Watch: In the heartland of cyclocross with Cycling Canada

With just over a week to the 2019 world cyclocross championships, a new short film throws back to last year’s event. The 2018 cyclocross world championships in Valkenberg were an incredibly muddy affair throwing the riders another complicated element to deal with at the biggest cyclocross event of the year. Filmmaker Ralph Samson travelled to Belgium with Cycling Canada to document the team’s build-up to worlds last year and captured some stunning images from the races.

In a short film documenting Canada’s build-up to the big day, Samson captured shots of ‘cross racers hitting the technically challenging sandy pine forest of Kasterlee, Belgium, the racing at the Hoogerheide World Cup which proceeded world’s and finally the big showdown for the rainbow jersey in which Wout van Aert demolished the competition to take the rainbow jersey for the third year in a row.

The film is narrated by Jan Roet and features a brief conversation with Sven Nys. If you weren’t excited for the world championships after this, maybe the racing in Hoogerheide on Sunday will do it.