The UCI announced its 2023-2024 cyclocross on Wednesday, and the news isn’t great for the U.S.A., as it’s down to one race at the beginning of the season, after two in 2022-2023 and three in 2021-2022. Waterloo, Wiconsin will still kick off the series on October 15. There are still 14 races. France receives two races next season and Benidorm, Spain hosts again, and the Tabor, Czech Republic race won’t be in the Cup, but will be the setting for the 2024 Worlds. After hosting the Worlds, the Hoogerheide course in the Netherlands returns to round off the schedule. Laurens Sweeck and Fem van Empel ..read more

Except for a race or two, for all intents and purposes the 2022-2023 cyclocross season drew to a close on Sunday with Fem van Empel claiming a treble. The young Dutch star’s victory in the final round of the X2O Trofee, the Brussels Universities race, wrapped up her series victory and gave her the X2O, World Cup and Worlds titles. Eli Iserbyt earned the X2O Trofee for the third time in four seasons. Only Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado’s Superprestige series triumph prevented van Empel from sweeping the season’s laurels, something Lucinda Brand did in 2020-2021. Last year Brand earned the X2O, Supe ..read more

Fem van Empel won Sunday’s penultimate round of the X2O Badkamers Trofee in Lille in style, doing a Superwoman a la Tom Pidcock over the line in Lille, Belgium. Van Empel and Eli Iserbyt have one hand on the series trophies with one race remaining. Van Empel won her fourth X20 Trofee race out of seven wearing the rainbow jersey she earned last week in Hoogerheide. Iserbyt came in third in the elite men’s contest, losing around 20 percent of his time gap to Lars van der Haar, who was runner-up to Laurens Sweeck, but Iserbyt retained almost a 2:00 buffer with only next Sunday’s race in Brussels ..read more

It would have been more emphatic if both Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado and Lars van der Haar won Saturday’s final round of the 2022-2023 Superprestige series on their way to wrapping up the overall titles, but only Alvarado did so, Dutch compatriot van der Haar placing second to Eli Iserbyt in the elite men’s race. Alvarado adds the 2022-2023 trophy to the one she hoisted at the end of the 2019-2020 season, the same year she took the DVV Trofee, now the X2O Badkamers Trofee. Van der Haar took the 2013-2014 World Cup. Van der Haar won no rounds on his way to overall victory. Wout Van Aert, who fin ..read more

cyclocross continental championships will stay close to Canada for another two years. The 2023 Pan American cyclocross championships event is headed to Missoula, Montana for the MTCX weekend for 2023 and 2024. “We are thrilled to announce MTCX as the host organization for our 2023 & 2024 Pan American Cyclocross Championships,” said Josh Peacock, Interim President of the Pan American Cyclo-cross Commission (COPACI). “MTCX has a rich history of hosting major cycling events in Missoula and we’re confident their experience will lay the perfect groundwork to welcome the continent’s best.” MTCX ..read more

On Tuesday, the UCI posted the countries who fared the best at the recent ‘cross worlds in Hoogerheide, The Netherlands. If you watched the races, you definitely saw several (pale) orange jerseys winning or on the podium. Mathieu van der Poel took the elite men’s, Shirin van Anrooij won the u-23 women’s race, and Fem van Empel beat Puck Pieterse in the elite women’s race. On top of that, the Dutch took the relay event on Friday. Given that Wout van Aert took a close second behind MvdP, and Eli Iserbyt came in third, it’s no surprise that the two top nationalities after the weekend were the Dut ..read more

It’s been almost 40 years since Canadians began racing in ‘cross in Europe, and 2023 marks one of the biggest world championships ever for Canada. In the late ’80s, Ottawa’s Mark Orzel would travel to Europe, setting up shop in Switzerland and trying to break into the pro ‘cross scene. He’d go on to race the worlds, along with Jim Sciberas. In the ’90s, riders like Kris Westwood (future Cycling Canada high-performance director), Peter Wedge, Brian Pedersen and Bill Hurley would follow in their footsteps, racing in Europe and riding the ‘cross worlds. As time went on, more and more ra ..read more

Early in Sunday’s elite men’s cyclocross world championships event, Michael van den Ham’s race took an unfortunate turn. Or, rather, one of his fingers did. The Canadian dislocated his finger in a crash on the muddy Hoogerheide course. When van den Ham got up from the crash, one finger on his left hand was pointed at what he described on Instagram as “the grossest 45-degree angle.” Showing quick thinking and some serious toughness, the four-time Canadian national champ grabbed his finger with his good hand and snapped it back into place with a hefty jerk. Nothing to see here… just cyclo-cross ..read more

Van Empel capped off a fantastic campaign by easily winning the elite women’s world title at the 2023 UCI Cyclocross World Championships in Hoogerheide, the Netherlands on Saturday. A Puck Pieterse crash on Lap 3 proved essential in the race. Van Empel, who had 13 victories and earned the World Cup in 2022-2023, was the world U23 champ in 2021. After a torrid start, Maghalie Rochette raced from 15th to 9th. Rochette sprints to 9th Hoogerheide is a World Cup standard, with an infamous off-camber section, a long staircase, a long uphill drag and a triple flyover. Mathieu van der Poel’s father Ad ..read more

Teenage twins Isabella and Ava Holmgren made Canadian cycling history on Saturday, national junior champ Isabella earning the first rainbow jersey for a Canuck and national elite champ Ava coming second in the UCI Cyclocross World Championships in Hoogerheide, the Netherlands. Up until Saturday a Canadian had never won a single medal. Ava celebrates the Holmgren one-two at the line. Hoogerheide is a World Cup standard, with an infamous off-camber section, a long staircase and triple flyovers. Rain overnight made it very greasy. Ava and Isabella Holmgren had teammates in Madeleine Pollock and G ..read more