Lucinda Brand signs for Canyon//SRAM and picks Paris-Roubaix 2028 for her road cycling farewell

The current world champion in cyclocross, Lucinda Brand, has announced her new team and that she has already decided how she wants to end her road career. The Dutch rider will leave Lidl-Trek to join Canyon//SRAM in 2027, with an agreement that includes her retirement after the Paris-Roubaix in 2028 and her subsequent incorporation into the team's technical staff.

Canyon//SRAM signs Lucinda Brand with a plan that includes her future as a sports director

At 37 years old and after seven seasons with Lidl-Trek, Brand will face her last months as a professional road cyclist in a structure that, starting in 2027, will be called Canyon//SRAM Scalable Capital. However, her signing has much more to it than her services as a cyclist, and both parties have agreed that she will remain linked to the project once her racing career ends.

Brand herself explains in the official statement from Canyon//SRAM that she had been following the team for some time and that the initial conversations convinced her completely.

"From the first conversation, I had good feelings and came away really excited. It was almost as if a new flame had been ignited within me", she assures.

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The Paris-Roubaix of 2028 will be her last road race

Brand has also indicated that the Paris-Roubaix Femmes of 2028 will, if all goes as planned, be her last professional competition on asphalt.

In this event, she finished third in the 2022 edition and tenth in 2026, and on the cobbles of northern France, she has always found a terrain particularly suited to her endurance, technical skill, and ability to handle demanding races.

"For me, the Paris-Roubaix is the race where road cycling and cyclocross come together in a beautiful way. Every time I think about racing it, my heart beats a little faster", Brand explains.

From leader within the peloton to part of the team's management

One of the most interesting aspects of the agreement is that Brand will begin preparing for her transition to sports management roles while still competing.

The rider acknowledges that over the past few years, she has taken on responsibilities that go beyond racing and that she has discovered her interest in working with young cyclists.

"In a way, I have already been taking on responsibilities typical of a sports director, and I have discovered how much I enjoy that part of the sport. I love working with young and ambitious athletes, sharing my experience, and helping them progress", she explains.

For Rolf Aldag, the sports director of Canyon//SRAM, her incorporation also responds to the need to balance experience and youth within a team that is undergoing significant renewal.

The team considers her ability to interpret races and make decisions from within the peloton especially valuable, where car instructions cannot always arrive in time. Furthermore, they hope she will bring stability to the classics block, one of their sporting priorities for the upcoming seasons.

Although her incorporation into the team's staff is planned after Roubaix 2028, it has not yet been officially determined what position she will hold.

Her future in cyclocross will remain linked to Sven Nys

The change of team in road cycling does not mean that Lucinda Brand will abandon cyclocross. The Dutch rider has renewed her commitment to the Baloise Glowi Lions, the structure led by Sven Nys, to continue competing during the 2027-2028 season.

This is an important decision for a cyclist who is experiencing one of the best moments of her career in this discipline. In January 2026, she won her second Cyclocross World Championship in Hulst, culminating a season in which she also claimed the overall World Cup and the X2O Badkamers Trofee.

And far from showing signs of competitive exhaustion, she has started the new campaign with victories. On October 11, she won the Mosselcross in Dendermonde, where she narrowly defeated Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado and Denise Betsema.

Her commitment to Sven Nys has been decisive in this new stage. Brand has publicly highlighted the role that the former Belgian champion played when she had lost some of her motivation for cycling, helping her regain her desire to compete and facilitating her continuity at the highest level in both road cycling and cyclocross.