Alvarado won in Van Empel’s absence, Brand finished second on return to action

Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado recorded her first World Cup victory of the season in Dendermonde, Belgium. In the absence of world and European champion Fem van Empel, Alvarado was well ahead of the others on the difficult course.

Lucinda Brand completed her first cross of the season in second place, 37 seconds behind Alvarado. Great Britain’s Zoë Backstedt finished third and stood on the World Cup podium for the first time.

There was a lot of excitement around the World Cup competitions last week, with top cyclocross riders increasingly skipping the competitions. Besides van Empel, Puck Pieterse and Shirin van Anrooij also had a longer break and were therefore not at Dendermonde. For men, the list of absentees is even longer.

Alvarado’s favorite

Alvarado started as the favorite because he was the best opponent of Van Empel, who was still unbeaten in previous crosses. Additionally, the 2020 world champion already has two victories in Superprestige. He won yesterday on clay against Belgian Niel.

The question was whether Lucinda Brand would make things difficult for her compatriot after her return. The 2021 world champion had to miss the first half due to a shoulder injury. Brand said before the start that he was not yet 100 percent fit as he had only been training for a few weeks.

Still, Brand is off to a strong start. He immediately took the lead, but was quickly passed by Alvarado on his first step.

The route in East Flanders was muddy, so it was often faster to walk with your bike on your shoulder. Alvarado clearly outperformed Brand. Alvarado, 25, had a 14-second lead after just one lap and steadily increased it.

From then on Brand had to fight to hold on to second place because Alvarado was absolutely flying. Bäckstedt seemed to have managed to make things difficult for Brand, but the 19-year-old versatile rider could no longer get close to the experienced Baloise Trek rider in the final laps.

Thanks to his victory, Alvarado also became the new leader of the World Cup. He finished third behind Van Empel and Pieterse in the first WB-Cross in Waterloo, and two weeks ago he took second place behind Van Empel in Maasmechelen.

Even among the men, not all the top players are at Dendermonde. Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock will start the crossover season later but Thibau Nys also withdrew early.

The Belgian, who turned 21 today and made his last breakthrough this season, could not endear himself to the UCI cycling association, especially since he participated in the Superprestige race held in Niel on Saturday.

European champion Michael Vanthourenhout also had to give up at the last moment. The Belgian star hit a rock with his knee yesterday at Superprestige.

Source: NOS