Brand and Vanthourenhout win on new CX World Cup course at Terralba, Sardinia
A year after the Sardinian round of the UCI Cyclo-Cross World Cup 2023-24 was cancelled due to extreme weather, racing returned to the Italian island for a second chance at the new location near the town of Terralba. It was an almost perfectly flat and fast course with a few tough sand sections, long passages saturated with water, and a wealth of technical corners, all made more complicated by a few days of persistent rainfall.
With several big names skipping round three of the World Cup, both elite races (no age-group events were held this weekend) were attritional affairs. After taking a week away from competition, Lucinda Brand was back with a bang to take victory, and a record-breaking 52nd consecutive podium finish, with Aniek van Alphen defending her World Cup lead in second, and Shirin van Anrooij battling to her first podium finish at any level since 2023.
The men's race was a particularly thrilling event, with no less than 11 riders still in contention at the end of seven laps (of nine). The nature of the course made it hard to shake anyone off, despite the best efforts of pre-race favourites Joris Nieuwenhuis, Laurens Sweeck and Michael Vanthourenhout. Ultimately it wasn't until the dying moments of the final lap that Vanthourenhout finally managed to put a few bike lengths between himself and his rivals, and he held it to the line for a hard-earned victory.
More coverage and full gallery to come here at Escape Collective.
Elite women top 5
- Lucinda Brand (Baloise Glowi Lions) 47:14
- Aniek van Alphen (Seven Racing) +0:20
- Shirin van Anrooij (Baloise Glowi Lions) +0:33
- Leonie Bentveld (Pauwels Sauzen-Altez) +1:02
- Sara Casasola (Crelan-Corendon) “
Elite men top 5
- Michael Vanthourenhout (Pauwels Sauzen-Altez) 1:03:17
- Joris Nieuwenhuis (Ridley Racing Team) +0:01
- Laurens Sweeck (Crelan-Corendon) “
- Ryan Kamp +0:07
- Niels Vandeputte (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +0:08
