In a repeat of Saturday's Superprestige Merksplas, Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Fenix-Deceuninck) held off the chasing Lucinda brand (Baloise Trek Lions) to claim her triple crown in the third round of hamme's X2O Trofee Flandriencross. 

Locked into a three-way fight on the last lap, Alvarado forced the pace at the front where a chain problem forced the brand into the pit to get a new bike. Alvarado stepped up the pace, while Sarah Casasola (Clélan・Corendon) and Brand lagged behind. The Dutch champion was able to overtake the Italian champion on a small ramp that had caused problems during the race, gave the chase and launched a fierce chase that almost caught Alvarado on the finish straight.

The brand crossed the finish line just 1 second after the winner, and Casasola took 5th place after 3 seconds.

"I'm very happy with my win today, and especially because I didn't expect it, I've had a very sore leg and a generally bad day since yesterday so I'm really happy to add a win. And I think there are 6, or something, right now," Alvarado said in a post-race flash interview.

She admitted that she had to dig deep to claim her 6th win of the season. 

"Yeah, very deep. I think it was the hardest race of the season so far."

After taking a hole shot on a high-speed course in East Flanders, Zoe Buckstead (Canyon Slam) made a small gap until Bobble on a slightly modest little ramp stepped into the under-23 world champion. The British rider was captured by Alvarado, Brand, Casa Sola, Annemary Worst (Fenix-Deceuninck). By the third lap, however, the same ramp caused more problems for the worst who had to put her feet down with a Backstedt behind her.

In the middle of the 7-lap race, Brand, Alvarado and Casasola were trapped in an intense 3-way contest, each changing their pace and increasing their pace while Buckstedt chased Solo. 

The brand maintained the lead in the X2O Trofee series, surpassing Casasola at 2:08. The worst will be at 4:19 to 3rd place, while Alvarado will continue at 5:14 to 4th place.

Results supplied by FirstCycling

Results supplied by FirstCycling

Results supplied by FirstCycling

Results supplied by FirstCycling