Lucinda Brand time-trials to first victory of the year

The sign that Lucinda was feeling well was clear since the prologue of the Baloise Ladies Tour: second place, just hundredths of a second behind compatriot Kool (DSM). The following day, Lucinda was on the podium again, this time in third place. This morning, with a double stage on the menu, she was second again in the road stage. After three podiums, finally Lucinda ascended to the top step this evening with a well-deserved success in the time trial.

The race against the clock took place in Knokke-Heist over a course of 17km. Lucinda showed she was the strongest and fastest, clearly beating the competition (14″ to Henderson, Jumbo-Visma, and 21″ to Norsgaard, Movistar). The result allowed her to take the lead in the general classification with only one stage to go (she leads both Henderson and Norsgaard by 24”). Strangely enough, for Lucinda this is the first victory in an ITT race in her professional career.

Being back on the first step of podium in a road race is a special feeling. Of course, a sweet feeling! There were not many moments so far in the season in which I was feeling really good, strong and fresh. For me, the podium I took in the first stages were already like winning. So, yeah, this win makes me really happy and satisfied.

It was a super windy time trial, technical and with some parts where we had to push real power on pedals. I was really looking forward to this race, because I have a good feeling since the start of the race, on Wednesday, and I wanted to test myself.

And the end, it went super well, both in result both in performance. I was able to push a really high power, and this makes me really satisfied. It was long time ago I had this super feeling and that makes the result even nicer. Now we’re in the lead and… yeah, we’re a “Lidl” team but we’re really strong and motivated to bring the jersey home!