Lucinda Brand dominant again at Superprestige Boom

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Lucinda Brand (Baloise Trek Lions) delivered another dominant display to win in Boom for the second successive year and claim her fourth Superprestige victory of the season.

The world champion tamed a treacherous Boom course that was made sloppy and muddy by the persistent rain, crossing the line alone with an advantage of more than 30 seconds over the rest of the field. 

Inge van der Heijden (777) made the early running and, although she was left in Brand’s wake, held firm impressively in the second half of the race, notably fending off a last-lap pursuit from Denise Betsema (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal).

Betsema had suffered an apparent shoe problem earlier in the race and, while her fightback from around 7th place was stirring, she ultimately left herself with too much to do and had to settle for third. 

Maghalie Rochette (Specialized-Feedback Sports) rode well in around fourth place for much of the race, while Fem van Empel (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal), Annemarie Worst (777), and Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Alpecin-Fenix) traded places in the fragmented chase - the latter making a series of costly errors. The veteran Sanne Cant (Iko-Crelan) and the youngster Zoe Backstedt (Tormans) rounded out the top 10. 

Brand said she struggled to warm up, and it was indeed Van der Heijden who set the tone on the first of the five laps, leading solo by six seconds. On the second lap, Brand started to move away from the chasers, initially doing so with Betsema until her compatriot had to stop for that shoe change and drop to seventh. 

Van der Heijden and Brand started lap three together, but not for long, as Van der Heijden slipped out and went down into the mud. Behind, Alvarado did the same and was joined by Rochette.

By the end of lap 3, Brand had opened a 15-second lead and she consolidated it with a solid penultimate lap, while Van der Heijden was herself consolidating her podium position in equally impressive fashion. Behind the chase group fragmented, with Alvarado going wrong again and slipping out of the top six, while Betsema moved through the gears and catapulted up to third. 

Going into the final lap, Brand led by 24 seconds, and the main drama surrounded the fight for second. Van der Heijden led Betsema by 13 seconds but lost 10 of those by the long uphill running section. In a dramatic pursuit, Van der Heijden proved the strongest runner and managed to gain a further three seconds, going on to secure second as Betsema knew it was up and settled for third.

Meanwhile, Brand did her best to dust the mud off her rainbow bands in time for the finish line celebrations. 

Muddy jersey or not, she not only repeated her win here last year but extended her lead in the overall Superprestige series standings, having now won four of the five rounds.