Lucinda Brand doubles up this weekend with muddy World Cup Dendermonde victory ahead of Pieterse & Van Empel
Cyclocross
Lucinda Brand has made it a weekend double and has added a win from a proper cyclocross mudfest at World Cup Dendermonde, to her victory on Saturday in Gullegem. The World Cup leader held off the challenge of Puck Pieterse and Fem van Empel to take a very impressive victory.
With the rain falling, the Dendermonde course was an absolute mudfest. That didn't stop Puck Pieterse early on though, as the Dutch star soared over the first couple of laps, gaining an advantage of 15 seconds from Zoe Backstedt and Lucinda Brand at the end of lap 2. On lap 3 though, Brand put in a big effort to drop Backstedt and bridge the gap to Pieterse at the head of the race.
After keeping pace alongside Pieterse for a short while, Brand surged clear on lap 4, and suddenly, Pieterse was under threat from behind again as Fem van Empel came back into the fight at the front. By the time the final lap began, victory looked secured for Brand, but the fight between Pieterse and Van Empel was still very much alive and ongoing, although the advantage was now on the side of the world champion. That quickly turned around again though, as Van Empel suffered a rear puncture early on the final lap. In the end, Pieterse had just enough to hold onto 2nd behind Brand.
Read also
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- he can do what he wants, and if he can state his feelings, so can I. and my feeling is, it is fun to see the best riders in the biggest race. there are always stages to go after. and racing is more fun with an MVDP to cheer for. and to the point of the other guy, he raced 7 races prior. he will do 11 or so cross races. yes he races to win, but as a fan I would really love to see him in the race. I'm being greedy admittedly. to the point of vappaxbipmv, he isn't exactly racing his legs off with the races he has been doing.mij07-01-2025
- Well not his last year, but my argument is he can't he win the Tour. Remember this thread during the upcoming Tour, btw, I do admire Primoz.awp07-01-2025
- He did a convincing display at Ancares doing peak numbers even without optimal preparation in a team that is weaker in grand tours. Sure he's getting older but the narrative that he's in his last year is ridiculous.alsene07-01-2025
- He is not anti-doping. He is pro-whining. He is more than happy to cheer for the dopers he likes and believe in the miracles he likes.
MarkFour06-01-2025 - Froome has found a genuine way to race slow .. no further gears restrictions needed for him. And speaking about safety - this overnight packfodder to GT winner should start with holding the tt bars while descending with both hands. What a clown!!
UltimateOpportunist06-01-2025 - Nice, yeah, if you’re around a 6-7% gradient when they attack you’re not going to see much, it’s not for nothing the steepest sections are so crowded. If on TV you see an overweight fan running along for more than 30m you know they’re nowhere near that speed there;-)Mistermaumau06-01-2025
- Merry Crossmas to you tooMistermaumau06-01-2025
- I respect his anti-doping stance but in trying to rehash everything he’s no longer looking at the changes. It’ not just one or two riders who suddenly improved, the whole peleton has gone through an upgrade. For sure there are still cheaters, may e even amongst the very best but a large part of the improvement is generic and explainable. Even racing itself has changed. There is progress in EVERY sport, constantly, why would cycling be the odd one out?Mistermaumau06-01-2025
- Don’t doubt your cynical side ;-) It’s hardly likely to be true either and he is hardly in a position to judge for others who is best this or that. If he’d just said, he was always good to ME that would have been more truthful and then everyone could draw their own conclusion, now he’s basically shot himself in the foot for nothing (as far as we know).Mistermaumau06-01-2025
- He's the best teammate with Domen Novak cruising Pogi to become Cycling World Champion.
James2631806-01-2025