{"id":321033,"date":"2025-12-02T18:29:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T18:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/321033\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T18:29:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T18:29:13","slug":"here-are-the-five-cyclo-cross-races-you-can-watch-wout-van-aert-vs-mathieu-van-der-poel-this-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/321033\/","title":{"rendered":"Here are the five cyclo-cross races you can watch Wout van Aert vs Mathieu van der Poel this winter"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world’s top two men’s cyclo-cross racers, Wout van Aert <\/a>and Mathieu van der Poel <\/a>have both announced their programmes for this winter now, setting the scene for five thrilling face-offs.<\/p>\n

Two of those will be in the UCI World Cup series<\/a>, two in the top-tier X2O Trofee and one at the Exact Cross at Mol on January 2.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Although their seasons these days are built around the road, both riders are former cyclo-cross world champions and World Cup winners, and even now start as favourites in any race they enter. Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck<\/a>) is the more prolific of the two, having won five World Cup rounds and the Elite Men’s World Championships last season \u2013 and beaten Van Aert<\/a> (Visma-Lease a Bike) twice while doing so.<\/p>\n

Best picks for you<\/p>\n

It all means that the other top men’s racers have been watching carefully for this particular announcement, as their return to the fray will have a significant impact on the World Cup plans of the more dedicated cyclo-crossers.<\/p>\n

“Mathieu, and Wout coming back is a factor\u2026” British cross racer Cameron Mason<\/a> told Cycling Weekly last month.<\/p>\n

“They’ll probably be back racing in December,” he said. “Even without them the depth of the elite riders is pretty apparent this year [but] I don’t have any doubts that I can be there on the right day.”<\/p>\n

His short but sweet cyclo-cross season is timed to contribute to his build-up to the early-season Classics, Van Aert explained on the Visma-Lease a Bike<\/a> website.<\/p>\n

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Christmas<\/a> period is a phase of the cyclocross season that I always enjoy being part of,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause of the races themselves, the large numbers of supporters who come thanks to the holidays, and the fact that these races fit perfectly into my build-up towards the major spring classics on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

This season, Van Aert’s scant eight-race programme is significantly more compact than that of his rival, with Van der Poel planning to compete in 13 races, including the World Championships in Hulst, Netherlands. If the Dutchman \u2013 who is the current reigning champion \u2013 won this, it would be his ninth rainbow jersey in the event.<\/p>\n

One top CX rider who is expected to be missing this winter, however, is Tom Pidcock <\/a>(Pinarello<\/a>-Q36.5 Pro Cycling), who has made no moves towards off-road so far.<\/p>\n

Races in bold below will see the pair together.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Mathieu\n<\/p>\n

Van der Poel (left) and Van Aert compete in a sandy Exact Cross, 2023<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Wout van Aert’s cyclo-cross programme 25\/26<\/p>\n

December 20 \u2013 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, Antwerp
December 22 \u2013 X2O Trofee, Hofstade
December 23 \u2013 Superprestige, Heusden-Zolder
December 28 \u2013 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, Dendermonde
December 29 \u2013 X2O Trofee, Loenhout
January 2 \u2013 Exact Cross, Mol
January 4 \u2013 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, Zonhoven
January 11 \u2013 Belgian National Championships, Beringen<\/p>\n

Mathieu van der Poel’s cyclo-cross programme 25\/26<\/p>\n

December 14 \u2013 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, Namur (tbc)
December 20 \u2013 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, Antwerp
December 21 \u2013 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, Koksijde
December 22 \u2013 X2O Trofee, Hofstade
December 26 \u2013 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, Gavere
December 29 \u2013 X2O Trofee, Loenhout
January 1 \u2013 X2O Trofee, Baal
January 2 \u2013 Exact Cross, Mol
January 4 \u2013 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, Zonhoven
January 18 \u2013 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, Benidorm (tbc)
January 24 \u2013 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, Maasmechelen
January 25 \u2013 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, Hoogerheide
February 1 \u2013 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships, Hulst<\/p>\n

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\nMathieu van der Poel
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\nWout van Aert
\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The world’s top two men’s cyclo-cross racers, Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel have both announced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-321033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}