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No rider on the beginning line on the 2024 UCI Cyclocross World Championships in Tábor will entice extra consideration than Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and never simply because he is the defending world champion.
Van der Poel’s cyclocross season comes after an enormously profitable 12 months on the street that noticed him rack up wins in Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix and the rainbow jersey on the UCI Street World Championships in Glasgow.
He is additionally been nearly unstoppable in cyclocross this season. He would have most likely gone undefeated had he not run into a post during the Benidorm World Cup and crashed.
Van der Poel is the new property amid a powerful elite males’s area that shall be lacking his different ‘large three’ rivals Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock, however contains the cream of the ‘cross crop.
Belgian champion Eli Iserbyt (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) appears set to safe the UCI World Cup if he can maintain off Joris Nieuwenhuis (Baloise Trek) in Hoogerheide this weekend and is a perennial podium contender, together with teammate Michael Vanthourenhout – the 2 essential hopes for Belgium.
At Worlds, Nieuwenhuis and teammates Pim Ronhaar and Lars van der Haar will possible not be difficult their compatriot Van der Poel however, if he runs right into a pole once more, they will most definitely be robust back-up contenders.
Ronhaar was the one rider to hold with Van der Poel (for some time) on the X2O race in Koksijde and gained the World Cup in Eire, was second in Namur and third in Flamanville.
British champion Cameron Mason is the large exterior hopeful who might revenue from the group ways between Belgium and the Netherlands. Mason has taken an enormous leap ahead this 12 months, scoring podiums within the European championships and 5 different races.
Elite ladies
With Van der Poel storming away to solo victories in lots of the races this season, extra pleasure has been discovered within the ladies’s contests. Whereas she’s had some ups and downs, Fem van Empel (Visma-Lease a Bike) is the primary favorite as defending champion and the dominant rider this 12 months with 17 wins.
Her most up-to-date challenges have come from Puck Pieterse (Alpecin-Deceuninck), the runner-up to Van Empel final 12 months. The winner in Tábor will undoubtedly come from throughout the Dutch group which is so full of expertise, they do not have to fret about utilizing group ways.
Count on an inter-team battle between Van Empel, Pieterse and Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who’ve been persistently on the prime within the absence of Shirin van Anrooij.
Dutch champion Lucinda Model (Baloise Trek) has needed to overcome a variety of dangerous luck including a broken nose from a crash in Zonhoven however is the fourth main prospect for the rainbow jersey after a season of constant podiums.
Until outsiders like Canadians Maghalie Rochette and Isabella Holmgren, Italy’s Sara Casasola or Belgian Laura Verdonschot can pull off a shock, the rostrum is more likely to be a Dutch sweep because it has been for 3 of the previous 4 years.
Below-23 Girls
Of the under-23 ladies, Czech rider Kristyna Zemanova is the host nation’s finest candidate for a medal after a strong season racing within the elites together with a fourth on the World Cup in Val di Sole, fifth in Zonhoven and sixth in Dendermonde, in addition to the bronze medal in Hoogerheide finally 12 months’s Worlds.
The espoir (Below-23) ladies do not get too many probabilities to have separate races, however with out having to combat by means of elite-sized race visitors, Britain’s Zoe Backstedt is the clear favorite, having won the under-23 European title in Pontchàteau and completed second at Worlds final 12 months to Shirin van Anrooij.
Luxembourg champion Marie Schreiber (SD Worx) has been one other constant performer this season with an elite podium end in Flamanville, the identical for Dutch rider Leonie Bentveld (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal), whereas final 12 months’s junior world champion Isabella Holmgren (Canada) can by no means be discounted.
Below-23 Males
World Cup chief Tibor Del Grosso seems to be the highest contender within the espoir males’s area, though Belgians Emiel Verstrynge, Jente Michels and Ward Huybs are equally gifted.
Del Grosso completed an in depth second behind final 12 months’s under-23 winner Thibau Nys, who has since began racing as an elite though he’s solely 21.
Verstrynge acquired the higher of each Del Grosso and his Belgian teammates in Benidorm and appears to be the highest favorite.
Dutch rider David Haverdings, chief of the X2O Trophy, and 2023 junior world champion Frenchman Léo Bisiaux are different podium prospects.
Andrew Strohmeyer confirmed within the American races this season that he’s well-suited to a quick course, and a prime 10 within the under-23 race in Benidorm was indicator of his present type.
Junior Girls
World Cup chief Célia Gery (France) and Briton Cat Ferguson have been the highest junior ladies this 12 months, however control American Vida Lopez de San Roman, winner of the Vestingcross in Hulst, and Slovakian Viktória Chladonová, runner-up within the Benidorm and Namur World Cups.
Junior Males
French rider Aubin Sparfel, with three World Cup wins, is the new favorite for the junior males’s race. He is gone head-to-head with Italian Stefano Viezzi for a lot of the season, with Keije Solen (Netherlands) an in depth second in Benidorm.
Regulate Belgian champion Arthur Van Den Boer, US champion David Thompson (USA) and Czech hopeful Krystof Bazant.
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