Saturday’s world cyclocross championships in Hulst were one to forget for Belgian champion Marion Norbert Riberolle, whose podium hopes were derailed by a crash caused by Czech rival Kristýna Zemanová, Riberolle retaliating by angrily shoving Zemanová in the chest, resulting in her disqualification from the race.
And to add injury to insult, Riberolle continued to ride on despite being pulled from the race – only to crash hard at the bottom of a steep bank, as Lucinda Brand soloed clear to secure her second cyclocross rainbow jersey and put the icing on a dominant winter campaign for the multidisciplinary Dutch star.
Behind Brand – whose own path to victory was far from serene – Riberolle and Zemanová’s confrontation took place on the penultimate lap of the women’s elite race in Hulst, as a sizeable group battled for third place and a bronze medal.
After dropping down off a ramp, Zemanová attempted to pass the Belgian on the inside of a left-hand bend, before sliding out and taking Riberolle down with her and forcing her into the barriers.
😮 Ça chauffe sur la course féminine des Mondiaux de cyclo-cross ! Et pour ce geste d’humeur, la Belge Marion Norbert-Riberolle est disqualifiée #LesRP pic.twitter.com/2ijicJEda2
— Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) January 31, 2026
As the Czech rider quickly grabbed her bike to restart, Riberolle blocked her path to remonstrate with her, shoving her hard in the chest, the Belgian then returning to her own bike, angrily shaking her head.
Commentating for TNT Sports, five-time British cyclocross champion Ian Field said: “You can see why Riberolle is frustrated, but you shouldn’t really go around pushing riders.”
The race commissaires swiftly moved to disqualify Riberolle from the race, though it is unclear how swiftly the decision was communicated to her or her team. The 27-year-old, who has three wins to her name this season, entered the pits soon after the incident, but instead of stopping grabbed a fresh bike and continued riding.
In any case, her race soon ended in dramatic circumstances, Riberolle crashing hard at the bottom of a steep muddy bank, the Belgian looking in some pain as she sat on the ground, holding her ribs and clearly distraught – perhaps for more reasons than one.
Meanwhile, Zemanová’s own podium hopes were derailed by the crash, the Czech rider ultimately crossing the line in 11th.
As tempers flared behind, Lucinda Brand kept her cool amid the chaos to secure the second cyclocross rainbow jersey of her career, as Ceylin Alvarado and the unfortunate Puck Pieterse rounded off a Dutch clean sweep of the podium in front of a delighted home crowd.
That orange-clad trio dominated from the start, pulling away from the field in the first lap as the in-form Pieterse piled on the pressure.
Despite being the dominant ‘cross rider of the winter, with a staggering 19 wins from 24 starts, Brand’s build-up to the worlds in Hulst was patchy, punctuated by concussion suffered in a crash in Zonhoven and a recent calf injury.
The 36-year-old was content, then, to bide her time early in the race, before striking around the midway mark. As Brand forced the pace, the dynamic of the race was irrevocably altered as Pieterse suffered a heavy, high-speed crash.
The Fenix-Premier Tech rider, jersey muddied, then dropped back to the chasers, before rallying to secure bronze.
Meanwhile, Brand was forced to overcome her own crash, the multidisciplinary star flying over the handlebars, and briefly letting Alvarado back in. But Brand wasn’t to be denied, the 36-year-old digging deep to surge clear once again, ultimately sealing the win – and her second rainbow jersey – by 27 seconds over Alvarado.
Britain’s double U23 world ‘cross champion Zoe Bäckstedt, racing her first elite cyclocross worlds, finished, just 14 seconds behind bronze medallist Pieterse, following a courageous, battling ride.
-1024x680.jpg "“Clear anti-cyclist bias”: Lawsuit filed against Toronto police after cop doored cyclist… before ticketing rider over incident")
18 thoughts on “Cyclocross rider “aggressively” pushes rival at world championships, gets disqualified, rides on… then crashes hard, as Lucinda Brand powers to second rainbow jersey in thriller”
Riberolle didn’t crash hard.
Riberolle didn’t crash hard. She rode on, was informed of her disqualification and got off the bike at the foot of the climb and sat down in tears.
No Reply wrote:
There doesn’t appear to be any footage of this, so how do you know? She was taken to hospital after the race to be assessed for head and neck injuries.
Rendel Harris wrote:
He knows because there absolutely definitely 100% IS footage of Riberolle riding towards that bank, getting off the bike and sitting down to have a cry (no judgement implied, it’s just literally what happened). It was shown as a replay on the live broadcast, you should be able to find it pretty easily if you have a Disco subscription.
Any medical assessment would relate to effects of the original incident, there is no suggestion from any source I’m aware of that she crashed again.
https://youtu.be/zGqUIbUfLDU
https://youtu.be/zGqUIbUfLDU?si=1r3NpK5HgKUd_s11
At about 3:05 she rolls into the bottom of the climb, dismounts, and has a sit.
LookAhead wrote:
Amazing. In the same video, there’s a push at about 2:33 that moves the rider being pushed back several inches.
In addition to the article’s
In addition to the article’s false claim that Riberolle karmically crashed out of the race, I wonder why the headline includes “aggressively”, and in quotation marks. Not only was the push not actually aggressive (I’m not defending it or saying it shouldn’t have resulted in disqualification, but upon viewing the incident I was quite shocked how mild it was given how road.cc characterized it), the article doesn’t go on to quote anyone else claiming that the push was “aggressive”.
