{"id":46365,"title":"Canne Cant: cyclocross legend","description":"On the twenty-third of February, triple UCI Cyclocross World Champion Sanne Cant will hang her bike on a hook at Oostmalle after an incredible career as one of the greatest cyclocross riders of all time. We look back at her successes, and disappointments and consider her impact on the world of women\u2019s cyclocross.","content":"

From cobbles to cross - cycling's true heart<\/em><\/strong><\/p>

Published in<\/strong>: <\/span>CYCLOCROSS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>

Triple UCI Cyclocross World Champion Sanne Cant will finally \u201chang her bike on a hook\u201d at Oostmalle after an incredible career as one of the greatest cyclocross riders of all time. We look back at her successes, and disappointments and consider her impact on the world of women\u2019s cyclocross.<\/p>

\"ThreeTriple UCI Cyclocross World Champion Sanne Cant in action. Image: Rijden<\/em><\/p>

UCI Cyclocross World Championships 2017<\/h2>

With under two laps left, seven-time Cyclocross World Champion Marianne Vos has opened up a clear gap to her pursuers. A plunging descent of the treacherous off-camber, which has already claimed several victims, allows Sanne Cant to chisel the lead back to eight seconds.<\/p>

\u201cDutch and Belgian fans lining the icey course roar their support\u201d<\/em><\/p>

Surely Vos is on her way to title number eight. But her Belgian opponent draws closer and as Vos fumbles in a corner, Cant is past her Dutch rival. The two are locked in close combat and either could triumph. Dutch and Belgian fans lining the icey course roar their support.<\/p>

Marianne leads but with Cant almost alongside. Once again, the Belgian throws all caution to the wind as they bounce down the ice-hardened ruts towards the tarmac. Vos is the better sprinter and Cant knows it. But as they hurtle out of the final corner Cant leads and Vos can no longer stay with her.<\/p>

\u201cthe pain of previous disappointment is washed away\u201d<\/em><\/p>

The young Belgian emits a huge roar as she crosses the line, arms aloft. Finally, the pain of previous disappointment is washed away. Sanne Cant is the 2017 Cyclocross World Champion.<\/p>

Sanne Cant\u2019s career<\/h2>

I was genuinely shocked when I read through Sanne\u2019s results. Less than one month past her fourteenth birthday, she rode her first UCI event. Not amongst her peers but racing against the best in the world including reigning twenty-six year old Cyclocross World Champion Daphny van den Brand.<\/p>

\"SanneSanne Cant was inspired by her cousin Loes Sels (right) to ride cyclocross. Image: Rijden<\/em><\/p>

Remarkably, given the illustrious company and her position as the youngest competitor, she didn't finish last. The teenager placed twelfth out of a field of thirty-five that included her cousin Loes Sels. Five years Sanne's senior, Sels was already a veteran of three World Championships and silver medallist at the previous season\u2019s Belgian National Championships.<\/p>

Racing across the border<\/h3>

Appropriately, Cant's first UCI race was held in the Netherlands. It's the country where her cyclocross career started. Due to the rules in place at the time, her parents had to take her across the border into the Netherlands where girls were able to race from their seventh birthday. Unlike their Belgian counterparts who had to wait until they were twelve.<\/p>

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\"*\"It was her cousin Loes that inspired Sanne to race. Cant's brothers took up the sport too. Both brothers eventually riding for UCI Continental level teams, but neither Jelle nor Kevin achieved the same degree of success as their middle sister.<\/p>

Her progression was rapid, finishing twice on the podium the following year and the subsequent season saw her move into the junior ranks. Not that this made any real difference as, in the absence of junior women's UCI races, she continued to ride against the elites.<\/p>

Turning professional<\/h3>

Cant made her World Championships debut at Hooglede-Gits finishing eighteenth in a forty-five rider field. She continued to impress and for the 2008-09, her first as an under 23, she was signed as a professional by the Italian Guerciotti\u2013Selle Italia team.<\/p>

\"SanneSanne Cant made her last World Championships appearance at Li\u00e9vin. Image: Rijden<\/em><\/p>

The team was rewarded with her first UCI victory at the Ciclocross del Ponte Fae' di Oderzo where she finished well clear of Eva Lechner. Second at the Belgian National Championships only a single second behind Joyce Vanderbeken was followed by sixth at the World Championships. The latter was won by Marianne Vos, achieving her second World title at her home race of Hoogerheide.<\/p>

