Koksijde rarely offers gifts. The Duinencross is a race that punishes hesitation, rewards commitment, and turns every mistake into a small avalanche of lost momentum. On Sunday 21 December 2025, it delivered two very different stories: Lucinda Brand riding the sand like it owed her something, and Mathieu van der Poel choosing his moment before powering away to another North Sea statement.
Brand arrived in Belgium fresh off a tense Antwerp duel with Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado. This time, she took the suspense out of it early. Van der Poel, meanwhile, faced a course tweaked to be harder and more selective, then did what he tends to do when the sand gets deep: waited, watched, and went.
Brand did not hang around. Amandine Fouquenet once again had the jump at the start, but the usual front-end names were immediately in position, with Brand, Alvarado and Aniek van Alphen all prominent as the opening sand began to stretch the field. The first significant turning point came quickly, with Sara Casasola enduring a nightmare opening and stepping out early, while Puck Pieterse was forced to chase after a slightly awkward first phase of the race.
On the first lap, Brand began to lean into the race. The pace hardened, the lines sharpened, and when she chose to press, it did not look like a speculative move. Her sand passages were decisive, her transitions clean, and the group splintered under that sustained pressure rather than a single explosive attack. Only Van Alphen could initially cling on, but even that pairing never felt stable.
Photo Credit: GettyShirin van Anrooij was the rider who changed the shape of the race behind them. Once she found her rhythm, she started to fly through the dunes, riding with the confidence of someone who trusts her lines and does not need to overthink the effort. She clawed her way back towards the front, closing down what had been a meaningful gap, and for a moment it hinted at a proper fight.
Brand saw it and simply refused to play along. Rather than settle for a controlled advantage, she drove on again, and that second injection of pace proved decisive. Van Alphen and Van Anrooij were both forced into damage limitation, with Brand riding away into the kind of solo that Koksijde only gives to riders who can keep the whole machine running under maximum strain.
From there, it became a pure demonstration. Brand stayed almost faultless, kept building the gap, and crossed the line for her 12th win of the season, her 80th professional cyclocross victory, and, crucially, her first ever win at Koksijde after finishing second there three times before.
Afterwards, she admitted it had been a targeted goal. “I’m really super happy with this win,” she said. “I had set myself some goals at the start of the season, including this cross. That it works out now is really nice.” She also captured the feeling every rider has on this course during recce. “During the first lap of my recon on Friday I thought: why do I want this again?”
Van Anrooij was equally clear about what the result meant, and what it did not. “I’m super happy with it. I am very satisfied,” she said after finishing second, 36 seconds down. “Lucinda was just too strong on all the intermediate pieces. I think second was just the highest attainable.” She also pointed to a theme that has followed her return, improving but still searching for that final layer of endurance: “I think I’m missing the in between part after missing so many races. I feel like I’m getting there step by step.”
Behind them, the battle for third was messy, physical, and decided late. Pieterse looked set for the final podium spot for long stretches, but Alvarado and Van Alphen dragged themselves back into the conversation on the final lap. Alvarado then sprinted her way to third, continuing her upward curve after the interrupted start to her winter.
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2025 World Cup Koksijde Women result
Photo Credit: GettyIf the women’s race was decided early, the men’s race was shaped by patience. Van der Poel did not instantly detonate the field. Instead, he allowed a strong front group to form, measured the efforts around him, and only accelerated once the race had reached that point where the dunes begin to empty the legs.
A five-man lead group emerged after the opening exchanges: Van der Poel, his Alpecin-Deceuninck team-mates Tibor del Grosso and Niels Vandeputte, European champion Toon Aerts, and Laurens Sweeck. The early pattern was clear. Del Grosso drove much of the pace, Sweeck marked closely, and Van der Poel kept testing the pressure with small digs that asked questions without fully committing to an all-in move.
Halfway into the race, Van der Poel found the moment. He moved to the front, pushed through a decisive section where riding your own lines becomes a weapon, and the gap opened as the sand did what it always does when riders begin to make even minor mistakes under fatigue. “I think I just was looking a bit what the others were doing,” he said of the move. “Then I just went to the front and it’s always easier if you can do your own lines. If there’s mistakes behind, there’s a gap coming in, and I decided to go for it.”
From that point, the race was over as a contest for the win. Van der Poel extended the advantage lap by lap to take his third straight World Cup victory, and his fifth career World Cup win at Koksijde, stretching his overall cyclocross winning streak to 15 races.
Behind, it became a sharp fight for the remaining podium places. Sweeck once again proved the best of the rest, using the sand to create the slight separation he needed, and beating Vandeputte for second. Del Grosso made a late mistake and slipped to fourth, with Aerts completing the top five.
Sweeck, who had now taken second in both Antwerp and Koksijde across the sand double-header, framed it in terms of realism and points as much as pride. “Two weeks ago without Van der Poel it was a victory, I’m happy with it,” he said. “When Mathieu was gone today, second will be the highest possible, and it’s important with the points.”
There was also a clear standings angle to Koksijde. Thibau Nys, who had struggled in the Antwerp sand, did not start, and that opened more space for Sweeck to strengthen his World Cup position. Van der Poel’s three wins have also dragged him firmly into the overall conversation, even with a late start to his World Cup campaign.
2025 World Cup Koksijde Men result
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