"It's a shame that I made those mistakes" - Lucinda Brand still looking for her best technical abilities after return to cyclocross
Cyclocross
Lucinda Brand began her cyclocross season in good form, she attacked the Superprestige Merksplas today but ultimately had to settle with a second place as Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado took the best of her again.
“It's a shame that I made those mistakes. When she came back to me, I was like: don't want to go too fast, don't make mistakes. You see that you actually make mistakes. After that I came back a bit, but it went wrong again," the Dutch rider admitted in a post-race interview. "That is also part of the race. It's a shame, but I think physically I rode as expected. Fine." After a second place in the Dendermonde World Cup, she took the same result this afternoon.
“You want to continue to ride well technically under pressure. It remains difficult to imitate such races during training. That is why it is good to keep riding races and I am happy that I am presented with such courses again," she said. The track in Merksplas was a perfect test for her technical abilities. "The difficult thing is that the forest is very treacherous. In itself it is fast, but it was also very slippery. That is typical for here, but it is also very difficult.”
Baoloise - Trek Lions manager Sven Nys commented on Brand's race afterwards: “You have to stay focused and not get stuck in it. That's difficult, because it makes you angry. I think we were quite successful in just continuing to look for the right lines at the end. We have to take that with us to the next races.”
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A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
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Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
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- Yeah, unreal.
parisbound0008-11-2026 - there needs to be space in life for pointless comments!Ketterechts08-11-2026
- That is a very lazy way of putting it but so far on this website it seems like everyone is happy to look at everything lazily, even things that annoy them intensely. All they want to do is state their feeling and position but ask most to analyse a problem or come up with solutions or improvements and you’re stunned by silence. Nobody even really knows how this all happens. It’s very simple and quick to just say the UCI did it but I bet you they didn’t, I bet you not more than 2 people were involved, more likely just 1. The UCI may be ultimately responsible but it is not their decision, this is about hierarchy, power and delegation. The fact that protest is possible also means it isn’t over and that MORE people could get involved for a thorough review which could throw up anything. It is highly likely it was a sole commissar who decided and has that power in a first round. Therein might lie the problem the UCI has to consider, is it acceptable to give so much authority to one single person when it is quite possible for them to have a natural bias or be too easily susceptible to imposed bias. Who is to say an individual in this position isn’t susceptible to collaboration with outside players with interests in the results, nations, families, teams, betting companies, etc. On the one hand we have sports where these problems have been worked on way more to reduce such problems, on the other hand we have sports with far stricter and more draconian rules not even concerning safety or obstruction that nobody really questions like false starts or stepping out of lane or zones in athletics. If cycling hastowork on itself, it would be good if protagonists (all kinds) would start doing a little more than just moaning over outcomes.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Yes, so why not make comments less pointless?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- What a race! I didn't expect Vanthourenhout to collapse like that, and Wyseure did take the fight to Nys, but there was no doubt at the end. I also wonder what Aubin Sparfel would be capable of were he to race in the elites now. In the U23 ranks he is making good work of Giel Lejeune, who himself is among the better riders in the elites, and a top 10 contender in the big races (3rd at Kleebergcross, 8th at Berencross and 5th at Heerderstrand). In the French Cup, Sparfel is significantly better than Romain Debord (8th at Koppenbergcross and 10th at the Euros) and Rémi Lelandais (12th at Koppenbergcross and 19th at the Euros).
Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026 - There really was nothing in it. Schreiber was so much faster, and Brand was fighting to stay in the wheel in the sprint. Schreiber did move a bit, but to say she closed the door doesn't make sense because Brand couldn't enter it anyway, abd she wasn't impeded.Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026
- He should have been allowed to go to Movistar. Right now both arent a good fit for each other and are just wasting each other's time and effortabstractengineer08-11-2026
- Thibau Nys does exactly what Iserbyt is calling forRafionain-Glas08-11-2026
- i did not see it. was the relegation justified or an overly hard decision? and don‘t cross riders deviate from straight lines all the time? bumping into each others when they cut corners, etc … why being more strict with the rules on the finish sprint?Ketterechts08-11-2026
- seems like we are advertising the website with pointless comments…Ketterechts08-11-2026
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🏆 Superprestige Merksplas (C1) 🇧🇪 1 🇳🇱 Ceylin Del Carmen Alvarado 2 🇳🇱 Lucinda Brand 3 🇧🇪 Marion Norbert Riberolle 4 🇳🇱 Worst 5 🇳🇱 Betsema 6 🇳🇱 Van Alphen 7 🇳🇱 Bakker 8 🇳🇱 Van der Heijden 9 🇧🇪 Cant 10 🇧🇪 Franck ➡️ Results: bit.ly/40LasiX
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