Last year the World Champion waited until Herentals, on the 16th of December, to start his winter's stint of racing. It proved to be a successful strategy as he entered the racing block with great form and showed it all throughout - winning all but one races, but taking the main goal in the World Championships. Most likely, the
Alpecin-Deceuninck rider will again wait for December to kick off his campaign, after ending his season with a win at the Gravel World Championships.
“I’ll just wait and see. I understand his idea of skipping a cyclocross winter. Knowing him, he would rather not do two or three cyclocross races and then do the World Championships," de Knegt argued. "If he goes cyclocross, he wants to do more. Then it gets busy again and that puts pressure on your road preparation. He will have to make that decision.”