ANALYSIS: Wout van Aert will have dig deep in Liévin to make up for a terrible starting position

As per verdict of the UCI, who wishes to promote it's premiere cyclocross league - the World Cup, the starting positions for the upcoming cyclocross World Cup Championships in Liévin will be largely determined by riders' performances during the past 12 (11 without cancelled round in Cabras, Sardinia).

While for most cyclocross specialists this doesn't pose many issues, there is one big favourite who will be immediately disadvantaged from the first meters - Wout Van Aert!

Naturally, Mathieu van der Poel and most of the other big names are stacked in the front two rows thanks to their performances. However Van Aert, who only started in three of this winters World Cups, will have to dig deep from the start to catch up with the front after starting from all the way back in the third row.

Due to the absence of 15th in the World Cup ranking Jens Adams (who was crossed out in favor of the Visma | Lease a Bike rider), Van Aert had hoped to move up a row, but that is not going to happen. For absentees from the top sixteen, the UCI ranking in cross applies. On that ranking, we only found Van Aert last week in 41st place. Not high enough to win a row.  

Meanwhile Van der Poel will enjoy a spot in the front row, despite not riding all the World Cups either. But his five dominant victories, awarded the Dutchman with enough points to surpass many regular performers in the rankings and still secure a fine 4th place overall in the competition. He'll be accompanied in the front row by World Cup winner winner Michael Vanthourenhout, Toon Aerts, Joran Wyseure, Eli Iserbyt, Lars van der Haar, Emiel Verstrynge and Felipe Orts.

Big names are also hiding in the second row where we find for example Pim Ronhaar and Thibau Nys. And behind all of them is Wout Van Aert and even further back runner-up from Tábor Joris Nieuwenhuis.