Lucinda Brand has already set a new goal of winning Paris-Roubaix Femme after taking bronze in the elite women's race at the UCI Cyclocross World Championships.

After missing the inaugural Paris-Roubaix women's race in 2021, Brand was a loyal teammate to winner Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) last year, finishing third. two months later, Brand will use her cyclocross ability to win the iconic cobbled trophy. He hopes to do the same.

The 33-year-old multi-discipline rider was unable to keep up with the pace of his Dutch compatriot and young winner Femme van Empel at the World Cyclocross Championships on Saturday, finishing third in front of Hoogerheide's home fans.

Brand will now have two more weeks of cyclocross racing to prepare for Paris-Roubaix with an overall win in the X20 Trofee.

"I'll rest a bit after the X20 Trophy and train hard for Roubaix," said the bronze medal-wearing Brand. Roubaix is a very big goal and I hope it goes well." Roubaix is a very big goal and hopefully I'll do well.

Brand had bad luck during the cyclocross season, breaking her right hand while training for the Tabor World Cup in October.

She got back on track with a number of podium finishes, but was unable to match the pace of her Dutch under-23 rivals Van Empel and Puck Pieterse, who won the silver medal in the Hoogerheide elite race. During the race, Pieterse crashed and Brand caught up to her, but the younger woman finished in second place.

Brand added: "I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it again. 'Of course, in a race you always focus on the highest place, which is first place wins, but you also have to be realistic.'

"Our results this season have not been great, so we focused on today and tried to get the highest possible level of moments.

"Looking back a few weeks ago, I think we did a pretty good job. It was the highest we've been at this point. Looking back at the season as a whole, it was a very good way to end the season."

The young Dutch riders competing in Sunday's women's U23 contest, Pieterse, Van Empel, and 20-year-old Shirin van Unrooy, have dominated the cyclocross world cup this season. Brand says the young riders will push the 33-year-old to improve himself in the cross field.

"It gives me the opportunity to keep working on the points where I can be stronger. Of course, there are things that don't work as you get older, but there are still a lot of things to improve on," she says.

"I think the big difference, at least with me, is that they already play with bikes from an early age. It's almost like a habit. When you're not in the flow, you lose it first, so you have to work harder"

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"The development of cycling, especially women's cycling, is very fast. We are becoming more knowledgeable not only about riding a bike, but also about nutrition, recovery, and everything else. It's great for these girls to know all the details, not just training, and you can see in every discipline that young athletes are reaching higher [levels] faster.