The World Cup might not have started yet, but in Sunday’s second round of the X2O Badkamers Trofee in Lokeren, Belgium, Lucinda Brand took the victory and now leads the X2O and the Superprestige series. World champion and Round 1 winner Fem van Empel did not race.
The Series and Other News
Van Empel was on a roll, winning the first round, the Koppenbergcross, after a couple of C1 podiums. Then she won her third consecutive European championship. The usual gang was in the top 4 of that race: Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, Brand and Sara Casasola.
Besides van Empel’s absence, there was still no Puck Pieterse racing and Shirin van Anrooij announced this week she’d be missing the cross season to recover from external iliac artery surgery. Zoe Backstedt was in her first race of the season.
Casasola seized the hole shot on Lap 1 and pushed through the sand pit. Laura Verdonschot took over the lead. Alvarado disappeared from the front of the string. Brand snagged the bonus seconds on offer at the end of the first 2.6-km circuit.
Brand, Casasola, Verdonschot and Annemarie Worst formed the front group on Lap 2 of 6. Worst pushed into the lead, but not for long as Brand went hard and the quartet became a Verdonshot-less trio.
Gaps started to appear in the trio during Lap 3, Brand at the pointy end of the race. As Alvarado began to put herself into podium contention, Casasola took over Position 2 from Worst. Brand’s lead was 8 seconds at the midpoint of the contest.
Alvarado passed through Worst and Casasola on Lap 4, but she had a lot of work to do to catch Brand. Thirteen seconds separated the two Dutch riders with two laps to go.
Riders started getting lapped on the penultimate circuit. Brand doubled her gap by the time she heard the bell. Alvarado dispatched Casasola for the runner-up spot on the bell lap.
The next round is November 17 in Hamme.
2024-2025 X2O Badkamers Trofee, Round 2 Lokeren
1) Lucinda Brand (The Netherland/Baloise-Trek Lions) 46:07
2) Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (The Netherlands/Fenix-Deceuninck) +0:21
3) Sara Casasola (Italy/Crelan-Corendon) +0:34
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