Lucinda Brand gets European cyclocross title after Schreiber demoted for irregular sprint

Schreiber's sprint and the penalty

Marie Schreiber of Luxembourg was first over the line on Saturday, 7 November, at the European cyclocross championships in Zeddam, Gelderland. Lucinda Brand had to brake in the sprint because Schreiber moved off her line, and Schreiber was then given a penalty for irregular sprinting. She was placed second, and Brand was declared European champion only minutes after the finish. Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado completed the podium in third after falling on the final lap. Schreiber would have been the first non-Dutch European champion since 2018, in a championship that has gone to a Dutch rider in 15 of its 24 editions.

Race in Zeddam

The race returned to Zeddam with a renovated staircase of 99 steps, the feature that made the course famous. Between 1993 and 2007 the village hosted a prestigious cyclocross race on the same climb every year. Schreiber, riding for SD Worx-Protime and coached by triple European and world champion Sanne Cant, took the lead from the start and quickly opened a gap of around 20 seconds. At the first passage, after a lap of roughly three kilometres with muddy bumps, the staircase, a sandy section and a long asphalt stretch to the finish, Schreiber led Alvarado by 16 seconds. Brand, who had kept her distance, followed about ten seconds later.

Favourites and the title fight

Brand entered the race as the clear favourite, having already won four of the six cyclocross races she had ridden this season. She also won last year's season, but at the European championships on the beach at Middelkerke in Belgium she was surprised by her compatriot Inge van der Heijden. Van der Heijden, the defending champion, was also present in Zeddam, alongside Alvarado, Aniek van Alphen, Denise Betsema and Fem van Empel. Van Empel, European champion in 2022, 2023 and 2024, had a poor start, lined up last and was already a minute behind the leader after one lap.

Brand moved up in the second lap, reached Alvarado and then saw Schreiber again, but Alvarado refused to take the lead. A lap later Brand attacked to try to drop Alvarado, and she fell shortly before the staircase while Alvarado closed a large part of the gap. The three riders stayed together until the final lap, when Brand took the lead before the staircase, so Schreiber could not use her strongest weapon there. Alvarado then crashed, and the title was settled in a sprint between Brand and Schreiber. Schreiber went first, Brand came back at her but could not pass, and the Luxembourg rider was then penalised.

Absent names and what comes next

Puck Pieterse, Shirin van Anrooij and Marianne Vos, all leading Dutch riders, were absent from the start line. Vos won her first world title in Zeddam in 2006, which made the venue's return a notable occasion for Dutch cyclocross fans. Brand is set to end her career after Paris-Roubaix in 2028, after twenty years at the top of the sport. For Schreiber, the result leaves a title won on the road in Zeddam and a penalty that cost her the gold medal she had seemed to claim.