Brand unassailable, Alvarado overall winner Telenet Superprestige

Lucinda Brand found a course to her liking during the last round of the Telenet Superprestige. In the mud of Middelkerke, she finished well ahead of Ceylin Alvarado and Annemarie Worst. Alvarado, in turn, crowned herself as the overall winner of the competition. 

Sand in Middelkerke? No way! The rain of the last few days had turned the course into a real mud cyclo-cross. Lucinda Brand (Baloise Trek Lions) took the initiative from the very start. A small concession prevented Alvarado (Alpecin-Deceuninck) from sliding into her compatriot’s wheel. 

Brand did not hang around and steamed ahead. After half a lap, her lead was already around 19 seconds. By the end of the lap, she had increased it to 25 seconds. Alvarado and Worst (Cyclocross Reds) followed in places two and three. 

On the second lap, Alvarado managed to shake off Worst. For Brand, they were out of sight and far behind. In the meantime, a strong Verdonschot (De Ceuster-Bonache) was moving up from behind. Entering the third lap, she already had Worst’s wheel. Verdonschot was riding faultlessly and smoothly over the difficult course. Without a glance, she took the measure of the two Dutch women. 

Brand was peerless. With two laps still to go, she had almost doubled her lead over Verdonschot, now in second place. The podium places already looked to have been decided. Alvarado maintained her strict tempo to hold off chasers Marion Norbert-Riberolle (Crelan - Corendon) and Leonie Bentveld (Pauwels Sauzen - Bingoal). Worst, meanwhile, had slipped back into sixth place. 

No more changes on the final lap. Lucinda Brand wins the race, ahead of Laura Verdonschot and Ceylin Alvarado. And so, for the third time in her career, Alvarado took top spot in the overall classification of the Telenet Superprestige. Annemarie Worst and teammate Inge van der Heijden (Crelan - Corendon) joined her on the podium for the overall classification.