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UCI Cyclocross World Championships preview: Van der Poel and Cant favourites at Zolder

Mical Dyck
January 27, 2016
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This weekend is the UCI Cyclocross World Championships at Heusden-Zolder, Belgium on the famous sandy course that hosted the fifth round of the World Cup. It’s sure to be a gritty, exhausting scrap.

The course is 3.2-km long and based around the Zolder motor racing circuit. With three climbs, three flyovers, a tricky off-camber section, and sandy and rutted descents, the route is sure to put the racers to their limits. In Round Five on Boxing Day, world championships favourites Mathieu van der Poel (The Netherlands) and Sanne Cant (Belgium) emerged victorious.

The World Cup ended last Sunday with world champion van der Poel taking his fourth consecutive Cup win after missing the first two Cup races of the season with a knee injury. However, it was his equally-young Belgian rival Wout Van Aert–both are 21–who nabbed the Cup.

Van Aert and van der Poel will have to fend off a strong Belgian duo consisting of last year’s World Cup winner Kevin Pauwels and cagey vet Sven Nys, who beat Van Aert in a thrilling Cup skirmish at Koksijde. Another contender is Dutchman Lars van der Haar, who took the flowers in the second round of the Cup in Valkenburg and was the 2013-2014 World Cup champ.

Sanne Cant of Belgium is the women’s favourite, having taken her second consecutive World Cup title in a season when she also triumphed in four races of the SuperPrestige series and four of the Bpost Bank Trophy Circuit. Except for Sophie de Boer, winner of the final World Cup in Hoogerheide, Cant’s competition isn’t from the Lowlands. Italian Eva Lechner won at Valkenburg and came runner-up in the Cup final standings. Brit Nikki Harris prevailed in Round Four of the World Cup. Czech Kateřina Nash won at Crossvegas. Ignore American Katie Compton, American champion for the 12th straight year, at your peril.

Several Canadians have been racing the World Cups and other races in Europe this winter and they are seasoned for the action. Canadian Cycling Magazine has been chronicling Michael van den Ham’s adventures, but Hotsauce Racing’s Mark McConnell has been eating a lot of European dirt as well. In late December, several Canadians, including women’s champion Mical Dyck, participated in the grueling Christmas Week to prepare for the Worlds.

The Elite Women, U23 Women and Junior Men will race on Saturday, January 30 and the Elite and U23 men will race on Sunday, January 31.

Team Canada for the 2016 UCI Cyclocross World Championships, Heusden-Zolder, Belgium


Elite Women
Mical Dyck (Victoria, BC)

Elite Men
Jeremy Martin (Boischatel, QC)
Cameron Jette (Toronto, ON)
Mark McConnell (Calgary, AB)
Michael van den Ham (Edmonton, AB)
Aaron Schooler (Edmonton, AB)

U23 Women
Ruby West (Dundas, ON)
Maggie Coles-Lyster (Maple Ridge, BC)

U23 Men
Isaac Niles (Calgary, AB)
Trevor O’Donnell (Barrie, ON)

Junior Men
Gunnar Holmgren (Orillia, ON)
Brody Sanderson (Orillia, ON)
Quinton Disera (Horseshoe Valley, ON)