Lucinda Brand (Baloise Trek Lions) powered to victory in Overijse in the second round of the Superprestige on Sunday, the Dutch champion storming away solo ahead of a classy field of riders.
Brand didn’t have the best of starts but dragged her way across to the lead group on the second of six laps, before starting her assault on the third lap. By the end of the fourth lap, she was alone and, despite the world champion Fem van Empel (Visma-Lease a Bike) leading the chase behind, she held firm to win by nine seconds.
Italian champion Sara Casasola (Crelan-Corendon) clinched the final spot on the podium, a final-lap mistake costing her after an impressive ride in which she nevertheless finished comfortably clear of last week’s winner Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Fenix-Deceuninck) in fourth place.
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"I completely missed my start - I couldn't get into my pedals," Brand admitted in her post-race interview. "I also had to run on the first climb, so I had a lot of ground to make up, but I tried to do it at my own pace."
That she did, dragging her way up alongside Blanka Vas (SD Worx-Protime) and Inge van der Heijden (Crelan-Corendon) to reach the early frontrunning trio of Van Empel, Casasola, and Helene Clauzel (Van Rysel Cross Team). One of the keys to the race was that Alvarado, the former world champion, had suffered an even worse start, and spent most of the second lap chasing alone off the back of the group.
She made contact towards the end of that lap but had precious little time to recover by the time Brand burst out of the saddle and went hell for leather from the start of the third lap.
"I hoped they'd keep a hard pace up front to keep Alvarado behind but it didn't happen, so I had to do it myself," Brand explained. "A hard race suits me anyway."
At first, only Casasola could follow Brand, and the pair of them crossed the line at the end of the third lap with a five-second lead over Van Empel and the rest of that lead group in pieces behind. Brand continued her assault on the fourth lap, using the main climb early on the circuit, thick with heavy mud, to stomp clear of Casasola, who dropped back to Van Empel to cross the line 11 seconds in arrears with two laps to go.
The penultimate lap saw a scare for Brand as she slipped out on the twisting sandy 'carousel' section, not falling herself but having to pick her bike off the ground. Still, despite that mistake, she only conceded a second of her lead on that lap.
The final lap threatened to produce a dramatic finale as Van Empel left Casasola behind - the Italian struggling up that early climb - and began to make serious inroads. However, Brand kept her cool and rode faultlessly through the technical twists in the middle of the course to extend the lead once more and see it through to the tarmac, where she had time to sit up and enjoy her victory.
Brand now moves to the top of the overall Superprestige series standings after two events, having placed third in Ruddervoorde last weekend. She is tied on 28 points with Van Empel, who has placed runner-up on both occasions, with Brand enjoying top spot due to the fact she has a win to her name. Alvarado drops to third just a point behind.
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