10 highlights of the 2024-2025 CX season

The cyclocross season in Europe is winding down. The three major series, the World Cup, Superprestige and X2O Badkamers Trofee, are won (well, barring disaster for Eli Iserbyt in Sunday’s last round of the X2O Trofee). The national and world title jerseys are claimed. The Canadians have gone home. Let’s take a look at 10 highlights of the season in chronological order.

October 27-November 11: Nys has a hell of a fortnight There were some fine streaks this season, and Thibau Nys posted the first one. Illness complicated his early campaign, but a week after winning the Superprestige’s second round, he took the European crown and then, clad in his new duds, he picked off the X2O Trofee race in Lokeren. He would go on to earn the Belgian championship, a World Cup race and bronze at the Worlds.

December 1-December 15: Vanthourenhout’s red hot early December The next rider on a roll was Michael Vanthourenhout, currently the UCI’s number one-ranked elite male. He racked up four wins on the season and three of them were in the first half of December, claiming the Dublin and Namur World Cups and a round of the X2O Trofee. The Pauwels Sauzen-Cibel Clementines fellow would go on to win his first World Cup overall title.

December 22: MvdP wrecks ’em in his first race The CX world was anticipating the season debuts of Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock, the latter one not on the cards. MvdP started the Zonhoven World Cup in the third row and 30 seconds later was solo off the front, romping to an easy win. It was something the elite men’s field got used to, as the Dutchman went eight for eight.

January 3: Puck’s pride in Koksijde All the major players in the elite women’s field already had victory notches on their handlebars by the time Puck Pieterse got her season underway on December 15. After four third places and a fifth in World Cups and a X2O Trofee round, the Dutch ginger finally got her triumph at the sandy Vlaamse Duinencross X2O in Koksijde. She only entered 11 races in 2024-2025 but registed two wins, Koksijde and Dutch national championship. Not too shabby.

January 4: Van Aert garners glory at Gullegem A rib injury suffered in his win at the Loenhout Exact Cross forced van der Poel off the race track for almost a month, but into the gap stepped Wout van Aert. He was top man on two consecutive days, January 4’s Superprestige race and the World Cup round in Dendermonde the next day. It was a great relief for the Belgian to get something out of his very brief program.

January 11: Sanne Cant says goodbye to Belgian champion’s jersey Cant has been on a season-long farewell tour as she is set to hang up her helmet after a fantastic career. In her time she ruled the X2O Badkamers Trofee, winning it six out of nine years. Cant was world champion from 2027 to 2019 and European champion thrice. But her crowning achievement is fifteen straight Belgian titles. She decided not to defend her tri-colour this year, and on January 11 it passed to Marion Norbert Riberolle.

January 26: Rafaelle Carrier wins Junior World Cup title The Canadian CX rider of the year was no doubt Rafaelle Carrier, the first Canuck to claim a World Cup category title. Carrier pocketed two Junior World Cups wins, along with a second, a third and a sixth. She also placed 19th in an elite World Cup race in Namur. Her European campaign also produced a Junior Superprestige win in Gullegem and seventh in an elite round of the X2O Badkamers Trofee, the GP Sven Nys. Five days after wrapping up the World Cup title, she became only the third Canadian to medal at a world championships.

February 1: Van Empel with the natural hat trick: Fem van Empel didn’t dominate this year like she did last season, but the last of her 11 victories was the most important. The Dutch rider won a natural hat trick of world titles in Liévin, France, engaging compatriot Lucinda Brand in an absorbing battle for the rainbow jersey.

February 2: MvdP ties the record The day after van Empel raised orange-clad arms in triumph, Mathieu van der Poel gave the Dutch 50 percent of the Liévin gold medals while tying the elite men’s record for world championships. MvdP joined Erick De Vlaeminck with seven rainbow jerseys. In a stingy season, the Dutchman went eight for eight, ending up fourth overall in the World Cup after having raced only five of the 11 rounds.

February 8: Brand rips through field to come runner-up In 2024-2025 Lucinda Brand earned her third Triple Crown, taking the World Cup, Superprestige and X2O Badkamers Trofee while never finishing off the podium in 30 races. Brand’s style is to seldom lead from the start, but instead to inexorably pluck off rider after rider on her way to the front. Last week in her 29th contest of the season, Brand underscored this approach after crashing in the chaotic dive for the hole shot. She remounted and, from 30th place, ran down everyone on the course save Inge van der Heijden. She makes a strong claim as CX rider of the year.