The cyclocross calendar has changed quite a lot last season and this year the changes remain rather similar. With no huge trips and the World Cup more condensed, we could potentially see Wout van Aert or Mathieu van der Poel contest for the competition if they so wish to do it.

Van Aert specially, who has raced the Tour de France and then only had a few more minor races in his calendar in the end of the season, he ended it already over a month ago and without injuries to recover from, he may begin his cyclocross campaign earlier than usual.

“Of course, he finally had a good summer. He’s not recovering from a serious injury,” Dutch pundit Thijs van Amerongen said in the Kop over Kop podcast. “Then Van Aert could also make the World Cup a goal”. With the success van der Poel and the likes of Thibau Nys and Tibor del Grosso have in the discipline, it seems to still be possible and potentially beneficial to ride a more extended off-road calendar in the winer. 

“Why not ride an old-school winter again and just see where it goes?” van Amerongen argues. “No altitude training and the whole rat race plan, just go for it, go for it, and see where you end up in the classics. Of course it takes energy and all that, but all that sitting up high and weighing your food takes a lot of energy too. He’s not going to die from it, I don’t think so. And I can even see him doing it.”

Van der Poel potentially tired? 

It is more likely that the Belgian does it according to Jeroen Vanbelleghem, arguing of course the Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s calendar selection. “And he hasn’t ridden in any World Championships either. He didn’t have any major goals in the fall, so he’ll enter the winter relatively fresh. I expect him to be back in action from late November or early December.”

“It would be great: Van Aert at his peak and then Van der Poel perhaps a little less so, because he’s a bit saturated with all those goals from last season,” he adds.