Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert face off today! 'Big 2' have their second and final Cyclocross battle of the winter

Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel were expected to have three battles this cyclocross season. Wout van Aert's season was delayed due to illness, and later van der Poel missed out on a few races due to an injury. Hence the two will only have two battles, the second one being this Saturday afternoon at the World Cup Maasmechelen.

The two met up at the Exact Cross Loenhout on the 27th of December, a race where at the time van Aert stood little chance as he had just begun his cyclocross season. There, van der Poel took a strong win, although the flat course and a very strong Thibau Nys and Laurens Sweeck meant that the World Champion had anything but a tough task. In that race he rode into a course-marking pole and suffered a minor rib injury which evolved over the next days, and the World Champion has only raced once since - two days later at the Besançon World Cup.

Van Aert in the meantime kept his planned schedule, winning the Cyclocross Cullegem and the Dendermonde World Cup with relative ease. Last week in Benidorm, he couldn't match the explosive Thibau Nys who took a strong win, but he will not be a rival this weekend after contracting an illness.

Van der Poel is returning after almost a month off the field, and this means that his form will be relatively unknown. The duo will have their final battle, as Wout van Aert will certainly not participate in the World Championships next week. The likes of Lars van der Haar, Michael Vanthourenhout, Eli Iserbyt, Toon Aerts, Laurens Sweeck and more will be present.

In the women's race we will have another big showdown between the likes of Fem van Empel, Puck Pieterse, Lucinda Brand, Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, Zoe Bäckstedt and more!