Britain's cyclocross champion talks up his chances against Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert: "This Worlds is a very open race"
Cyclocross
Cameron Mason is heading into the Cyclocross World Championships in top form after securing his third consecutive British Cyclocross title earlier this month. With an already impressive cyclocross résumé, he is preparing to go up against Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert in the battle for the world title tomorrow.
Speaking to The Herald, Mason reflected on his progress over the past year and his mindset heading into the biggest race of the season.
"I'm feeling good - the difference between where I was 12 months ago and now is quite stark so it’s nice to be on-the-up going into Worlds.
"This Worlds is a very open race and everyone is on the start line with the same chance of a medal so if I can get everything in order, I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do," said Mason, whose best result at a World Championship so far was ninth place in 2023.
Despite the high stakes, Mason prefers to focus on his own performance rather than specific results.
"I try not to think about medals, though - it doesn’t help me. I’m not massively motivated by results, I’m more motivated by maximising my performance and that’ll definitely be the case this weekend.
"When it gets really tricky with rain and tough conditions, that’s when I kick into gear. My technical level's pretty high so I'll be hoping for some difficult conditions.
"But I’ve shown that, if I'm on a good day, I can deal with anything so I’m confident I can get a strong result whatever the conditions."
For Mason, cyclocross is as much a mental battle as it is a physical one.
"In cyclocross, you’ve got to extract absolutely everything from yourself," he explained.
"Everyone suffers a lot so you need to be able to cope with that and mentally, you have to be ready to dig really deep.
"Cyclocross is a full body sport - we’re punching out of corners 30, 40 times a lap for a full hour, so the physical demands are really high and there’s also the tactical side of things - you need to be switched-on mentally for the entire race. It takes a lot of preparation to be ready for that."
Just in
Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter today!
Popular news
Latest comments
- That's true, however there are hilly/mountainous one day races that Jonas doesn't compete in. Ardenes, autumn Italian racesvappaxbipmv10-03-2025
- Has been said before if differently. The persistence is such that you have to start considering the possibility it’s the man himself, trying to attract attention when there is none ;-)Mistermaumau10-03-2025
- Success in who’s eyes or according to what criteria?Mistermaumau10-03-2025
- It’s still interesting when neither are there :-) You know there is always still a thing called imagination? Shame you can’t see the interest in any race if you feel it’s only about who wins or is likely to. On the one hand people enjoy knowing one or both exist, on the other hand they moan when one is partipating. I think we should be looking more at our own attitudes towards expectations from entertainment.Mistermaumau10-03-2025
- It's not wrong if Jonas sticks to a plan and be as calculated as he can most of the time. While, it may seem boring, that's how they got an impulsive rider like Tadej worn out on stage 11 of TdF 2022. Of course, that also means that he didn't know how to read the room and adapt. One clear example is stage 6 of TdF 2023 where he was, in fact, riding at the front for Tadej after failing to drop him before Tadej attacked and dropped him.
KerisVroom10-03-2025 - Yes, but Pogacar is considered an outlier among modern GT riders. Modern GT riders mostly focus on stage races.KerisVroom10-03-2025
- Who f-ing cares what Doper says? Why are you giving this windbag air time?critguy10-03-2025
- And yet you were the only one commenting on the article... Ignore it and maybe they will get the pointvappaxbipmv10-03-2025
- The simple fact that we don’t see Jonas racing any of the classics tells the difference between the two.Pedalmasher10-03-2025
- yes, the prior preparation must be rational and precise, but the races have so many dynamic variables, they are chaotic. Jonas and Tadej have different styles in responding to the situations. Tadej is flexible and very reactive on his own, more instinctive . Jonas' style is passive, static, he sticks to the previous plan and waits for instructions before modifying it, more calculated.
maria2024202410-03-2025