Lucinda Brand certain crash ruled her out of race-winning contention in Herentals: “Whether I would have won is another matter"

Lucinda Brand put in another solidly impressive performance on Saturday afternoon in Herentals, outsprinting Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado for second place behind Fem van Empel. Could things have been even better without a mid-race crash though?

“Definitely. Whether I would have won is another matter," Brand answers convincingly in her post-race interview after being asked if the aforementioned crash was all that separated her from Van Empel on the day. "Then it would have been a battle until the last lap.”

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"I thought: I'm going to go straight for once. I knew it was a more difficult route, but it was also shorter. Fem had just accelerated. I lost traction and wanted to unclip, but because of all the clay underneath, I got stuck," Brand continues, detailing exactly how her moment of difficulty came to pass. "Then you have a classic 'falling over'. Was I one gear too big, haha? Then I should have used a different gear, because I couldn't go any lighter.”

Nevertheless, in terms of the overall X2O Badkammers Trofee standings, it was another positive day for the Dutch national champion. “It was a good day for the classification. Sara Casasola was not here, but I think it was also a good day compared to the other riders,” Brand concludes.

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