{"id":378674,"date":"2025-12-29T17:57:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T17:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/378674\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T17:57:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T17:57:15","slug":"brand-overcomes-strong-czech-challenge-at-x2o-trofee-in-loenhout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/378674\/","title":{"rendered":"Brand overcomes strong Czech challenge at X2O Trofee in Loenhout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lucinda Brand might have taken Monday\u2019s fifth round of the 2025-2026 X2O Badkamers Trofee series, the Azencross, in Loenhout, Belgium, for her 12th consecutive win, but she didn\u2019t have it all her own way. The Dutch series leader was pushed close by Czech rider Kristyna Zemanova and didn\u2019t have a clear lead until the final lap. Although Zemanova hasn\u2019t finished outside the top-10 of major series races this season, Monday\u2019s runner-up spot was her first podium. <\/p>\n

Preliminaries<\/p>\n

Having swept the first four races, Lucinda Brand\u2019s series lead was enormous: 9:02 on Manon Bakker, who placed third in the last round. <\/p>\n

Siobhan Kelly (Black Dog Racing) was the only Canadian in the event.<\/p>\n

Marie Schreiber claimed the hole shot and led out the large field. Zemenova was in fine fettle and took over the front. Brand occupied Position 5, with Bakker and Marion Norbert Riberolle ahead of her. By the rollers before the finish line, Zoe Backstedt had surfed through the string into sixth. Bakker led over the line.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Zemenova hits the planks first on Lap 1.<\/p>\n

Backstedt crowded Bakker at the start of Lap 2 of 6 before slipping by. Brand was seemingly keeping her powder dry. Bakker reestablished herself in the lead but a bike change put Schreiber back in Position 1. When Schreiber got held up at the top of a sharp little climb, there was an accordion effect behind. Schreiber, Backstedt and Zemanova had a wee gap at the line.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Backstedt was in only her second race of the season.<\/p>\n

Brand finally hit the front at the beginning of Lap 3 and turned up the heat. The race leader took a fresh bike and relinquished the lead. At the midpoint of the race, a leading group of nine was 22 seconds clear of the closest chase.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Brand and Backstedt on the rollers.<\/p>\n

Riberolle powered the nontet, Schreiber always Tailgunner Charlie. Brand galloped to the front and then tried to bid the others adieu. Zemanova had Brand\u2019s wheel heading over the finish line.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The ditch was the most awkward of obstacles.<\/p>\n

In the first half of the penultimate lap, Bakker scrambled to make it over to Brand and Zemanova. She succeeded, as did Backstedt. First Zemanova and then Bakker insisted on the front. <\/p>\n

Brand lit out for glory on the bell lap, Zemanova turning herself inside out to catch up. It was a narrow, five-second victory for Brand. <\/p>\n

The sixth round is New Year\u2019s Day in Baal.<\/p>\n

2025-2026 X2O Badkamers Trofee, Round 5, Loenhout
1) Lucinda Brand (The Netherlands\/Baloise-Glowi Lions) 48:34
2) Kristyna Zemenova (Czechia\/Brilon) +0:05
3) Manon Bakker (The Netherlands\/Crelan-Corendon) +0:13
52) Siobhan Kelly (Black Dog Racing) +5:09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lucinda Brand might have taken Monday\u2019s fifth round of the 2025-2026 X2O Badkamers Trofee series, the Azencross, in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[166193,64,63,784,203969,166194,203970,85,13093],"class_list":["post-378674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-2025-2026-x2o-badkamers-trofee","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-kristyna-zemenova","tag-lucinda-brand","tag-siobhan-kelly","tag-sports","tag-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}