Published November 20, 2025 08:38AM
The “Big 3” of modern cyclocross — Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock — are keeping things light and tight ahead of the 2025-26 World Cup racing season that kicks off this weekend.
The full UCI World Cup calendar resumes this weekend at Tábor, and the peloton’s three biggest crossover stars continue to be selective in which events they’ll dip into as things heat up in the mud.
Things are looking more competitive on the women’s side for this winter, but Fem van Empel looks to be doing her best MVDP impression with three world titles in a row.
In the men’s field, the winter circus is no longer the essential launchpad it once was for the “bigs” who’ve dominated the sport for the past decade.
Van Aert and Van der Poel will parachute in for select, high-prestige — read: high-paying — races, while Pidcock isn’t expected to dirty his cleats in the Belgian mud at all this year.
That will open the door for a whole slew of names, like Thibau Nys and a cadre of established Belgian and Dutch CX brawlers, to chase the spoils across the World Cup and the Superprestige and X²O Trofee series.
Van der Poel: Chasing record rainbows
Van der Poel is Mr. February when it comes to the CX stripes. (Photo: Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
The modern King of Cross has only one thing on his mind this winter: Win a record eighth world title in cyclocross.
MVDP is tied with Erik De Vlaeminck, who held the long-standing men’s record when he reeled them off between 1966 and 1973.
So far, the Dutch mud royal has yet to confirm his 2025-26 CX calendar. He is expected to return to CX in mid-December, and race across much of the dramatic and crowd-favorite “Kerstperiode” packed in between Christmas and New Year’s in Belgium.
Otherwise, Van der Poel will be building toward the date he has circled on his calendar: February 1 at the CX world championships in Hulst, Netherlands.
Van Aert: Compact primer
Van Aert is targeting a select few CX events. (Photo: Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
Van Aert continues his shift toward a minimalist cross program.
Visma-Lease a Bike has yet to confirm the Belgian’s 2025-26 calendar. Last year, he started just six CX races at Mol, Loenhout, Gullegem, Dendermonde, Benidorm, and Maasmechelen, and is expected to follow a similar program.
Like last year, the worlds will be a late-season decision.
Van Aert has returned to training after his off-season break that included shooting hoops with Reggie Miller and catching some American football games during a California vacation.
Like Van der Poel, his presence at any CX race remains a box-office draw.
These two mega-stars are the motors that see hordes of fans pile into the muddy, beer-sogged pits to cheer on what’s likely to be just a few head-to-head clashes this season.
Pidcock: MIA again
Pidcock isn’t expected to race any CX this winter. (Photo: Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
Among the “Big 3” trio, Pidcock’s CX season is the most uncertain.
So far it’s been crickets out of the Pidcock camp about his 2025-26 ambitions, but the expectation is just like last year he will sit this one out.
His breakout 2025 road racing campaign, one that saw Pidders winning his first road GC title and finishing third at the Vuelta a España, only stokes expectations for 2026.
The newly bolstered Q36.5 Pro Cycling, which acquired some WorldTour-level muscle over the winter, should set the team on track to start its first Tour de France this summer.
With that in mind, the team doesn’t want him risking an injury or burning unnecessary matches too early in the season.
Women’s ‘Big 3’ ready to lock horns
Van Empel has won the past three rainbow jerseys. (Photo: Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
The “Big 3” phenomenon is repeating itself across women’s CX as well.
Fem Van Empel, Lucinda Brand, and Puck Pieterse are splitting the spoils of the big dates between them, and things look set for a repeat in 2025-26.
Van Empel has given up road racing and is fully pivoted back to the mud full-time. That could be bad news for her rivals. She already owns two wins this season and will be racing full tilt to win a fourth world title in a row.
She still has a ways to go to match Marianne Vos, who holds the absolute record with eight world titles in the mud.
Nipping at her heels are Brand and Pieterse, who have shared the world’s podium behind Van Empel the past three seasons.
Pieterse is expected to ease into the CX season, with an eye on a February peak.
Brand is off to a ripping start in the early CX races, winning seven of her first nine starts, with second in the other two. Dutch rising star and national teammate Inge van der Heijden beat her for the Euro crown this month.
Shirin van Anrooij and Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado continue to anchor the unstoppable Dutch wave, while a whole slew of rising Belgian talent could see a breakthrough this season. U23 world champ Zoe Bäckstedt is hoping to ruin the Benelux party.
Worlds vs. World Cup
It’s the world title that counts most for the top riders. (Photo: Luc Claessen/Getty Images)
Of course, the compact 12-round World Cup series and world championships are entirely different beasts.
The men’s “Big 3” have monopolized the stripes for more than a decade and have split the past 11 elite men’s rainbow jerseys between them.
Van der Poel is on track to win a record eighth this winter if he stays upright and healthy. Honestly, who can beat him?
Van Aert owns three sets of stripes and Pidcock one. No one else has won the elite men’s rainbow jersey since Zdenek Stybar in 2014.
In the men’s World Cup, Van Aert has won three titles since 2015, Van der Poel only one, and Pidcock never.
It’s obvious it’s the one-day glory of the stripes that’s more alluring than the season-long slug for points of the World Cup series. Van der Poel and Van Aert will only start a handful at best.
The story repeats itself in women’s racing, with Van Empel emerging as a modern-day world throttler, with three titles in a row. Brand, a winner in 2021, is out to prove experience counts.
Opening the door for Nys and more
Nys is hoping for another step up in depth this CX season. (Photo: JASPER JACOBS/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images)
In that void steps a slate of riders hoping to win the spoils, especially in the World Cup.
Thibau Nys is first in line. He has already flipped down the mud flaps with two wins, first at the X²O Koppenberg Cross in November and another at the X²O Flandriencross last weekend.
He’s confirmed a 22-race CX calendar that will mix selected World Cup and the X²O and Superprestige dates, and ends in February at the CX worlds.
Other up-and-comers include Cameron Mason, the three-time British CX champion, who’s already hit podiums this season. Two-time U23 world champ Tibor Del Grosso is already on a blazing start with eight wins, and will be keen to test himself against the grizzled veterans.
Established pros like Lars van der Haar, Laurens Sweeck, Eli Iserbyt, Joris Nieuwenhuis, recently crowned European CX champ Toon Aerts, and Michael Vanthourenhout will keep scratching their way onto podiums all season long.
UCI World Cup cyclocross 2025–2026 schedule
Tábor – 23 November
Flamanville – 30 November
Terralba – 7 December
Namur – 14 December
Antwerpen – 20 December
Koksijde – 21 December
Gavere – 26 December
Dendermonde – 28 December
Zonhoven – 4 January
Benidorm – 18 January
Maasmechelen – 24 January
Hoogerheide – 25 January