Dublin World Cup commissioner explains why men's race was nearly as long as women's: "Even Eli Iserbyt told me that an extra lap might have been more than enough"

Striking fact after the World Cup in Dublin: winner Pim Ronhaar completed his cross in 57 minutes and 17 seconds, while winner Lucinda Brand finished in just under 55 minutes. An extra long race for the women, while the men did not complete the hour for the fourth time in five World Cups. Never have the duration of men's and women's cross races been as close together as they are now, so we checked with the UCI.

However, the regulations are clear: UCI commissioners must approach the hour as closely as possible when determining the number of laps for elite male riders. A few years ago, a target time of one hour plus one lap was expected in the World Cups, but that is definitely a thing of the past. For female elite riders and U23s, the aim is now fifty minutes. If juniors are at the start, this will be reduced to 45 minutes.

"There were various circumstances in Dublin that made it extra difficult for us," Jurgen Deryckere, jury chairman in Dublin, told WielerFlits. "The course changed very quickly. In the morning the U23s rode faster than the pros later in the afternoon. The more it rained, the heavier it became and the more the course was destroyed. You saw this clearly in the women's cross: the lap times became slower and slower, making the cross longer."

Still, the UCI commissioner is satisfied with his decisions. "I had to keep the fifty minutes with the women as short as possible. If we stopped one lap earlier, they would have ended up with 46 minutes, which would have been too little. The opposite for the men: if we add an extra lap, they end up with an hour and five to six minutes. And then we are only talking about the winners, for the riders at the back it is even more extreme. Even Eli Iserbyt told me that an extra lap might have been more than enough."