Lentel Huys wins junior women’s European cyclocross title after stairway attack in Zeddam

Lentel Huys won the junior women’s title at the 2026 European Cyclocross Championships in Zeddam, using the course’s brutal 99-step staircase to make the decisive difference before holding off a late charge from Shana Huber.

The 16-year-old Belgian completed the five-lap race in 39:47, nine seconds ahead of Switzerland’s Huber. Nynke Jochems took bronze for the Netherlands at 17 seconds, with Karolína Rothbauerová fourth and Great Britain’s Peggy Knox fifth.

Huys arrived as one of the main challengers identified in our junior women’s European Championships preview, but the first-year junior still had to handle a course where the long staircase repeatedly split otherwise closely matched riders.

Versluis leads the opening charge

Home rider Isis Versluis made the fastest start and led the field onto the off-road sections, with Huys, Huber and Jochems immediately well positioned behind her.

The opening lap did not produce a decisive split. The leading riders stayed close enough that position mattered as much as outright speed, especially before the stairs and the technical section that followed them.

Rothbauerová worked her way into the front group during the second lap, while Knox had to spend energy reconnecting after initially losing contact. That regrouping briefly increased the number of riders still capable of contesting the medals.

Huys responded by making the race harder rather than waiting for the closing lap.

Huys makes the stairs count

The Belgian began to create separation on the long staircase, where the combination of running speed and repeated remounting demanded a different kind of effort from the rest of the circuit.

Once Huys gained a few seconds, the chase struggled to organise. Jochems and Huber were the most persistent pursuers, but neither could consistently match the time Huys was gaining each time the race returned to the stairs.

Huys carried an advantage of around eight seconds into the penultimate lap. She stretched it again on the key running section, forcing Huber and Jochems to chase hard through the faster final part of the lap simply to keep the title within reach.

Huber produced the strongest closing effort and reduced the gap on the final circuit, but Huys still had enough in hand. She drove all the way along the long finishing straight and crossed the line nine seconds clear.

A first-year junior takes the first title of the weekend

The victory made Huys the first European champion crowned in Zeddam and did so in her first season at junior level.

Her race was notable for how early she committed. Rather than relying on a final-lap acceleration, Huys identified the hardest physical feature of the course and used it repeatedly to build a margin that the chasers could never quite remove.

Huber’s silver was earned with a strong final lap, while Jochems secured the Netherlands’ first medal of the championships. Rothbauerová and Knox finished together at 35 seconds, with Natália Letková sixth at 59 seconds.

Mathilde Leegaard, Versluis, Nicole Righetto and Damy Van Den Bogaard completed a top 10 separated by just 1:02.

European Cyclocross Championships junior women 2026 result