Van Aert and Brand achieved victory in the Dendermonde World Cup

The Belgian Wout van Aert and the Dutch Lucinda brand They got the victory this Sunday in the eighth round of Cyclocross World Cupof twelve in this season’s calendar, on the muddy circuit of Dendermonde (Belgium).

In the men’s category, this is a highly anticipated race, as it will be the penultimate duel this winter season between the current world champion, Mathieu van der Poel, and Van Aert, but the former announced that he would not start due to a rib injury following an accident last week.

Van Aertwho won the Gullengem Superprestige test on Saturday, started in fourth position and although his compatriot Toon Aerts led the first lap, the Belgian quickly made his way into the top 10 positions.

Little by little, amid much applause from the audience, he moved up the ranks and finally got the first position.

In the women’s category, the Dutch Lucinda brand He achieved a new victory just one day after his victory in the Gullegem Superprestige, thus consolidating his place in the general classification of the World Cup and surpassing his compatriots Puck Pieterse and Fem van Empel.

Brand celebrated his solo victory after six laps and nearly an hour of battle.

Behind him, Van Empel pitted in the race for second place, with Pieterse taking 30 seconds behind the winner.

The Dendermonde route, whose terrain is located in an open field, has very little flow and is often synonymous with mud, especially on this day where heavy rain was recorded.

In addition, the circuit has strategically placed obstacles, such as steps or sandbanks on the descent, which increase the difficulty.

The World Cup is coming back January 19 to Benidormin Spain, before the last two qualifiers on January 25 and 26 in Maasmechelen (Belgium) and then in Hoogerheide (Netherlands).