Riding for the Roodhooft brothers<\/h3>

For the following season, Cant switched to the Enetherm-BKCP team owned by the Roodhooft brothers<\/strong><\/a> where she's effectively stayed for the rest of her career. The brothers Roodhooft would have been pleased with their new charge. A season with five podium places was capped with her first of fifteen consecutive Belgian Cyclocross titles where she gained revenge on Joyce Vanderbeken.<\/p>

By the start of the 2012-2013 season, the Belgian number one had taken five victories. Her three Belgian titles, her maiden win in Italy and the Krawatencross at Lille near her home town.<\/p>

The 2012-2013 season was a turning point as she ratcheted up nine wins and the overall in the Bpost Bank Trofee. The World Championships in Louisville were the only disappointment. Cant finished a lowly eighteenth. But it was just the start.<\/p>

\"SanneSanne has ridden almost all her professional career at Roodhooft-owned teams. Image: Rijden<\/em><\/p>

Eleven wins the following season was surpassed in the 2014-15 season when she crossed the line first on no fewer than twenty-three occasions. Her first UCI World Cup win of her career came in the dunes of Koksijde followed by Milton Keynes the following weekend.<\/p>

World Championships disappointment<\/h3>

Sanne finished the year as the UCI\u2019s number one ranked elite women and overall winner of the UCI World Cup. And yet the year ended with disappointment. In the fleeting snow of a wintery Tabor, French rider Pauline Ferrand Prevot pipped her Belgian rival in a close sprint.<\/p>

\u201ccalling her a \u2018bitch face\u2019, a sore loser and worse\u201d<\/em><\/p>

Cant was inconsolable. Her disappointment was written across her face on the podium. There were no smiles. She looked utterly dejected. Many were critical calling her a \u2018bitch face\u2019, a sore loser and worse, although some were supportive<\/strong><\/a>. I can\u2019t help but wonder if the reaction would have been so negative if she\u2019d been a man.<\/p>

Personally, I respected how she felt. It demonstrated how important winning the World title was to her. In a recent interview, she spoke of her one real regret. It was not the races that she failed to win but failing to appreciate the ones she did. She didn\u2019t enjoy the success at the time as she was too focused on analysing where she could improve.<\/p>

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\"Subscribe<\/u><\/a>I have no doubt that\u2019s exactly what she was doing on the podium in Tabor. It was not a lack of respect for her competitors. She was probably chastising herself for some minor errors and working out where she needed to raise her game.<\/p>

The following season was a similar story. Twenty victories and winner of the UCI World Cup, Superprestige and Bpost Bank Trofee. But again, the World Championships eluded her, beaten by Thalita de Jong and Caroline Mani. Worse still it was held at Heusden-Zolder in Belgium.<\/p>

Cyclocross domination<\/h3>

By the time of the World Championships the following year, held at an icey and treacherous Bieles in Luxembourg, she\u2019d again scored an incredible fifteen victories. But there had been off days too. She\u2019d only managed fourth at Hoogerheide the weekend before with the Dutch trio of Vos, Brand and Worst all finishing ahead.<\/p>

Her victory at Bieles in 2017 heralded two more fantastic years where she triumphed at the World Championships in Valkenburg and Bogense. And then it was as if the tap had been turned off. After five years as the number one ranked rider, she slipped to only sixth in 2019-2020 with a mere three wins to her name. She was still the number one Belgian but no longer the best in the world.<\/p>

\"SanneSanne Cant is a sand expert. Here she leads Julie Brouwers at Sint-Niklaas.Image: Rijden<\/em><\/p>

There have been few victories since but this final year has been the best of her last four seasons capped with a strong ride at the World Championships. But maybe more than anything, she\u2019s looked like she\u2019s been enjoying it more than when she was winning.<\/p>

Sanne Cant\u2019s strengths<\/h2>

I first became a fan of Sanne Cant after watching her at the 2016 edition of the Ardooie Kermiscross<\/strong><\/a>. It\u2019s a midweek non-televised UCI C2 ranked event that many ride purely for the start money. It was an extremely muddy and wet affair. When we first arrived at the course the water was thigh-deep.<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m going to beat you\u201d<\/em><\/p>

