Brand leads Dutch sweep at cyclo-cross worlds

Dutch rider Lucinda Brand became world cyclo-cross champion by beating her compatriots Ceylin Alvarado and Puck Pieterse in Hulst the Netherlands on Saturday.

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The 36-year-old Brand won 18 World Cup races this season and added this title to the 2021 crown after recovering from a late fall and producing a powerful finish.

Another Dutch cycling star Mathieu van der Poel is gunning for a record-breaking eighth men's title on Sunday. He has not been beaten in more than two years in cyclo-cross and this season he has often opened up an unassailable lead in the first quarter of the race.

Only at his season opener in Namur, when he made his decisive move on the last lap, in Molearlier this month, where he was neck-and-neck with Wout van Aert until his Belgium rival crashed and broke his ankle, and last Saturday in Maasmechelen when he was hampered by two punctures, has Van der Poel been troubled.