Long and frequent has been the criticism of the cyclocross World Cup, which currently features an amount of events that proves too large for most riders to dedicate themselves to it. Those complaints were heard once again ahead of the Dendermonde weekend.
"In the past you wouldn't think about skipping a World Cup race. Then people said it was a shame. But now? I sometimes have to. Otherwise I would destroy myself," Lars van der Haar shared with NOS. Over the past winters this has already been the case for the Dutchman, but it is noteworthy that he is the current Word Cup leader.
Van der Haar is a more experienced rider in the field and has talked about how he had the plan to race throughout the whole winter, however as he looks to be at his best for the World Championships, he will ultimately skip a few World Cup and Superprestige races in December. "With pain in my heart. But it is just too busy during the Christmas period."
"I rode them last year and therefore I was not good when it really mattered. You cannot live on your condition from the summer for six months. Especially not if you will soon have three top players (Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock, ed.) who are in good health. And we will already be half dead. And the Christmas period is already being crammed to capacity."
At 32 years of age van der Haar is still - and perhaps still evolving - at the best level of his career. He's been Dutch and European Champion but he wants to chase the rainbow stripes, even if the competition is very strong. For this, he is going to let go of the World Cup ambitions once again. Before the pandemic they were 9 races but currently it stands at 14 throughout the winter.
"The UCI made it their own way. They did not listen to the world, which already indicated this five years ago," Dutch national coach Gerben de Knegt added. "The final winner of the World Cup will not be the best rider. Because the best riders want to be good at the championships."
The opinions are very much shared within the peloton. By riders, coaches and former World Cup winners, as is the case with Sven Nys who argues: "The only and best solution is to reduce the World Cup to eight or a maximum of nine crosses. And then do two every month. Then it will be nicely spread out, everyone has room to ride other classifications and there is time to rest and train.
🇧🇪 Superprestige Niel has some big course changes: - New start-finish, not in the village center anymore 🏁 - No loop around the fishpond anymore - Sand pit of Coeck is now half way the lap - More through the woods - The deep muddy section and steep Muur van Niel in last part
