On Saturday, Fem van Empel notched her 50th cyclocross victory. The world champion from Visma | Lease a Bike lived up to her favorite status in the Exact Cross Heerderstrand, and according to her, she had to. "I went to the store myself yesterday to buy some things," the 23-year-old cyclocross star referred to two cardboard traffic signs she used at the finish to celebrate the milestone.
In the last 100 meters, Van Empel pulled a small sign with the number '50' out of her jersey to celebrate her special win. Shortly after, she also grabbed a similar sign reading ‘Hooray! 50 wins’ from the crowd. So the milestone had been anticipated in advance. None other than Van Empel herself turned out to be the organizer.
🚵♀️🇳🇱 | Is Fem van Empel back and better than ever? She didn’t get it handed to her, but secured the win at Heerderstrand! Her 50th overall! 🙌🥳 #cyclocross
📺 Stream cyclocross on HBO Max pic.twitter.com/0QzW0Fz4xs
— Eurosport Nederland (@Eurosport_NL) October 25, 2025
"I went to the store yesterday to buy some things. So I put a lot of pressure on myself, but the preparation was fun," laughs Van Empel. "But I still had to win. Luckily, everything went according to plan and that happened, so I’m very satisfied." The 23-year-old Dutchwoman broke away from Aniek van Alphen in the final lap.
"I put a lot of pressure on Aniek in the last part of the final lap, and that proved enough to make the difference. That’s where the race was decided," the world champion analyzed afterwards.
3x World Champion
3x European Champion
18x wins in World Cup races
3x wins in Superprestige races
15x wins in X²O Trophy races
8x wins in other cyclocross events
Van Empel has also won the World Cup overall classification once and the X²O Trophy overall twice, but these overall victories are not counted in the total.
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