Lucinda Brand (Baloise Glowi Lions) dominated the sandy course at the X2O Trofee cyclocross round in Hofstade, winning her ninth race in a row and extending her hold on the overall classification in Belgium.
Exciting big crowds on Monday, Brand took control on the opening lap of six and was largely out of sight from the chasers despite a valiant battle between Shirin van Anrooij (Baloise Glowi Lions) and Manon Bakker (Crelan-Corendon) for second place.
Van Anrooij came out on top to finish second, 22 seconds down on her teammate by the end of the 45 minutes of racing. Bakker's impressive third-place finish jumped her up to third overall in the X2O Trofee standings.
Brand did have some resistance to her outright dominance, with a small mistake on the first lap almost seeing her come down in the sand, which forced her to unclip and cede the lead, but also from trying to overtake backmarkers in the closing laps.
However, her lead was already too large for either of her Dutch compatriots to come back, and she capped off the fourth round of the X2O Trofee with a fourth win. Hofstade is her 13th victory of the 2025-26 season.
"It's a special feeling, also today on the last lap, I really had the time to look around, and it's incredible how many people came to watch," said Brand post-race.
"If you just think we play around a bit with our bikes in a place where you shouldn't ride the bike, and people love to see that, it's incredible. It's really a pleasure to do this."
Such is the jam-packed Kerstperiode of cyclocross races in the Christmas season, Brand was racing for the third day in succession, having already taken victory at the World Cups in Antwerp and Koksijde at the weekend.
Though this was an exciting return to the calendar for Hofstade, out of the CX schedule for 17 years, several of the key competitors to Brand weren't present, with Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado out with a back injury and the likes of Puck Pieterse and Inge van der Heijden opting against racing on Monday.
Results
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