“From what I hear, the merger between Pauwels Sauzen and Ridley is 99% done” – Cyclocross set for seismic shake-up according to former world champion Niels Albert

Cyclocross is bracing for one of its most dramatic structural shifts in years, with former world champion Niels Albert declaring in conversation with HLN that a major team merger is effectively a done deal.

According to Albert, “the merger between Pauwels Sauzen and the Ridley Racing Team is 99 per cent done”, a development he believes will reshape both the competitive landscape and the financial foundations of elite cyclocross.

Albert stressed that only final contractual details remain between Pauwels Sauzen-Altez Industriebouw and Ridley Racing Team, calling the union “the best solution for both teams with an eye on the near future.”

In a discipline where budgets are tight and sponsors increasingly difficult to secure, he warned that consolidation is becoming less a strategic option and more an economic necessity.

Albert’s assessment of the situation was brutally pragmatic. While expressing personal concern and sympathy for Eli Iserbyt, he also acknowledged the harsh realities facing team boss Jurgen Mettepenningen.

“I hope with all my heart that things work out for Eli Iserbyt,” Albert said, “but if Eli turns out not to be race-ready in a few weeks, then – as hard and as harsh as it sounds – the world inevitably keeps turning. And Mettepenningen has to make sure he keeps his sponsors on board. Schakelen — in other words, he has to act.”

With Iserbyt sidelined, a substantial budget line is unused. Combined with fresh investment from Ridley, Albert believes the merged structure will have more competitive and financial firepower than either team could achieve alone. As he put it: “With the freed-up budget of Iserbyt and the extra money Ridley want to put into the project, one plus one will equal three.”

While the merger dominated Albert’s headline comments, the former world champion also highlighted how the sport’s competitive order is shifting — led by the explosive rise of Thibau Nys.

Albert described Nys’ dominant Czech World Cup victory as something close to perfection, calling it a “super-super day” and the strongest elite performance of his young career. More significantly, he argued that Nys is now one of the very few riders capable of genuinely troubling both Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert when the “Big Two” return to off-road racing next month.

“Thibau is at this moment one of the only riders whose flashes of class can hurt the ‘Big Two’ and put them under real pressure,” Albert told the Belgian outlet.

With team mergers on the brink of confirmation, a potential reshuffling of major riders, and Nys emerging as a genuine challenger to the sport’s two defining stars, Albert believes cyclocross is entering a pivotal moment — one shaped as much by economic realities as sporting ones.

“You can regret that another team disappears,” he reflected, “but in a discipline where it is becoming harder and harder to attract new sponsors and funding, this is the only way to survive.”