Results CX World Cup Terralba: Lucinda Brand takes emotional solo victory as Van Alphen and Van Anrooij completed dominant Dutch podium
Cyclocross
Lucinda Brand delivered one of the most commanding performances of her season with a dominant victory at World Cup Terralba, riding alone from the early laps and crossing the line in tears as she kissed a hand to the sky. Behind her, World Cup leader Aniek van Alphen and a resurgent Shirin van Anrooij completed a dominant all-Dutch podium in Sardinia.
A display of total control from Brand
Brand forced the decisive split almost immediately. After forming an early lead group with Van Alphen, Van Anrooij, Sara Casasola, Zoe Bentveld and Manon Bakker, she opened the race with a heavy acceleration through the mud on lap two. From that moment on, she never looked back.
Each sector widened the gap further, her recent training camp clearly paying off as she looked the strongest rider across the board: technically precise in Terralba’s awkward water and mud passages, and consistently more powerful on the long open straights. Even a late wobble in a soft sand section — where she briefly had to fight for balance — failed to threaten her advantage.
By the final lap, Brand was almost half a minute clear and riding with visible emotion, knowing the victory was hers.
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Van Alphen vs Van Anrooij: the podium battle
While Brand disappeared up the course, the race for second place provided the day’s most compelling contest. Van Alphen and Van Anrooij repeatedly exchanged positions in the fourth and fifth laps, testing each other on alternating sectors.
Van Alphen briefly surged clear, only for Van Anrooij — competing in just her third cyclocross race of the winter after a year of injury — to reel her back. The duel carried into the final lap, but Van Alphen ultimately managed to break free and secure second, preserving her overall World Cup lead.
Van Anrooij settled for a richly deserved third, marking her first podium of the season and a significant step forward in her gradual return to top form.
Casasola fades on home soil
Italian hope Casasola fought bravely but, still feeling the after-effects of recent illness, drifted out of the podium battle as the race settled. Bakker and Bentveld completed the top six, while the gaps behind Brand stretched dramatically as her dominance became absolute.
Brand’s emotional finish sealed her ninth win of the season — an afternoon of total authority from a rider who looked back to her very best beneath the Sardinian sun.
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Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
- Why does cycling have to benefit at the expense of car driving? Almost all the riders I’ve ever encountered drive, in fact, cycling as a pro or competitive sport is hardly possible without driving.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- So all those who went to watch, including all from abroad, waled there, spent nothing? Most places hosting events of the sort manage to make it worthwhile. If it was so obviously fruitless, don’t you think by now they’d have run out of hosting candidates? Why do you think the Tour can command such high prices for departure and arrival locations? If it didn’t bring anything locally they’d have to pay to get authorisation to use cities.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- What a travesty ! That little deviation did nothing to impede Brand !frieders307-11-2026
- I also wanne beat Pogacar in the tour but it aint gonne happen. Jonas unfortunately getting dropped by del toro and seixas several times this TDF and jonas team is very weak and joinas on way down, it aint happening thats clear. its also clear it only happened cause Pogacar was hurt and had a broken wrist that time everytime both full strenght its not close we just have to be honest about it :/miguel07-11-2026
- They do this but literally let cars on courses to run over riders.mij07-11-2026
- Looking at that photo she appears to be several feet from her. I’m not sure how that impeded brands sprint.mij07-11-2026
- I hope you are wrong but I suspect you will be proved correct. It might do something for Scottish tourism - although due to logistics the route skips the most spectacular parts of Scotland. It will bring in short term money no doubt, but will cycling overall in the U,K benifit? I doubt it. Even at £2 a litre the bits love thei cars,Cyclingsbestfan07-11-2026
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