Lidl-Trek confirmed multi-discipline veteran Lucinda Brand has signed a contract extension which will keep her as “an important pillar of the team” through 2025. The Dutch rider, who is in her fourth season with the WorldTour team, will combine her role as road captain for Lidl-Trek with a cyclocross programme on the Baloise-Trek Lions team for two more seasons.
“I think most important is that I feel really like I have found my place within the Lidl-Trek team, and I am incredibly happy here so, of course, it only made sense to stay in the Trek family for the next two years,” Brand said in a team statement.
“Being able to combine road racing and cyclo-cross with Lidl-Trek and Baloise-Trek Lions is really a privilege. The support I receive from both sides, who work super well together to make it happen, is incredible. It provides me with a wonderful environment and a perfect balance and freedom to go between the two disciplines.”
Off-road success hit a high in 2021 when she won the World and European titles in cyclocross. In seven world championship appearances in cyclocross, Brand has never finished outside the top four, last season riding to bronze on home turf in Hoogerheide.
Most recently Brand won her first road stage of the year in the time trial at Baloise Ladies Tour, which vaulted her to the overall title. It was also the first time the 34-year-old had won a race against the clock in her 15-year career.
Brand makes her first appearance at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, taking the start line alongside six other teammates with the start on Sunday in Clermont-Ferrand.
“I am as ambitious as ever. The sport has grown so much since I first turned professional and there is still so much further to go and so much more I want to achieve in my career, and one of those big goals will be ticked off soon when I join my teammates for this year’s Tour de France Femmes,” she noted.
Brand goes into the eight-day Grand Tour in top road form, having earned four podiums in her week of racing at the Baloise Ladies Tour. In the spring she had a pair of top 12s in Paris-Roubaix Femmes and Tour of Flanders.
“Lucinda has become an important pillar in our team, and we are incredibly pleased that we have found an agreement to renew her contract and that she has re-signed for two more years,” Sport Director Ina Teutenberg said. “She is a true asset to the team, a rider who is capable of both winning in her own right and making the most of opportunities when they arise but also helping guide her teammates to victory as well.”
