With wins in 2019 and 2020 under her belt, Lucinda Brand has confidently started at Jaarmarktcross in Neal. I had some problems at first and was forced to chase. By the way, Sanne Cant wasn’t around, the 5-time winner of Niel fell twice while exploring the track.
Anne-Marie Wurst and Dennis Betsima hoped to take advantage of Brand’s absence at the front and set off without looking back. Together with Kastelijn, who withdrew a little later, the Dutch ladies soon made a nice gap.
But you’re never done with Lucinda Brand. Halfway through, the world champion took the lead, but the chase race cost her her strength as she decided to leave the initiative to Betsema and Worst for a while.
Sausage was very excited and put Brande under a lot of pressure near the end of the cross, but she didn’t completely break free. Brand managed to empty her bag with her last dreaded run, forcing the sausage to make a mistake and allowing her to raise her hands again at Neal.
Betsima remained at the top of the Superprestige rating with 42 points, but the gap with rivals Annemarie Worst and Lucinda Brand narrowed. Sausage and brand now follow one point.
Lucinda Brand: “It’s a round that you can use your power on
Once space is available. But it was a bad start so I was in a rush and wrangling on the first lap. My saddle also fell, but fortunately I noticed it was near the pole.”
“It was a fierce duel. When I came to the worst, I immediately wanted to attack, just that was a bit excited and I ran out of the corner. On the lap after that I wanted to be in the same part.
“Last year was a better ride than today, I think. Today it was too much, I don’t really like it, but that’s part of it sometimes.”
Annemarie worst: “It was a really good day. I was able to compete for the podium and win. I am especially happy that the good feeling was there again. In the past few weeks I have had a lot of pain in my back and now it has finally stopped.
I was able to get my strength back, so that’s nice.”
Dennis Bitsima: “The sausage went really fast and we were a bit in danger. He was really chasing and driving really well in the red. But then you join in and you’re really deep and you start making mistakes. Especially on the technical track. I didn’t have legs today either, so I made All I can do is reduce the damage a bit.”
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