Alvarado leaves Brand behind in the sand in Mol and achieves four out of five in Superprestige

Today in Mol marked the fifth of eight Superprestige races this winter. Alvarado and Brand had three of the four covered and had an excellent start. Inge van der Heijden didn't miss her start, giving us three Dutch ladies battling in the opening lap. In her Belgian championship jersey, Sanne Cant was already a bit further behind them.

When Brand took the lead on lap two and accelerated, it looked like the start of a solo for a moment, but the Dutch champion constantly struggled to reach the top of the sandhill on her bike. Her pace mainly caused a gap with Van der Heijden halfway through the race.

Because Alvarado had also seen Brand struggling at the sand hill in the first two laps, the classification leader attacked in lap three. As expected, Brand had to leave a gap and, to make matters worse, also crashed into the sand when she had to get off the bike. The delay created a ten-second gap between Alvarado and Brand, which remained stable.

Thanks to the fences, Brand could cycle to the top of the sand on the fourth lap, keeping Alvarado in sight. With one lap to go, could Brand make a comeback? The answer was no. Alvarado remained technically the better rider, as Brand had to get off the bike again in the sand and saw the gap increase. The result was four out of five for Alvarado in the Superprestige. Brand had to be satisfied with second place; Van der Heijden finished third.