Lucinda Brand adds rainbow jersey to brilliant CX season
After almost 50 minutes of racing on the unique Hulst course, just inside the Netherlands border with Belgium, Lucinda Brand soared to her second elite world title, capping off a brilliant season of cyclocross.
It was a dramatic race from the start, albeit with the three expected Dutch leaders fairly quickly separating themselves from the field. Puck Pieterse and Ceylin Del Carmen Alvarado appeared the strongest, trading turns in the first couple of laps as they and Brand gradually said goodbye to their rivals, Blanka Vas and Jolanda Neff seemingly best of the rest. However, soon after Brand hit the front for the first time in the third lap of six, the technically gifted Pieterse took an uncharacteristic tumble at the foot of the super-steep descent down to the moat, leaving just two leaders.
Brand found herself a gap after Pieterse's fall, but a head-over-heels tumble of her own a lap later allowed Alvarado back onto the wheel, where she stayed until Brand finally broke her compatriot's resolve a little over a lap from the finish. From there, the 36-year-old soloed to an emotional second elite title five years after winning in Oostende in 2021 – where the World Championships will return in 2027. With Alvarado securing second, Pieterse escaped the chase group in the final lap to seal an all-Dutch podium.
Brand is the fourth world champion crowned at the Worlds in Hulst, and only the second gold medal for the home nation of Netherlands after Friday's Team Relay. Saturday's other victors were women's junior Barbora Bukovská (Czechia) and men's under-23 champion Aaron Dockx (Belgium).
This and the entire weekend of World Championship action will be covered in more detail here at Escape Collective in our last CX gallery of the season after the close of competition on Sunday.
Elite Women top 5
- Lucinda Brand (Netherlands) 49:16
- Ceylin Del Carmen Alvarado (Netherlands) +0:27
- Puck Pieterse (Netherlands) +0:51
- Blanka Vas (Hungary) +0:56
- Amandine Fouquenet (France) +0:58
Junior Women top 5
- Barbora Bukovská (Czechia) 44:55
- Lise Revol (France) +0:15
- Lucie Grohová (Czechia) +0:35
- Giorgia Pellizotti (Italy) +0:44
- Shana Huber (Switzerland) +0:48
Under-23 Men top 5
- Aaron Dockx (Belgium) 53:11
- Aubin Sparfel (France) +0:19
- Keije Solen (Netherlands) +0:22
- Guus van den Eijnden (Netherlands) +0:23
- Arthur Van Den Boer (Belgium) +0:30
