Cant paints grim picture of her early years: "I don't think Pieterse and Van Empel can even imagine it"

This Sunday, Sanne Cant begins her first race of her final season as a cyclocross rider. She will be at the starting line of the Superprestige in Ruddervoorde, Belgium. In an interview with the cycling magazine Bahamontes, she reflected on her past in cyclocross. Her words clearly show that women's cyclocross was neglected for years.

While Belgian men generally dominated in cyclocross, it took a long time for a breakthrough in the women's division. That finally came with Cant, but the path was far from easy, in part because she had no role model to look up to. "I didn't have any professional female cyclocross riders as an example, so I long considered cyclocross a hobby that had gotten out of hand, something I combined with high school."

During a race in her junior years, however, she realized that more was possible. "The moment it clicked was at the World Cup race in Hofstade. I was still a junior, but back then, all women's categories raced together," said Cant. "Suddenly, I was leading for a while, which was pretty unique for a Belgian at the time. Spectators still had their backs to the course during our race and didn’t notice, but the excitement from the announcers quickly spread to the crowd. That gave me such a huge kick that I thought: I want to keep doing this."

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Cant: "I think Sven Nys earned ten times more"

After that, things progressed rapidly for Cant. In 2009, she came under the guidance of the Roodhooft brothers and has since built a record of achievements worthy of great respect. She became a three-time world champion, won the World Cup three times, and took four Superprestige titles. Most impressive, however, are her fifteen consecutive Belgian national titles as an elite rider.

You might think that someone with a track record like that and that kind of status in cyclocross would earn well, but in her early years, that was far from the case. "Even when I won a cyclocross race, even in the elite category, I barely earned 27 euros. You could easily spend that on gas. And women’s cyclocross races were hidden in the program," Cant paints a grim picture.

The women also received little publicity. "We started at half-past nine in the morning, before the juniors and all the other men’s categories, often while they were still hanging up banners. Winning the GvA Trophy only earned me 2,500 euros. I think Sven Nys got ten times that. Back then, all of us women raced purely for the love of the sport."

Cant slightly envious of Van Empel and Pieterse

While Cant once dominated for years, that privilege is now held by the young powerhouses Fem van Empel and Puck Pieterse. Cant would have loved to be part of their generation. "I don’t think Pieterse and Van Empel can even imagine the conditions I had to race in during my early years. You could say I was born too early."