“Cyclocross is currently leaving much of its potential unused” - Adrie van der Poel suggests changes to the UCI World Cup calendar

Adrie van der Poel has suggested a number of changes to the current cyclocross calendar, with the majority of his alterations focused around the schedule for the UCI World Cup.

In an interview with Het Nieuwsblad, the former Cyclocross World Champion suggested a calendar with twelve World Cup races over the course of a four month season, with three World Cup races every month.

The Dutchman’s plans consist of a double header World Cup weekend once a month with two races on back-to-back days, then a weekend with either smaller races or no racing at all, followed by a weekend with a non-World Cup race on the Saturday and a World Cup race on the Sunday, before finally a weekend with two non-World Cup races.

Van der Poel believes that having two World Cup races over the course of the same weekend would help to reduce the sport’s ecological footprint, as the majority of the races take place in either Belgium or the Netherlands and are rarely more than 300km apart.

However, it does not seem that we will see Van der Poel’s ideas implemented anytime soon, as in his interview he said that “I already submitted my idea to the UCI in 2000”.

Having formerly been a member of the UCI’s cyclocross committee, Van der Poel is no longer trying to push his idea of a revised calendar, stating that “I’m not going to fight that battle anymore, but I see what I see. Cyclocross is currently leaving much of its potential unused”.