I would implore road.cc and its staff to be more careful, but honestly at this point the slop–which, not coincidentally, pairs nicely with the rampant tabloid-y sensationalism–seems intentional. So carry on, I suppose, if you’re truly happy with the role you’re playing in the public discourse.
What a peculiar perspective,
What a peculiar perspective, in what way could a push on a rival in retaliation for a crash be “not actually aggressive”? It was a direct attack on the other rider, however “mild” you think it is and how “shocked” you are to see it described as being aggressive.
In fairness and upon
In fairness and upon reflection, I’d hardly even call it a push. It was more of a “wtf were you thinking” tap. The contact wasn’t hard enough to knock Zemanová backwards or sustained enough to prevent her from immediately continuing along the course; she didn’t even seem put out by it at all, in fact. Likewise, Riberolle didn’t continue to remonstrate or obstruct. All in all, it was a relatively minor confrontation that created no risk of harm and that ended as quickly as it began.
Should Riberolle have done it? Certainly not. Were the officials right to disqualify her for it? Probably (though you’ll regularly see folks get away with far more in other sports). But “aggressive”? If you start using words like that to describe incidents like this, they lose their ability to accurately convey the seriousness of cases that really deserve them.
Now *that’s* aggressive:
https://youtube.com/shorts/nxolWJJJWkk?si=bRoWAQHCSgTH2AU6
(For the record, I’m not suggesting that the link I shared represents the minimum level of violence required for “aggression”; I merely think the contrast is instructive.)
LookAhead wrote:
I’m afraid you’re simply incorrect in your apprehension of what constitutes “aggressive”. The definition of aggressive is to confront someone in an angry manner, it doesn’t even have to involve physical conflict. If you get in someone’s face and start shouting and swearing at them, you’re being aggressive. In this case, Riberolle walked towards her opponent, shouting at her, and then shoved her. That is literally the dictionary definition of “aggressive”. You appear to be confusing aggressive and violent.
Rendel Harris wrote:
I think you’re overlooking the grammatical context here. The headline doesn’t say that Riberolle pushed Zemanová while remonstrating aggressively*. It says she “aggressively pushed” her. That distinction matters.
When “aggressively” modifies “pushed,” it implies that the physical act itself was unusually forceful or severe, stronger than an ordinary push. That’s reinforced by the article’s later claim that she “shoved her hard.” In other words, the reporting is presenting the contact itself as physically serious.
But if what we’re seeing in the video counts as an “aggressive” or “hard” push/shove, it’s unclear what a normal push or shove would look like.
*Even then, I don’t see her getting in Zemanová’s face, shouting and swearing, or generally behaving in the way you’re suggesting (perhaps there is a video that shows things more clearly?). I see a brief, frustrated interaction that was unwise but hardly damning–a mole hill that some folks are making into a mountain.
LookAhead wrote:
It wouldn’t. There’s no such thing as a ‘normal shove’ – shoving people isn’t (and shouldn’t be) normal.
LookAhead wrote:
If you are angry with somebody and you lay hands on them, you are being aggressive, no matter how “gentle” your assault may be (and you probably don’t like that language either, but it is an assault and would be counted as such in law). Equally, if you are being aggressive and you shove somebody then by definition it is justifiable to qualify the shove with the adverb aggressively. I really can’t understand why are you are going to such lengths to attempt to excuse such a clearly unacceptable action.
Rendel Harris wrote:
I don’t know how much more clearly I could have indicated–twice!–that she shouldn’t have done it and that disqualification was probably the correct call.
Do have a good day.
LookAhead wrote:
Yes you have, but each time you have qualified that by saying that actually shoving somebody is pretty much nothing and isn’t aggressive, which remains ridiculous however much you agree with the disqualification.
Enjoy your day too, I hope nobody shoves you, even if it’s “not aggressive” and “just a tap”.
In fairness and upon
double post
LookAhead wrote:
I’d be curious to know what you think are the boundaries of aggression are.
To me, I don’t know how you’d view it as anything but. It’s not as if there was any legitimate purpose like trying to to push past Zemanova to get back to her bike. Riberolle was angry, shouting and there was no other goal to her actions than to physically punish and intimidate. I personally wouldn’t know how to define aggressive behaviour as anything but that, no matter that it’s relatively brief and mild.
Even so (you may well think this ridiculous too) if it wasn’t in the sporting field of play – where a degree of consent to physical contact is assumed – it could even be charged as a criminal offense.
Wingguy wrote:
In a textbook hypothetical? Maybe. In the real world? No way. Brief, non-injurious contact like this that constitutes no threat or risk of harm is never going to be prosecuted absent aggravating circumstances. Invoking criminality here just further exaggerates what actually happened.
LookAhead wrote:
You absolutely are liable to get charged with literally anything that is technically illegal. Just the shouting bit is enough to get people charged and prosecuted by some police officers.
Likewise, you saying it wasn’t hard enough to knock Zemanova backwards is an exaggeration of your version of events, since the video clearly and obviously shows her being stopped and pushed backwards a step. Also, just because Zemanova is being professonal and getting on with the race doesn’t mean she didn’t mind. Judging things that way would create a weird sort of loophole where you can’t judge one person’s aggression to be unnacceptable unless the other person also reacts aggressively. Doesn’t really make sense.