Cant faced Thalita de Jong, the reigning World Champion, who looked better throughout. She must have felt reasonably certain of victory but she\u2019d not reckoned with the steadfast resistance of her rival. Sanne\u2019s face was a mask of determination. If ever a look said \u201cI\u2019m going to beat you\u201d, this was it. She dug deep but still trailed going into the final lap.<\/p>

\u201cThe \u2026 tenacious stare became her trademark look.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

I came to realise later, that Cant\u2019s greatest strength was her ability to pull out one last effort in the final lap. Time after time, she was able to nab victory in the dying moments. The slightly hunched, lop-sided, tenacious stare became her trademark look.<\/p>

Coupled with innate skills and a tremendous tactical brain honed over the years, it made her a powerful adversary. She\u2019s a master of sand born out by her triumphs at the Krawatencross, Mol, Middelkerke, Zonhoven and Kosijde.<\/p>

Road racing<\/h2>

Sanne is lesser known for her road racing exploits and it\u2019s true she\u2019s never won a UCI classified road race. Her best UCI results are a pair of second places at the 2024 Belgian National Road Race Championship behind a rampaging Lotte Kopecky and the 2023 GP Yvonne Reynders<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>

\"SanneSanne in road action at the Belgian National Championships held at Middelkerke. Image: Rijden<\/em><\/p>

She is, however, not without success on the road, for example winning the Schaal Sels in August 2024 where she led home Fenix-Deceuninck teammates Marthe Truyen and Marion Norbert Riberolle. <\/p>

\u201cshe tore across the gap to the tiring break like a heat-seeking missile\u201d<\/em><\/p>

Cant has always performed well at the Belgian National Championships and came close in 2022 when in the final few kilometres she tore across the gap to the tiring break like a heat-seeking missile. Had she made the junction, with her rapid sprint she may well have won. In the end, she was just eight seconds too late.<\/p>

For much of her road racing career, Sanne has ridden in the service of others. Something she\u2019s been respected for. Cant was a valued member of the team that aided Lotte Kopecky on her way to victory at the 2023 World Championships in Glasgow. It was a shock and disappointment to her that she was left out of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Her final race came at the provincial championships of East Flanders where she placed sixteenth.<\/p>

Sanne Cant\u2019s Legacy<\/h2>

Besides leaving a record of over 120 UCI cyclocross victories, three UCI Cyclocross World Championships, two European Championships, and fifteen Belgian National Championships, what will be Sanne Cant\u2019s lasting legacy?<\/p>

It\u2019s not unreasonable to consider her to have been pivotal in the evolution and development of women\u2019s international cyclocross. Not only in Belgium but in the Netherlands, France, the UK and the whole of the cyclocross world.<\/p>

When Cant made her UCI cyclocross debut in 2004 there were seventy-eight UCI races for women worldwide. Belgium, the beating heart of cyclocross hosted a mere nine of them. At least this was an improvement. From 1984 to 1994 there was a single women\u2019s UCI cyclocross race each year and that was the Dutch National Championships.<\/p>

Impact upon women\u2019s cyclocross<\/h3>

This year, there were 179 elite women\u2019s UCI races and 113 junior women\u2019s races held across the globe. Cyclocross strongholds such as Belgium, the USA, France, the Czech Republic and Spain promoted over half of them. But events were held in Greece, New Zealand, Australia, Albania, Chile and Japan.<\/p>

Surely one woman wasn\u2019t responsible for all of this? Clearly not, but Sanne was one of the significant mobilising factors in the growth of women\u2019s cyclocross. Belgian men had enjoyed their own National Cyclocross Championships since 1910. Belgian junior males started to fight out a UCI-registered title in 1974 with under-23 men joining them in 1996.<\/p>

\"Read<\/u><\/a>It wasn\u2019t until 2001 that Belgian women competed for a UCI registered National title. A mere thirteen women took to the start line. By the time of the 2022 Belgian title, forty-eight elite women and twenty-two juniors raced for separate crowns. The numbers have slipped back a bit since then but the transformation has been dramatic.<\/p>

TV coverage<\/h3>

Today, the idea of women becoming professionals and making a career from riding cyclocross is no longer a joke. It\u2019s a realistic prospect and women\u2019s TV cyclocross draws in viewing audiences as good as and sometimes better than that of their male counterparts. <\/p>

