Lucinda Brand continues strong start to winter with dominant victory at Rapencross Lokeren ahead of Alvarado & Casasola

Lucinda Brand has taken victory at the Rapencross Lokeren as part of the X2O Badkamers Trofee, moving into the overall lead of the standings and continuing her strong start of the season in the process. Completing the podium in Belgium, Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado and Sara Casasola.

Straight away at the very first corner, there was trouble for Manon Bakker who went down, dropping right to the back of the field. There was also some trouble on the first lap for Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, dropping a chain and losing ground. Noticing her rival in difficulty, Lucinda Brand took to the front and started to up the pace.

As Brand continued to accelerate over the second lap, only Annemarie Worst and Sara Casasola could keep pace. The Dutch national champion was relentless though and at the end of lap three, she'd built a lead of 8 seconds back to Casasola. Although Brand was continuing to put the power down, Alvarado had picked her way back through the field and got back to 2nd heading into the penultimate lap. There was no catching Brand though as the Baloise - Trek Lions star took the victory with relative comfort in the end.