Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert face for the third time this cyclocross season - Azencross Loenhout hosts Christmas block thriller

The Christmas block continues and the cyclocross fans have a daily dose of the discipline's best riders in action. This Monday there is no rest from the weekend's races, but instead another round of the X2O Trofee at the Azencross Loenhout. This will also be the location for Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert's third face-off this winter.

The race will count for the time-based cup, which on the men's side is currently being led by Joris Nieuwenhuis who has been struggling with a knee injury; followed closely by Thibau Nys and Cameron Mason who are 43 and 45 seconds away from the lead. Niels Vandeputte is 1:27 minutes away and very much within contention. Here however, you can't expect Mathieu van der Poel or Wout Van Aert to contest the classification, but they will be the men to watch during the race which starts at 15:00CET in the afternoon.

A field of 72 riders will be at the start, lacking many of the top figures, however featuring other big names such as Toon Aerts, World Cup leader Laurens Sweeck and Lars van der Haar. Most others will be resting for Diegem the day after, or in general try to recover from the high amount of racing that's been in store.

In the women's classification there isn't truly a battle for the win, with Lucinda Brand have 9 minutes over Manon Bakker and Inge van der Heijden. As long as she starts all remaining races, she is virtually secured her win. Despite this situation she will still be at the start line in Loenhout, as the main favourite, but does face tough competition. Again a less dense startlist, but Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado will be present and the main contender to give her a tough fight. Zoe Bäckstedt, Marie Screiber, Marion Norbert Riberolle and Manon Bakker are amongst those who will be racing.