Lucinda Brand will join Canyon SRAM for the 2027 road season on a two-year agreement that will take her from the peloton into a staff role with the team. The 37-year-old Dutchwoman intends to end her professional racing career at Paris-Roubaix Femmes in 2028 before beginning the next phase of her career off the bike.
The move, announced by Canyon SRAM on 12 October, is more than a final change of jersey. Brand will leave Lidl-Trek after seven seasons on the road, but has agreed a longer-term arrangement with her new team that recognises the leadership and tactical experience she has developed across almost two decades of racing.
Paris-Roubaix 2028 chosen as final race
Brand has singled out Paris-Roubaix Femmes as the race where she wants to bring her professional career to a close. She finished third on her debut in 2022 and has returned to the cobbles every year since, including another top-10 finish in 2026.
She described Roubaix as a race that suits both her strengths and the way she enjoys racing. The cobbles demand positioning, endurance and quick decisions, qualities that have also defined much of her career in cyclocross.
“When the opportunity came along to potentially finish my road cycling career at Paris-Roubaix, I knew straight away,” Brand said, explaining why the 2028 edition had become central to the agreement.
There will be two further opportunities to race the French Monument in Canyon SRAM colours, in 2027 and 2028. Brand has not presented the move simply as a farewell tour, however. She wants to remain competitive while helping the team develop a younger group of riders.
From experienced rider to a role behind the scenes
Brand’s agreement includes a transition into the team’s staff after she stops racing. Canyon SRAM has not specified a formal job title or the date when that role begins, although Brand has expressed an interest in developing as a sports director.
“Over the last few years, I’ve noticed that my role as a rider has become more than just racing,” she said. She added that working with ambitious younger athletes, passing on experience and helping them develop had become an important part of what she enjoyed about the sport.
Rolf Aldag, Canyon SRAM’s director of sport, sees Brand as a rider capable of making decisions that cannot always come from the team car. In fast-moving races, he believes her ability to assess the situation and secure the trust of teammates will be valuable, particularly as the roster becomes younger.
Aldag described the signing as being “as much about leadership as it is mentorship”. The team is also looking to strengthen its approach to the Classics over the next two years, with Brand expected to play a central part in that work while she is still racing.
Her arrival comes during a substantial reshaping of Canyon SRAM’s squad. Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney is leaving for Lidl-Trek, while the team has added younger riders and strengthened its development pathway, including promoting Emily Dixon from Canyon SRAM Generation.
A career built across Classics, stage races and cyclocross
Brand turned professional in 2009 and has collected 28 road victories, including Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the Dutch national road championship and overall wins at the Tour de Suisse Women, Thüringen Ladies Tour and Baloise Ladies Tour.
The Giro d’Italia Women has been another important part of her career. She made her 15th appearance in 2026, having previously worn the pink jersey, won stages and taken the mountains classification. She came close to another stage victory this year, finishing second from the breakaway on stage seven.
Although she has increasingly been regarded as a dependable domestique and road captain, those results underline that her contributions have not been restricted to protecting teammates. She remains capable of influencing difficult races and taking opportunities herself.
Brand’s cyclocross programme will remain separate from the new road agreement. She has extended her partnership with Baloise Glowi Lions, the squad with which she won the 2026 elite world title, her second in the discipline. She will continue combining cyclocross with road racing when she joins Canyon SRAM on 1 January 2027.
Her decision to leave Lidl-Trek follows her earlier announcement that she would remain with Sven Nys’s cyclocross organisation. The new Canyon SRAM deal now provides the answer to where she will race on the road, and what she hopes to do once her final Roubaix is over.
