{"id":362436,"date":"2025-12-21T11:41:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T11:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/362436\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T11:41:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T11:41:09","slug":"world-cup-koksijde-preview-bring-on-the-sand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/362436\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup Koksijde preview: Bring on the sand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here we go again, \u2018cross fans! The UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup returns to <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/cyclocross\/what-i-learned-from-riding-the-sandy-koksijde-world-cup-in-the-90s\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Koksijde<\/a> on Sunday. On Saturday, riders rode in Antwerp, and hopefully they managed to get the sand out of their cleats. Because they are about to get even more! Deep dune sand and an exposed coastal layout promise a selective and physically demanding race. It\u2019s a very tough course. There are very few spots to recover\u2014that\u2019s why Flemish dunes tend to favour the toughest of \u2018crossers.<\/p>\n<p>Men\u2019s race: Wild guess as to whom is the favourite?<\/p>\n<p>In the elite men\u2019s race, Mathieu van der Poel lines up as the standout favourite. The reigning world champion has long excelled on sand-heavy circuits. Koksijde\u2019s flowing dunes and repeated power sections suit his strengths. With Wout van Aert and Thibau Nys absent, the battle behind him becomes the main point of intrigue. He also totally Poga\u010dar\u2019ed everyone on Saturday, acing the sandy sections.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/parcours-duinencross-koksijde-wereldbeker-veldrijden-2025.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-133159\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/parcours-duinencross-koksijde-wereldbeker-veldrijden-2025.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1772\" height=\"1772\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Laurens Sweeck and Tibor Del Grosso, Michael Vanthourenhout, Toon Aerts will be there\u2026most likely racing for second at the Duinencross. Canada will have two riders: Tyler Clark and Cody Scott. Clark had a solid ride on Saturday, finishing 37th. Cody Scott came in 69, dude.<\/p>\n<p>Women: Sand on brand for Brand?<\/p>\n<p>The women\u2019s race appears slightly more open, although Lucinda Brand has been more or less unbeatable. Puck Pieterse continues to build momentum this season\u2013she just started racing last weekend. Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado has shown she can match Brand, as she did on Saturday. Riders like Aniek van Alphen, Inge van der Heijden and Shirin van Anrooij should also figure in the mix.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/sections\/news\/canadian-cross-riders-head-to-belgium-for-christmas-cross\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Canadian CX riders head to Belgium for Christmas Cross<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Canada has four riders: Sidney McGill, national champ Maghalie Rochette, Rafaelle Carrier and Katja Verkerk. Carrier was the top finisher in 25th.<\/p>\n<p>To watch Sunday\u2019s race, women\u2019s coverage begins at 7:30 a.m. EST, on <a href=\"https:\/\/flosports.sjv.io\/c\/6129470\/2005798\/24751?utm_campaign=generalaffiliate&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flobikes.com%2Fsignup\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Flobikes.com<\/a>, followed by the men\u2019s. Canadian Cycling Magazine will have full reports and results\u2014including the juniors and under-23s races that precede the elites.<\/p>\n<p>Affiliate links present. Canadian Cycling Magazine may receive commissions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here we go again, \u2018cross fans! The UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup returns to Koksijde on Sunday. On Saturday,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[190155,64,63,784,166194,197354,77973,197355,197356,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-362436","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-2025-2026-uci-cx-world-cup","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-cycling","12":"tag-lucinda-brand","13":"tag-maghalie-rochette","14":"tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","15":"tag-rafaelle-carrier","16":"tag-sidney-mcgill","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}