Luxembourgish rider Marie Schreiber has condemned the decision to relegate her to second place at the European Cyclo-cross Championships on Saturday as disrespectful.
Schreiber crossed the line first in the Elite Women’s race at Zeddam in the Netherlands, apparently bagging the biggest win of her career, but a few minutes later, she was relegated for an irregular sprint. She later refused to attend the podium ceremony.
"The UCI and UEC they always advocate for and everyone they always advocate for clean and fair sport and then they do this, it’s unfair," Schreiber said after the race.
She and World Champion Lucinda Brand (Netherlands) had come into the finish straight together after the Luxembourgish rider overtook on the brutal run up the flight of 99 steps. Leading out, Schreiber opened her sprint early, holding Brand at bay. From the footage, it was clear she did move to her left as the pair closed in on the finish line, and it seems it was this move the race commissaires penalised.
"We reviewed the footage and both me and Lucinda said our views," Schreiber said. "Lucinda said I did nothing wrong, she couldn’t have passed anyway, so I think it’s really thankful that she said this, but it doesn’t change the commissaires’ decision.
"It’s a sprint after 50 minutes of all out racing, you come with 190 heart rate, I change my gear, I saw I moved a little bit to the left, but then I think if every person watches the race you know this moving around it’s normal. I did not close the door on purpose or anything, Lucinda knows this and she also said it.
"I think it’s disrespectful to steal the biggest moment of my career just for this because I think for being fair everyone knows I won, if it would have been decided by two centimetres I can argue with them I can understand, but like this I think it’s just disrespectful to be honest."
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Though Schreiber was relegated to second place, with Brand’s compatriot Ceylon del Carmen Alvarado in third, she was not present on the podium, and was asked if her team manager, former World Champion Sanne Can’t, had advised her not to attend, something which may mean she is fined by the race jury.
"Yeah, I was going to go because I thought everyone’s going to hate me if I don’t go, but then it’s like if they’re being like this to me then I also don’t owe them anything, to be honest. It’s hard to be standing here right now, so you can imagine it’s harder to stand on the podium, so they said I shouldn’t go, I shouldn’t let myself be treated like this. I can live with a fine probably better than going to sleep tonight."
Though she has a World Cup race win to her name, victory in the Euros would have been by far the biggest success of Schreiber’s career. Riding for her road trade team, SD Worx-Protime, Schreiber has had an excellent start to the 2026/27 season, winning the two opening races of the year, taking three more wins, with third place at the X2O Koppenbergcross her worst result.
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A recent addition to the Cyclingnews staff, Owen Rogers is an experienced journalist, working as a freelancer covering the sport for various magazines and websites for more than 10 years.
Initially concentrating mainly on the women's sport, he has covered hundreds of race days on the ground and interviewed some of the sport's biggest names.
Living near Cambridge in the UK, when he's not working you'll find him either riding his bike or playing drums.
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