Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek) will end her professional career at Paris-Roubaix Femmes in 2028 after signing for Canyon//SRAM, and will move into the team's staff once she stops racing.
The 37-year-old Dutch rider joins on January 1, 2027 on a contract through 2028. She will race a full road season next year before a final spring that finishes in the Roubaix velodrome. The move ends seven road seasons at Lidl-Trek, a team she joined in 2020.
In the team's announcement, Brand said the staff role was central to her decision. "In a way, I've already been taking on the responsibilities that a sports director might have, and I've discovered how much I enjoy that side of the sport," she said. "I really love working with young, ambitious athletes, sharing my experience, and helping them grow."
"There are a lot of changes happening to our roster, and we'll have quite a few younger riders, so we need to create the right mix of potential versus experience and leadership," said Rolf Aldag, Canyon//SRAM's director of sport. "On the bike, she's essentially the extended arm of a sports director."
Aldag said Brand would "bring a lot of stability to the classics team, which is a strong sporting focus for the next two years."
Those changes include the departure of Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, the 2024 Tour de France Femmes winner, who joins Lidl-Trek through 2028 after nine seasons with Canyon//SRAM. The team has also signed 24-year-old Shirin van Anrooij (Canyon//SRAM) from Lidl-Trek on a deal through 2029. She won Trofeo Alfredo Binda in 2023 and finished on the Tour of Flanders podium in 2024.
Roubaix and the cyclocross condition
Brand has 28 road wins since entering the elite ranks in 2009, including Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the Dutch national title and the overall at the Tour de Suisse Women. She has podiums at Dwars door Vlaanderen, Amstel Gold Race and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and finished third on her Paris-Roubaix debut in 2022. She has started every edition since, placing in the top 10 this year.
"When the opportunity came along to potentially finish my road cycling career at Paris-Roubaix, I knew straight away that it was a chance I had to grab with both hands," she said. "For me, Paris-Roubaix is the race where road cycling and cyclocross come together in a beautiful way."
Her cyclocross programme continues separately. Earlier this month she renewed with Baloise-Het Poetsbureau for two more seasons, through February 2028. Brand, who won her second elite world title at Hulst on January 31, said that commitment decided her road future.
"Lidl-Trek offered me the chance to continue together, but it came with a difficult choice," she wrote on Instagram. "To stay, I would have to leave behind the man who believed in me when I needed it most. The man who brought back my love for cycling and helped me become the rider I am today."
That man is Sven Nys, manager of the cyclocross team, whom Brand credits with arranging the road opportunity that let her combine both disciplines.