\u201cWomen no longer ride for pitifully small prize lists\u201d<\/em><\/p>

Women no longer ride for pitifully small prize lists. They have equality in prize money and nobody would consider organising an elite men\u2019s race without a women\u2019s equivalent.<\/p>

At the start of Sanne\u2019s career, a handful of elite women raced largely unseen by spectators or television viewers. They were treated dismissively by many in a male-dominated sport. What TV coverage they garnered was limited to a few minutes of highlights before live coverage of the full men\u2019s race.<\/p>

Helen Wyman, eight-time British National Cyclocross Champion turned cyclocross TV commentator, was a rider representative on the UCI\u2019s Cyclo-Cross Commission. <\/p>

A long advocate for equality in women\u2019s cyclocross, she pushed through a rule that women\u2019s races had to take place immediately prior to the men\u2019s. <\/p>

Up to this point, it was not uncommon for the women to race before the junior boys. Long before most spectators arrived on the course and before the cameramen had removed their lens caps.<\/p>

\"ImageSanne has helped to transform women\u2019s cyclocross. Image: Rijden<\/em><\/p>

It was a transformational moment. The Bpost Bank Trofee races were the first to be televised in 2014. The year when Sanne Cant\u2019s career took off and she became the dominant female cyclocross rider. <\/p>

The viewing figures were huge and soon the Superprestige series and other major cyclocross races in Belgium began broadcasting the women\u2019s races too. Within two seasons the women\u2019s viewing figures were close to those of the men.<\/p>

The Dutch aren\u2019t a cycle-racing nation<\/h3>

It was a critical factor that Sanne was Belgian. Had she been Dutch, it\u2019s extremely unlikely the Belgian broadcasters would have been interested. Up to this point, the women\u2019s cyclocross world had largely been dominated by the Dutch through Marianne Vos and Daphny van den Brand.<\/p>

The Netherlands might be a \u201ccycling nation\u201d but it\u2019s not a \u201ccycle racing nation\u201d like Belgium. The Dutch have the majority of top female road and cyclocross racers in the world but they don\u2019t have the same cultural attachment to cycle sport as the Belgians. It\u2019s why they only organise one Classic road race (Amstel Gold) and didn\u2019t even show their National Cyclocross Championships on TV in 2025.<\/p>

\u201cWe can think of women\u2019s cyclocross as before Sanne and after Sanne\u201d<\/em><\/p>

As the popularity of women\u2019s cyclocross on TV increased it gained a wider international audience outside of Belgium inspiring the next generation of female cyclists. Even if, many of them turned out to be Dutch. We can think of women\u2019s cyclocross as before Sanne and after Sanne.<\/p>

\"ImageThe familiar riding style of Sanne Cant. Image: Rijden<\/p>

Not that she did it alone. She needed capable adversaries such as Ellen van Loy<\/strong><\/a>, Helen Wyman, Katie Compton, Marianne Vos, Katerina Nash, Nikki Brammier and their peers to provide the competition that created an audience-grabbing spectacle. Without Sanne Cant, for example, Ellen van Loy might have won six Belgian titles.<\/p>

Glowing tributes<\/h3>

The respect, admiration and fondness felt for Sanne Cant by the fans and her rivals is obvious. Accolades have come from across the sport and she\u2019s been received with warm applause and cheers at every race she\u2019s competed in during her final valedictory seasons of road and cyclocross.<\/p>

We asked her former rival and eight-time British National Cyclocross Champion turned TV commentator Helen Wyman to provide a personal tribute:<\/p>

\u201cI was there in Sanne's first World Cup when she was 16 years old. From the beginning she had the hopes and aspirations of Belgium firmly on her shoulders and yet she remained a smart funny cross loving young woman. She is genuinely a fan of the sport and watches all of it.<\/em><\/p>

Tactically Sanne is a genius and has won many races by being smart, the best example of which is probably Bogense Worlds where she beat four incredibly strong Dutch women all on her own.<\/em><\/p>

When we had the first Helen 100 junior women\u2019s race in Belgium Sanne contacted the Belgium federation and asked them to send an email to every female licence holder so that people knew and it would be a success. She also stood on the side in the freezing misty morning in Loenhout and cheered on all those young women.<\/em><\/p>

Not only has she been a major catalyst in growing women\u2019s cross simply by being the best and being Belgium. She has also always taken every opportunity she can to support the next generation too.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>

Sanne Cant\u2019s career highlights<\/h2>