{"id":386107,"date":"2026-01-02T04:33:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T04:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/386107\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T04:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T04:33:16","slug":"puck-came-on-strongly-towards-the-end-lucinda-brand-holds-off-pieterse-fightback-as-rival-rues-i-ruined-it-for-myself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/386107\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cPuck came on strongly towards the end\u201d \u2013 Lucinda Brand holds off Pieterse fightback as rival rues \u201cI ruined it for myself\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>That approach shaped the race from the opening lap. Brand moved to the front early and quickly established a decisive advantage, but there was little sense of forcing the issue. Instead, she settled into a rhythm that allowed her to manage both the course and the gaps behind without overreaching.<\/p>\n<p>For <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/puck-pieterse\" title=\"Puck Pieterse\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Puck Pieterse<\/a>, the race hinged on a single moment early on. \u201cI actually got away well,\u201d she explained. \u201cThen we came to the steps. They weren\u2019t fully covered, so I stepped onto slippery wood and slid away. That meant I had to chase immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That slip proved costly. \u201cI saw that Lucinda, together with Zoe and Jolanda, already had a gap,\u201d Pieterse said. \u201cFor myself, I ruined it there. I tried to get back into my own rhythm quickly, but I never got back into the race.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the setback, Pieterse did not give up hope of a turnaround. \u201cOf course I hoped I could come back,\u201d she added. \u201cI knew she would have to make a mistake at some point, but that didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the end, the contrast was clear. Brand rode within herself and dictated the race on her terms, while Pieterse was left managing the consequences of a single early error. At Baal, control trumped risk \u2013 and Brand never gave her rival the opening she needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That approach shaped the race from the opening lap. Brand moved to the front early and quickly established&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,124089,206875,166194,165117,85,23293],"class_list":{"0":"post-386107","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-cyclocross","12":"tag-gp-sven-nys-baal","13":"tag-lucinda-brand","14":"tag-puck-pieterse","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-womens-cycling"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386107","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=386107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}