Results CX World Cup Terralba: Lucinda Brand takes emotional solo victory as Van Alphen and Van Anrooij completed dominant Dutch podium

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.

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.

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.

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.