What does the Omicron variant mean for rest of the UCI cyclocross World Cup?

As the world is learning about the Omicron variant, there are more and more questions emerging about the next steps for bike racing. Next Sunday’s ninth round of the UCI cyclocross World Cup in Antwerp, Belgium, is cancelled due to new COVID-19 crowd restrictions after a surge in cases and the new Omicron variant. Christophe Impens of race organizer Golazo told Wielerflits that the race was off. It’s the first round of 16 in the 2021-2022 series to be cancelled. Last season, five of 14 rounds were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Golazo’s sticking point seems to be safety measures that would take away from the vibe of the event. Impens said, “After a thorough evaluation, the parties involved agreed that a full-fledged ’cross, such as the one in Antwerp lives by the grace of the massive public turnout and ambiance. With the current measures, the World Cup cyclocross threatens to become only a faint imitation of this.”

Impens also hinted that Antwerp may not be the first of its races to be cancelled. “Depending on the decisions made there, we will look at our next cyclocross races one by one, of course always in close consultation with the local government,” he said.

Allez Opi Omicron ! pic.twitter.com/PkwJzysE1r

— Ruff Artist (@artist_ruff) November 27, 2021

The next three World Cups take place in Italy, Holland and Belgium. The situation in Italy seems to be accelerating quickly where the country has banned unvaccinated tourists indoors. On Friday, Belgium was the first European country to detect an Omicron case. In Holland, there have already been more than a dozen cases with the Omicron variant.  Currently, the Dutch edition of the WC will be run without spectators.

As more and more countries announce cases, the World Health Organization said Sunday that the Omicron variant carries a “very high” risk globally, and that the “likelihood of potential further spread of Omicron at the global level is high.” How this will continue to affect professional bike racing remains to be seen.