Lucinda Brand (Baloise Glowi) won the final round of the Exact Cross series in Sint-Niklaas on Saturday. She battled for all five laps against Sara Casasola (Crelan-Corendon) and made her winning pass in the signature sand section just before the finish line of Waaslandcross, leaving the Italian with four seconds back in second place.
Crelan-Corendon pitted two riders against Brand, with Casasola's teammate Inge van der Heijden fading late in the contest and taking third, 34 seconds back, with time to spare to the Belgian chasers Julie Brouwers (Charles Liégeois Roastery CX) in fourth and Marion Norbert Riberolle (Crelan-Corendon) in fifth.
The seventh round of the regional series was held in northern Belgium on a cold, clear day, bright sunshine bouncing off the wide Waasland sand sections along the lake. Brand, who competed in only two rounds of Exact Cross, won Saturday's contest for a fourth time in her career, now tied Sanne Cant with the most victories at the event.
For Brand, it was her 10th victory of the cyclocross season, where she swept titles at the World Cup, Superprestige and X2O Badkamers Trofee series for a third time in her career. She only raced two of the Exact Cross events, going third at the opener in Beringen and then winning the finale at Sint-Niklaas.
"Every victory is different, you cannot compare victories with each other. But I am extremely happy that I was able to win ten times this season," Brand told Het Nieuwsblad.
"The legs didn't feel so fresh anymore, but that's probably logical at the end of the season. I was happy that the pace dropped off a bit now and then."
Brand removed quickly around Inge Van Der Heijden to the front in order to avoid the massive swarm up the first of several large runups. On lap two, Casasola attacked and the Italian took a five-second lead on Brand and Van der Heijden. However, a fall by Casasola on the slippery off-camber corner allowed Brand to rejoin and two matched pedal strokes for most of the next three laps.
Brand threw the hammer down through the wide sand section on the final lap, gaining a handful of seconds with a decisive pass of the Italian. Brand held her momentum in the final corners and hit the straightaway to the finish for a four-second margin, scoring her 10th victory of the cyclocross season.
Casasola went four-for-four with podiums at Exact Cross races this season, while her teammate Van der Heijden scored four podiums in five starts.
"I tried to attack several times, but that wasn't enough," Casasola told Sporza at the finish. "Could I have done anything differently in the final round? I don't think so, because I was at my limit and Lucinda was very strong."
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