{"id":431608,"date":"2026-01-25T04:28:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T04:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/431608\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T04:28:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T04:28:25","slug":"no-reason-to-panic-lucinda-brands-remarkable-63-consecutive-podium-streak-comes-to-an-end-in-maasmechelen-giving-rivals-unexpected-confidence-boost-ahead-of-cyclo-cross-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/431608\/","title":{"rendered":"‘No reason to panic’ – Lucinda Brand’s remarkable 63 consecutive podium streak comes to an end in Maasmechelen giving rivals unexpected confidence boost ahead of cyclo-cross Worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lucinda Brand<\/a> (Baloise Verzekeringen-Het Poetsbureau Lions) gave her rivals for next weekend\u2019s UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships<\/a> a morale boost after finishing 10th at the penultimate World Cup round in Maasmechelen \u2013 ending a run of 63 consecutive podium placings.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old has been in commanding form this season with 18 wins from 23 races, and the World Cup overall series wrapped up.<\/p>\n

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She won last weekend\u2019s World Cup round in Benidorm by just 10 seconds, but was never in contention on the fast and technical course in Maasmechelen on Saturday.<\/p>\n

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Brand chased back through the pack to the battle for fifth; however, with her podium hopes over, she eased the pressure on the final lap and finished 10th at 56 seconds behind the winner, Puck Pieterse<\/a> (Fenix-Premier Tech).<\/p>\n

Dutch rival, Pieterse, returned from a knee injury to take victory<\/a>, finishing 10 seconds ahead of her teammate Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado in second, while Amandine Fouquenet (Pauwels Sauzen-Altez Industriebouw) finished third.<\/p>\n

The result ended a run of 63 consecutive podiums for Brand, dating back to Benidorm two years ago.<\/p>\n

Baloise Verzekeringen-Het Poetsbureau Lions manager Sven Nys said that the performance<\/a> was nothing to worry about ahead of next weekend\u2019s UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships.<\/p>\n

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\u201cLucinda said before the start that she doesn’t have the freshest legs,” Nys told Sporza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Lucinda has had a tough week of training with a view to the World Championships, and as a result, she is a bit less fresh today. But that’s no reason to panic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brand had won eight out opening ten World Cup rounds heading into the weekend and had an unassailable 110-point lead in the series.<\/p>\n

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However, like her rivals, she used the previous weekend\u2019s World Cup in Benidorm as part of a training block, with the cyclo-cross Worlds and the forthcoming road season in mind.<\/p>\n

The fast and twisting course at Maasmechelen was also not favourable for Brand, and she made several uncharacteristic mistakes as the race went away from her.<\/p>\n

Before the race, Brand predicted that if a front group got away from her, it would be difficult to bridge back across. \u201cI think (the legs) are OK,\u201d said Brand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still getting into it a little bit, but I think they will be fine. Some parts are really tricky with the little banks.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, if you have a moment where it is going a little less smooth, maybe you lose connection with the group, and then it will be really hard to make it back to the front.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot having to fight for the last (World Cup overall) points makes it easier to race, you can just focus on having a good race, a good feeling towards that last, important weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the race, she was filmed pulling up a root with her hands after tripping on a difficult cambered ascent. Nys hopped over the course tape and helped remove the root. \u201cI tried everything to make it (the course) a bit smoother,” Brand said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow smoothly you are is important, and if you have a slip once, then you can just miss the connection there. There are a lot of ups and downs on this course. It’s really a lot faster than last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brand hopes to be back in form on Sunday at the concluding UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup round in Hoogerheide in the Netherlands. She could break the record of most World Cup wins by a woman rider. Currently, Brand is equal on 28 Cyclo-cross World Cup victories with Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lucinda Brand (Baloise Verzekeringen-Het Poetsbureau Lions) gave her rivals for next weekend\u2019s UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships a morale…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-431608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}