"He's a cyborg, but he's not invincible" - Jeremy Power's insight on Cyclocross World Championships

Jeremy Powers is one of the most experienced voices in Cyclocross. The former American pro has raced in Tabor before, and knows what the riders will expect at this weekend's Cyclocross World Championships.

"There's no hiding on this track. Don't get me wrong, I do think that this race will be tight. But when someone decides that they're going to go, it's going to be over because you need to have the big explosivity on that section and you're gonna need to hold it together," Powers said in an analysis for Cyclingnews.

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The women's race sees Fem van Empel as the big favourite to defend her world title, and the same is seen in the men's race where Mathieu van der Poel is the man to beat. The Dutchman has not been showing dominant form as of late, but his set of victories this winter sets him up as the one rider that carries all the pressure to win the race - one which would make for his sixth World title in the discipline.

"I would look at Benidorm as the most recent example of Van der Poel having an incident and continuing to stick in it. He could have faded through the pack. He went down due to his own error, right? He hit that huge concrete pole, and he rode a really deep race. He had to do a lot of catching up from the beginning, so he was already kind of on his limit, and he had to burn a tonne of matches. I mean, he's a cyborg, but he's not invincible," Powers adds. "Even after the crash, he continued to stay in it. He continued to push on, trying to come back. And there wasn't enough time left to do any damage."

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In Tabor, van der Poel was already a World Champion in the past. It is a track that is not too often in the calendar but is known by those with many years in the pack. Van der Poel entered the season with form that no-one was even close to matching, however his big goal comes only this Sunday.

"The truth is that he puts a lot of pressure on himself. He's really got a great head for it. Clearly, he can take that pressure. But even just recently, he's thinking… if I don't win Worlds, the season will be for nothing, basically," he concludes.

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