A guide to who’s on form – and what to look forward to – as the cyclocross season begins to simmer.
Cor Vos
The cyclocross season is still young. Since the first opportunities to turn pedals in anger about six weeks ago, many of our favourite CX pros have been emerging one by one from their sun-blushed purgatory, scoring confidence-inspiring wins, and measuring themselves and their training against rivals. This weekend’s European Championships then served as a gauge of form, and a threshold beyond which the season really gathers momentum.
There have been few surprises thus far, but it’s been good to see a number riders demonstrating a return to form after a miserable ’24-25 season – Joris Nieuwenhuis, for instance; we’ve witnessed the continuing development for youngsters who are steadily marching through the ranks, like Célia Gery; there’s also been the return of a world champion after she retreated from all competition this summer; and of course, the likes of Eric Brunner, Andrew Strohmeyer, Sidney McGill, Maghalie Rochette and Lizzy Gunsalus have been lighting things up on the other side of the pond…
However, several have yet to make their first appearance of the season at all, either through health and fitness struggles, persistent injuries or simply a characteristic delay before launching a short and sweet programme deeper into winter. While it’s a shame to be without the likes of Zoe Bäckstedt, Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, Puck Pieterse, Shirin van Anrooij, Eli Iserbyt, Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel, the absence of at least two of those names is not all bad; in the dawning of the season, fans get to see the full-timers demonstrate their talents, which are manifold.
With a couple of the major season-long series (X2O and Superprestige) now underway, the typically early-season European Champs are a good place to pause and look around, not to mention place a little more focus on the burgeoning age-group classes, where there is exciting stuff happening. From this point, the season gathers pace towards the World Cup’s commencement in Tabor, Czechia, later this month (23 November), with the thrilling Kerstperiode only just out of sight beyond the horizon.
The big events are all still to come. And now’s a good time to assess the field. Who’s looking good so far this season? And what are the unmissable big races around the corner?
Using the European Championships as the axle, this will be something of a guide as the CX season progresses, and a taste of the coverage that can be expected from Escape Collective where we’ll be producing galleries something like this on World Cup weekends.
What are the CX season’s big events?
Before we get too deep into the European Champs, let’s have a quick rundown of the major events to come this season (or you can skip straight to the gallery). For CX purists, there are events worth watching every Saturday and Sunday from mid-October to March, with one or two mid-week races too, but the highest-profile events are found in the UCI World Cup.
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