Everything about Lucinda Brand

Who is Lucinda Brand?

Lucinda Brand is a Dutch Cyclocross and Road racer. She is currently a member of the Baloise - Trek Lions team, and in Cyclocross she rides for the sister team of Baloise - Trek Lions, and has become one of Cyclocross' most successful riders especially in the early 2020s when she won all World Cup, Superprestige and X20 Badkamers Trofee in both 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 seasons, with World, European and Dutch titles included in her extensive record.

Name: Lucinda Brand
Birthday: July 2, 1989
Birthplace: Dordrecht, Netherlands
Turned pro: 2009
Height: 1.68m

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Lucinda Brand was born in the Netherlands, in Dordrecht on July 2, 1989. Over the years she has become one of the most successful female cyclists in modern cycling, as she continually builds an impressive record in Cyclocross, while at the same time combining it with a career on the road where she has also picked up victories in a number of major events. Brand currently rides for Trek - Segafredo on the road and with sister team Baloise - Trek Lions in the Cyclocross.

As a young rider, Brand made her debut in the pro peloton in 2009 with the Leontien.nl team, where she spent her first four seasons as a pro and began to show her talent, particularly in hilly races. Her first pro win came in the 2012 Tour Féminin en Limousin, and shortly thereafter she also picked up a victory in the old La Route de France. A fourth-place finish in that year's Flèche Wallone caused her to attract the attention of several top teams and she was soon contracted by the Rabobank - Liv Giant team in 2013 - a contract that continued into 2016.

In one of the most successful teams in the world, Brand picked up her first big win at the 2013 national championships . In 2014 , she won the national Energiewacht Tour and the GP de Plouay-Bretagne, despite her frequent role as a domestique for her teammates. In 2015, however, she would no longer fulfill this role, as she grew through the ranks and became a leaderwoman in her own right. This season she picked up four victories and as her final season on the road, it was perhaps the best of her career.

Here she again picked up victories at the national championships, took victories in the Energiewacht Tour and two in the Giro d'Italia. She also achieved several top results, such as second places in the Sparkassen Giro and the Boels Rental Ladies Tour, placing among the best of the season. In 2016, she won the Ladies Tour of Norway in addition to a few other victories, but she has begun to dedicate more of her preparation to the Cyclocross season.

From 2017 to 2019, she represented Team Sunweb where she became world champion in the TTT, but only picked up 3 wins in her debut year, with consistent results but no big wins. Those came after she signed with Trek - Segafredo in 2020. In the 2021 season, she won the LOTTO Thüringen Ladies Tour and two stage wins, as well as a stage in the Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l'Ardèche. In 2022, she confirmed these results by winning two stages and the overall classification in the mountainous Tour of Switzerland.

Her main results, however, were in Cyclocross. Brand had been active in this discipline since juniors, but only in the 2016-2017 season did she expand her calendar and take her first victory in the modest Kiremko Nacht van Woerden. However, she had finished second at World, European and National Championships, and in the following season she rode a reduced but successful season in which she became a national champion, winning the Zilvermeercross Mol and the Waaslandcross Sint-Niklaas, while once again being on the podium of World and European Championships, in addition to a Dutch title.

In 2018-2019 she took seven victories, three of them in World Cup races, and national championships included. At the beginning of the 2019-2020 season, she joined the Baloise - Trek Lions, the team she represents to this day. Her first season was not yet on a full calendar, but did include five wins, with her World Cup total rising with triumphs in Namen, Heusden-Zolder and Hoogerheide.

Everything would change in the 2020-2021 season, however, as she noticed her talent was brighter on the off-road and decided to dedicate herself to a full calendar. That year she won the UCI World Cup, Superprestige and X20 Baths, in addition to her first world title at the Ostend circuit. It was a season in which she rode 28 times, won 12 times and was on the podium 26 times - a total of 93% of her races.

She confirmed that by repeating victory in all three classifications and the European Championships in 2021-2022 . It was another overwhelmingly successful season, with Brand winning 20 of 33 races. 30 podium finishes followed. Brand built one of the most impressive records in cyclocross history and became the main face of the women's team.

In the 2022-2023 season, she was unable to repeat her success so far. She won the Bears Cross at the beginning of the season, but as of mid-October she was third and second respectively in the Waterloo and Fayetteville World Cup races. But with the emergence of compatriots Fem van Empel and Puck Pieterse, she was now only a second rider. Throughout the winter she put in good performances and earned many podium finishes, but she could not match her new rivals. She finally finished third at the world championships in Hoogerheide, while she finished second in the cups at the X2O Bathrooms Trophy.

She resumed her road racing program in late March, with 12th place in both Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix Femmes as modest results to show off. Brand managed to win the Baloise Belgium Tour, her highlight of the year after winning the race's time trial. Her season ended prematurely with a fall in the Simac Ladies Tour, where she suffered a shoulder injury - delaying her start in the cyclocross season.

In 2024, she won the Dwars door het Hageland one-day race and also a stage at the Thüringen Ladies Tour.