Lucinda Brand delivered another masterclass at Rapencross Lokeren, backing up her Koppenbergcross triumph with a poised, perfectly judged victory that underlined her status as the form rider of the early winter. On a demanding course shaped by overnight rain, tight corners, heavy sand and the punchy rise of Mont Henri, the Baloise Glowi Lions leader turned a turbulent, unpredictable race into a showcase of composure.
With world champion Fem van Empel absent due to lingering illness, the anticipation centred on Brand and Sara Casasola, who had traded blows across recent weekends. The opening laps reflected that narrative exactly. Casasola launched hard from the gun, establishing an early lead with Brand tucked behind her, the pair easing clear as the rest of the field scrambled to settle into rhythm. Yet the chase never faded. By the end of lap two, Aniek van Alphen, Leonie Bentveld and Inge van der Heijden had clawed their way across, creating a five-rider group brimming with contrasting strengths.
Brand watched those early exchanges with patience, never hurried, never tempted into wasteful acceleration. Van Alphen showed the biggest aggression, repeatedly lifting the pace on the more draining sections, forcing Bentveld and Van der Heijden into repeated, painful recoveries. Behind them, Marion Norbert Riberolle hovered just out of reach, unable to close the final metres but close enough to keep pressure on the leaders.
The first major turning point came shortly before the halfway mark. Brand made a small, unexpected slip, just enough to open the door. Casasola reacted immediately, surging into a clean, powerful attack that suggested the Italian had timed her effort perfectly. For a handful of minutes, she looked the strongest rider in Lokeren, carving out daylight and tightening her link to the form she showed in Overijse.
Then the course bit back. Two crashes in rapid succession obliterated Casasola’s momentum and completely reshaped the outcome. From leader to survivor in half a lap, she went from controlling the race to relying on resilience.
Brand, by contrast, moved into the lead with the assurance of someone who had been waiting for the race to settle into her hands. She applied pressure gradually, but with absolute clarity, stretching the field and building a gap that grew in quiet, devastating increments. Behind her, Bentveld initially led the chase, but fatigue from earlier efforts and the accumulating technical demands began to tell.
With two laps to go, the gap hovered at 20 seconds. By the bell, it had stretched to 23, and Brand’s victory felt inevitable. Clean lines through the sand, smooth cornering and total tactical calm carried her to the finish for her fourth win in five races this season and her second triumph of the weekend.
The fight for second remained open deep into the final lap. Norbert Riberolle launched a determined solo effort and briefly looked set to secure the runner-up spot, only for Van Alphen and Casasola to claw back onto her wheel. In the final push to the line the Belgian national champion made one last decisive move, sealing second place, with Casasola recovering enough to take third after a day that veered from promise to frustration.
Brand summed it up simply afterwards: staying calm had been the key. A poor start, deliberate bike changes, patience rather than panic. In a race defined by slips, crashes and momentum swings, she was the one rider who never let the course dictate her fate.
2025 Rapencross Lokeren Women result
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Photo Credit: GettyNieuwenhuis in command as Nys suffers through a nightmare race
Where the women’s race showcased patience and timing, the men’s edition of Rapencross turned into a study in control from Joris Nieuwenhuis and disaster management from Thibau Nys. Nieuwenhuis claimed his second win of the season with a commanding solo ride, while Nys endured a mechanical-plagued afternoon that derailed his X2O Trofee ambitions.
The opening lap saw Niels Vandeputte push to the front, reclaiming confidence after his costly pedal slip the previous day. Behind him, Michael Vanthourenhout slotted into familiar territory near the front, with the pack stretched out on the heavy sand runs, greasy roots and the stiff ramps of Mont Henri.
Nys, by contrast, never found stable ground. A slow start left him exposed early, but the real damage arrived on lap three. A sequence of mechanical issues forced him into repeated bike swaps: a dropped shifter, crooked handlebars, a slipping saddle. Each change cost seconds, rhythm and composure. His frustration was visible; at one point he struck his bars after a pit exit, knowing the race was slipping from his grasp. Two later crashes – one over the bars in the sand, one from overcooking a corner – turned a bad day into a write-off. He eventually rolled home 15th at 3:37, stopping briefly before the line to register the time loss that would cost him the X2O lead.
At the front, however, Nieuwenhuis and Vanthourenhout settled into a clean duel. Vandeputte drifted back into a chase group featuring Toon Aerts, Jente Michels and Crelan-Corendon pair Laurens Sweeck and Emiel Verstrynge. With four laps remaining, Nieuwenhuis moved to the head of the race and immediately imposed a pace that suited him perfectly – steady, high and relentlessly efficient.
The Dutchman’s rhythm proved too much. Vanthourenhout held on gamely but could not match the tempo, and the gap began to open. Even a minor late-race slip by Nieuwenhuis could not dent his advantage. He pressed on cleanly to the line, 48 seconds clear, while Vanthourenhout added yet another podium to his extraordinarily consistent campaign.
Behind, Vandeputte salvaged his afternoon with a decisive acceleration from the chase group on the final lap, securing third ten seconds behind Vanthourenhout.
For Nieuwenhuis, the significance was immediate. With time – not points – defining the X2O Trofee, his dominant performance catapulted him into the overall lead. After losing minutes the previous day, he admitted he had doubted whether the classification was still within reach. Rapencross answered that emphatically, giving him both momentum and control heading into Flandriencross.
Where the race unravelled for Nys, it opened wide for Nieuwenhuis. And where the women’s race rewarded calm, the men’s race rewarded precision: when the chaos struck behind him, Nieuwenhuis was already gone.
2025 Rapencross Lokeren Men result
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Main photo credit: Getty
