Cycling world reeling from European Championship drama involving Brand and Schreiber: 'Today, no one won, and only cyclocross lost'
Cyclocross
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Follow us on GoogleThe cycling and cyclocross world was stunned on Saturday when Marie Schreiber was ultimately disqualified after winning the European Championship in Zeddam. The Luxembourger rider appeared to be the strongest, but veered off course for a split second during a two-way sprint, so the jury awarded the title to Lucinda Brand. People on social media certainly have a lot to say about it.
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'Zeddam scandal': cycling world is reeling from decision
While the cycling channel CyclingBottle referred to “the Zeddam scandal” in its opinion segment, even well-known figures in the cycling world couldn’t believe what they had seen. “Cycling is becoming too much of a ‘judges’ sport’ this way. There was nothing wrong with that sprint between Brand and Schreiber. It’s ridiculous,” said Erik Breukink.
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Former cyclist Brian Holm echoed that sentiment from Denmark. “The real winner of the European Cyclocross Championships is Marie Schreiber. A very, very sad decision by the race officials,” he said vehemently. Belgian cycling journalist Renaat Schotte also appealed to the empathy of the jury members, who ultimately awarded Brand the title.
"According to the letter of the rules, okay, Zeddam jury," said Schotte, who could understand the decision if one looked purely at the rules. However, Schotte added a big "but": "There is still such a thing as the spirit of the rules. Why, oh why? Today, no one won, and only cyclocross lost.”
The European Championship podium ceremony told the whole story. Schreiber didn’t show up as the new runner-up, leaving Brand and Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (third) looking a bit awkward in Zeddam. Based on the footage, we’ll leave the final judgment on the sprint up to you...
Schreiber refused to attend podium at Championships
Schreiber was heartbroken and angry after the race, saying, "I didn't deliberately slam the door or anything like that. Lucinda knows that; she says so herself. It's disrespectful to just take away the biggest moment of my career like that," said an angry Schreiber. "I'll say it again: it's disrespectful."
Schreiber then decided to skip the podium.
“I wanted to go because I thought everyone would hate me if I didn’t. But then I thought: they’re treating me like this, so why should I? It’s hard enough just to be standing here right now, so you can imagine how much harder it is to be on stage. That fine? I can live with that; getting sleep tonight is going to be more of a problem.”
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Clarice WebsterEditor
Clarice has been following cycling her whole life, wroting about Thibaut Pinot (among others) for her university magazine while earning her masters in Journalism. She is passionate about furthering equality in sports coverage, and has taken huge inspiration from pillars of women’s cycling like Beryl Burton, Marianne Vos, and Laura Kenny.
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