Lucinda Brand won the fifth round of the Telenet Superprestige Boom, but at the cost of a CHF 120 fine after an incident in the pits hindered world champion Ceylin Alvarado.

Alvarado entered the pits to change to a new bike on the last lap, but Brand jumped over the pit to get to his mechanic and threw his muddy bike in front of Alvarado.

Brand, seemingly realizing his mistake and its unfair consequences, waited for Alvarado to rejoin him before attacking on the climb and winning by 10 seconds, but Alvarado was still annoyed.

"I'm a little pissed off right now," Alvarado told Sporza.be (opens in new tab) after the race. 'But it made me a little out of breath. I was really focused and then all of a sudden something unexpected happened and I lost my concentration. I had to get my rhythm back, and I didn't do that very well."

"It was ridiculous that it happened like that, but there was nothing I could do. I had to stop suddenly and it was annoying."

Brand apologized, but race officials fined her 120 Swiss francs. 'Apparently I broke the rules,' she said. It was unintentional, but I understand this decision," Brand said.

"It was a combination of unpleasant situations. Everyone knows I'm not the fastest in the pits and I'm not that fast back on the bike. So if I had to wait for her to re-ride to make the exchange, I would be five meters behind."

"In my estimation, the mechanics weren't standing that close and there was space. It was a split-second decision and I thought I could still overtake them. But we were too close to each other and I made the wrong choice.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that. I wish it didn't have to come to that, but after that pit all I could do was wait for Ceylin. I apologized even then because it is not a good way to eliminate a competitor. I hope he doesn't think I wanted to do that. Now I understand that Ceylin is just as angry as I am."