Lucinda Brand has booked her 2nd World Cup victory in a row. A week after her victory in Dublin, the Dutch was also the strongest in Flamanville on Sunday afternoon, ahead of the youngsters Marie Schreiber and Leonie Bentveld. Brand advances to 2nd place in the World Cup behind Ceylin Alvarado, who was absent due to illness.
Alvarado was just one of the big names who did not play, WB number 2 Zoe Bäckstedt, Fem van Empel, the best in Boom yesterday, and Puck Pieterse missed Flamanville.
That immediately made Brand, who won for the first time in her 5th cross of the season last week, the top favorite. She partly missed her start, it was the young Luxembourgish Marie Schreiber who dived into the forest first.
Schreiber dueled with Bentveld in the first round for the lead, but in the second round Brand resolutely seized power. The 34-year-old had already passed the 19-year-old Bentveld and took advantage of a slide from the 20-year-old Schreiber to go on and over the Luxembourgish.
No one saw her again. She checked without deepening the gap any further. Bentveld and Betsema went as teammates to look for Schreiber, who was stuck 20 seconds behind Brand. Betsema cracked. The podium was quickly secured in the last lap.
The best Belgian was Laura Verdonschot in 11th place. Sanne Cant was riding in the top 10, one minute from the head of the race, when she had a serious crash in a slippery bend. The Belgian champion tried for a while, but her mother shouted at her to stop because the pain was unbearable. Cant had to support her arm.
2023-12-03 13:31:00
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