Douděrová secured an excellent fifth place

In the very first individual race of the cyclocross championship in Tábor, Czech riders excelled. In the junior women's race, seventeen-year-old Kateřina Douděrová achieved an outstanding fifth place, and Amálie Gottwaldová also made it into the top ten, finishing ninth. In a closely contested battle among the top three riders of the season, French cyclist Célia Geryová clinched the gold, improving on her third-place finish from the previous year. Additionally, on Friday, she had already won gold as a member of the French relay team.

Right from the start, the trio of the top favorites took the lead: Viktoria Chladoňová from Slovakia, Britain's Cat Ferguson, and Geryová, the only three winners of this season's Cyclocross World Cup races. Our hopes, Amálie Gottwaldová, Douděrová, and Daniela Hezinová, also settled near the front.

By the end of the first lap, the trio had a ten-second lead over Douděrová, with Langenbarg from the Netherlands quickly joining the leaders. The trio stayed together practically until the final hundreds of meters, and only then, in a technical section, did the European champion Geryová gain a small advantage, which she maintained until the finish line. In the battle for the second spot, Ferguson succeeded, and after sixteen years, Chladoňová brought home the bronze medal for Slovakia. Douděrová secured the best Czech result in the fourth World Championship of this category, improving by three places from Vanda Dlasková's performance last year.

Results:

1. Geryová (Fr.) 37:01,

2. Fergusonová (Brit.) +5,

3. Chladoňová (SR) +14,

4. Langenbardová (Niz.) +1:04,

5. Douděrová (ČR) +1:12,

6. Lopezová (USA) +1:54,

9. Gottwaldová +2:06,

19. Hezinová +3:25,

20. Viková +3:31,

42. Panušová +5:59,

43. Sedláčková +6:00,

45. Hrdinová (všechny ČR) +6:00.