NOS Cycling••Amended
Also in Dendermonde no one can keep up with Brand in the field: eleventh victory in a row
Lucinda Brand has been untouchable throughout the cross season and no one was able to keep up with her at the World Cup in Dendermonde: she recorded her eleventh victory in a row and the seventh consecutive victory in the World Cup rankings, which she leads by a wide margin.
Eleven seconds behind Brand, Dutch champion Puck Pieterse crossed the finish line in second. Third place went to France’s Amandine Fouquenet.
Two days after the unusually dry Gavere cross, the course in Dendermonde was in the same condition. “A very hard surface with a smooth top layer,” Brand concluded in advance, who, like Pieterse, prefers it to be a bit muddier. “No one has ever raced here in these conditions.” But that didn’t change the course of the match.
Fire quickly makes a hole
Brand soon took the lead together with the French duo Fouquenet and Célia Gery, while Pieterse lagged behind in the beginning. Already in the third of nine laps, Brand opened up a gap with Fouquenet, running on the long stairs, after which she rode solo to the line.
Pieterse joined Gery and Fouquenet, but the opportunity to join Brand was not there.
Brand was surprised that she opened a gap with the rest so early, following in the footsteps of Fouquenet. “Amandine had good speed. And when Puck came closer, I thought: now I have to increase the pace. And that worked.”
Five seconds is a ‘big gap’
Pieterse was boxed in at the start, she explained. “And the moment I could make the connection, Lucinda started. And then I had to chase and I could never close that gap again.”
And so Brand won again. She is also surprised by it. “It’s amazing how well my body is holding up. During that busy period. If you’re good, everything goes just a few percent easier.”
Brand’s statistics say a lot: it was the eleventh cross victory in a row, the fifteenth victory of the season. “That’s going well.”
Nys defeats Del Grosso
Later in the afternoon, Thibau Nys won the men’s cross. The Belgian champion was faster than Dutch champion Tibor Del Grosso and Laurens Sweeck in the sprint of an exciting race, in which Mathieu van der Poel was missing. Wout van Aert did not sprint for the win and finished sixth.
For Nys it was his third World Cup victory of the season, after previously winning in the Czech Republic and France. Sweeck retains the lead in the World Cup standings.
Nys beats Del Grosso in spectacular final of the Dendermonde World Cup
There were no major differences among men, such as among women. Until deep into the final, about ten riders had a chance of winning the day. They were all within seconds of each other going into the final lap.
Van Aert was the first to accelerate seriously three laps before the end to let go of the others, knowing that he might have fewer chances in the sprint. But Van Aert could not get rid of Nys, Del Grosso, Sweeck, Michael Vanthourenhout, Emile Verstrynge and Felipe Orts Lloret. Van Aert was unable to keep up with Nys and Del Grosso at the front on the last lap.
It was great that Del Grosso finished second after he had a flat tire on the penultimate lap and had to change bikes.
“It came at an unfortunate time, just before the final,” the Dutchman reflected. “From that moment on I rode a pretty good race to finish second. But you really needed everything that last lap to beat Thibau.”
Nys was proud of how he rode the final lap: full throttle and every corner full of risk. “I rode them perfectly, that gave me a kick. This used to be my trademark, to finish it. But I had difficulties with that in recent years. I am very happy to finish it this way.”
Next week the cyclo-cross riders will compete again in the World Cup, for the Zonhoven cross.
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