Irish eyes smile on Maghalie Rochette with seventh in Dublin World Cup

Irish eyes were smiling on Maghalie Rochette in Sunday’s fifth round of the UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Dublin, Ireland, as the Canadian earned seventh, her best placing this season in Europe. Lucinda Brand took her first victory since last October, beating the World Cup leader Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado.

The Situation Before Sunday

After taking Rounds 3 and 4, Alvarado led the winner of the first two rounds, Fem van Empel, by 55 points. Undefeated van Empel wasn’t in Dublin, nor was Puck Pieterse. Maghalie Rochette was 12th overall.

Saturday’s runner-up in the X2O Trofee, Brand seized the lead on Lap 1, before World Cup leader Alvarado and then Inge van der Heijden took over. Rochette started to surf her way through the stream as the rain fell. Luxembourg champion Marie Schreiber took her turn leading the string. Brand led Schreiber, Alvarado and Zoe Backstedt over the finish line by six seconds. Rochette was 8th and Sidney McGill 14th.

At the beginning of Lap 2, Brand continued to stay clear of the chasing trio. Spaces appeared between the chasers. Alvarado toiled to make the junction. Backstedt and Schreiber were distanced. Rochette was 9th and McGill was 25th.

Brand and Alvarado continued their duel on Lap 3 of 6. Backstedt tried to keep Scheiber in her rearview mirror. Alvarado pitted, allowing Brand to open the gap. Brand enjoyed a 13-second lead at the midway point of the race. Rochette had moved up to 8th and McGill had slipped to 26th.

On Lap 4, Alvarado got hooked on the netting of the barrier, putting her even further in arrears. Brand finally pitted, as did Rochette. Alvarado had a mountain to climb, and needed to start thinking about the woman on her six, Brit Backstedt.

Brand took a 20-second lead into the penultimate lap, while Alvarado was 12 seconds ahead of Backstedt. Rochette was battling Denise Betsema, Kristyna Zemenova and van der Heijden for sixth place, and she was seventh at the end of the lap.

Alvarado couldn’t budge the gap to Brand on the bell lap, but Schreiber was closer to Backstedt than Backstedt was to the World Cup leader. Brand completed the 18.08 km just under 55 minutes.

Backstedt is now second in the World Cup. Rochette moved up to 9th in the standings.

The next round is next Sunday in Flamanville, France.

2023-2024 UCI Cyclocross World Cup, Round 5, Dublin
1) Lucinda Brand (The Netherlands/Baloise Trek Lions) +54:59
2) Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (The Netherlands/Alpecin-Deceuninck) +0:38
3) Zoe Backstedt (Great Britain/Canyon-SRAM) +0:44
7) Maghalie Rochette (Canada) +1:19
24) Sydney McGill (Canada) +6:05