It was another predictable Lucinda Brand victory on Sunday’s eighth round of the 2025-2026 UCI Cyclocross World Cup in fast, dry Dendermonde, Belgium. By coming 14th, Canada’s Rafaelle Carrier achieved her best elite World Cup result in six tries; she was third among the under-23 riders. Last year in the Namur round, Carrier was 19th.
Earlier in the day at the Junior women’s race, Alexa Haviland was Canada’s top rider in 14th, with Elly Moore 20th, Clare Hauber 27th and Claire MacKinnon 45th.
Preliminaries
There’s simply no stopping Lucinda Brand this season, and after claiming six of the first seven rounds, the Dutch rider was 51 points ahead of Aniek van Alphen and over one hundred points in front of third place Amandine Fouquenet. Brit dynamo Zoe Backstedt was back from a training crash broken wrist.
The Canadian contingent consisted of Siobhan Kelly, Nico Knoll, Rafaelle Carrier and Dorothee Perron.
Fouquenet and compatriot Celia Gery snatched the front after the gun and charged up the first set of steps. Fouquenet, Brand and Gery opened a gap on the others via the sand section. Inge van der Heijden led a chase 15 seconds back. Carrier was 19th.
Puck Pieterse, who stood on her first podium of the season in Gavere, toiled to bring back the leading trio at the start of Lap 2 of 9. Carrier was up to 15th by the end of the circuit.
Pieterse kept up her pursuit, now lone, on Lap 3. Brand seized the reins and Fouquenet had to scramble to keep up. Gery was dispatched and found company in Pieterse. With Brand loping 11 seconds clear, Pieterse left Gery behind and latched onto Fouquenet. The lap times were ridiculously fast.
Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado moved past Gery at the start of Lap 4. Pieterse took her leave of Fouquenet and was 14 seconds in arrears at the end of the lap. Carrier was now 14th.
Alavardo still had hopes of catching Fouquenet of Lap 5. But the French champion rallied and moved closer to Pieterse. Carrier had sifted down to 16th.
On Lap 7 Alvarado still had 13 seconds to make up on Pieterse and Fouquenet if she wanted to vie for the podium. Carrier bumped back up to 14th.
It looked like the battle for the runner-up spot would come down to the bell lap. The Dutch national champion pressed ahead of…
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