up position, while in just her third \u2018cross race of the season, Van Anrooij completed the podium in third.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a nice battle with Aniek (Van Alphen),\u201d said Van Anrooij<\/p>\n

\u201cI had some mechanical problems also in the final half of the lap, too much sand and mud around the chain. There was also a lot of time to change bikes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really nice battle, she was just a bit stronger. After my really bad start it was nice to get back to the podium after two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Anrooij recovered from her iliac artery endofibrosis surgery<\/a> to have a successful road racing campaign during 2025, finishing third in stage 6 of the Giro d\u2019Italia Women and fourth on stage 7 of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.<\/p>\n

The Dutch national came into the \u2018cross season after being cruelly denied a solo victory<\/a> in the Gravel World Championships.<\/p>\n

After almost two years away from cyclocross, Van Anrooij had to work her way through from the back of the starting grid to finish 16th in Tabor and sixth place in Flamanville last weekend.<\/p>\n

The Dutchwoman will have her first assault on the elite title at her home world championships in Hulst, Netherlands, early in 2026.<\/p>\n

She will now join her Lidl-Trek team-mates for a road racing training camp in Spain before returning to cyclocross for the World Cup at Antwerp on December 20.<\/p>\n

The Dutch cyclocross specialist is hoping to challenge for victories during a busy racing block over the notoriously popular Christmas period in Belgium.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to going to Spain for two weeks of training and then returning for all the nice crosses,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m just looking forward to having another training block for the Christmas period. And then just finally really get the real cross feeling back and participate for the victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ll be back for Antwerpen, Koksijde, Dendermonde, Gavere, Diegem and Zonhoven. Actually, almost all, lots of sand crosses. A lot of beautiful crosses are coming. Something to look forward too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup was due to make its maiden appearance in Sardinia 12 months ago.<\/p>\n

However, extreme winds on the coastal course wreaked havoc with the course infrastructure<\/a> and resulted in the event being cancelled.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s event went ahead as planned, but with a section of the course covered in deep surface water due to storms in the days before the race.<\/p>\n

Ceylin Del Carmen Alvarado (Fenix-Deceuninck) pulled out of the race on the second lap, which Sporza said was due to illness, following her recent return after a knee injury.<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking about the course beforehand, Alverado said: \u201cSome parts very good, some parts very s**t.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe combination (of mud and sand) is of course, not ideal for the bike and material. A bit of the course is underwater, so that\u2019s not nice of course, but we can\u2019t change it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, eventual winner Brand added: \u201cIt\u2019s almost aqua biking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still a pretty fast course, there are a few hard sectors where you first have quite some water. Following up with some sand section, it will definitely add up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shirin van Anrooij clinched her first UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup podium for over two years and hopes to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-619120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115681497093613933","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}