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Cycling Canada names 12 ‘cross racers for final World Cup, World Championships

Rochette, West and van den Ham will lead the way in the Netherlands and Switzerland

The cyclocross season is winding down, with the end of the UCI World Cup and World Championships in Dübendorf, Switzerland looming. Cycling Canada has named a 12-rider national team to contest the Hoogerheide, the Netherlands World Cup closer on January 27 and the Dübendorf World Championships February 1 and 2.

This year, there’s finally a junior women’s World Championship. Emilly Johnson of Comox, BC and Claire Steciuk of Midhurst, ON will represent Canada. Cody Scott from North Vancouver, BC and Matthew Leliveld from Mulmer, ON are Canada’s junior men–it’s a big ask to defeat Belgian Thibeau Nys, Sven Nys’s son, who has won all the rounds of the World Cup.

Ruby West wowed ’em with eighth place in the DVV Trofee’s fifth round in Loenhout, Belgium on December 27. She and Oro Medonte, Ontario’s Dana Gilligan will race against the U23 women. Malcolm Barton and Tyler Orschel of Uxbridge, ON will take on the U23 Men.

Canadian champion Maghalie Rochette took the first round of the World Cup in Iowa City and still sits sixth overall after 10th and 14th in the Namur and Heusden-Zolder rounds. Rochette and Jennifer Jackson face red-hot Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado in the elite women’s race. Jackson was 10th in the Iowa City World Cup and seventh in Waterloo.

Finally, Abbotsford, BC’s Michael van den Ham and Toronto’s Cameron Jette take on Mathieu van der Poel in the elite men’s race.

On Sunday, January 19, Rochette, West, Steciuk, Scott and Barton are in Nommay, France for the sixth and penultimate round of the World Cup.