PREVIEW | Cyclocross Fayetteville World Cup Men&Women - TV Guide, Favourites, Track & Poll
Cyclocross
The Cyclocross field remained in the USA for the week, and this Sunday it will see the second round of the World Cup in Fayetteville. This is the track where the World Championships took place only a few months ago, and will be a very important day for some of the best riders in the world.
It will surely not rain at the time of the race, but Sunday night should see a lot of rainfall in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Last season Quinten Hermans won a mud-soaked race, whilst in the World Championships Tom Pidcock won on a dry and incredibly fast track. This Sunday should see a mix, but surely not as fast of a race as was the case in Waterloo.
World Cup Fayetteville Circuit 2022-2023
Fayetteville course recon. Curtis White via Youtube (very small differences to this weekend's track)
The first third of the track is incredibly fast, mostly downhill and wide. The riders won't be able to create gaps there, and traction should not be an issue either. The long straight section halfway through the course is the main uphill of the race, not an explosive effort however, more a draining uphill effort with a couple of spikes.
The pits will surely be used unlike Waterloo, although only a couple times. What follows are a section of technical corners with a lot of needed accelerations, before the 39-step run up the stairs. Towards the end of the race this could become a decisive feature as fatigue settles in, and the dash towards the line is quick. The finishing straight is also long and flat which may not favour early attackers.
The women's race was quite explosive last week in Waterloo, but there are good chances it will be more selective here. Because of the tough ascent and expected soggy terrain, that portion of the circuit will be critical and gaps can be formed on each lap. On most of the circuit I believe riders will be equal, with no great outlier. Denise Betsema and Lucinda Brand will in my opinion have a suiting race for their skills.
In the men's race Eli Iserbyt has shown great form last week. The long running section and long uphill favours his small stature, both him and Lars van der Haar performed very well at the World Championships on this circuit. Vanthourenhout could also be a fan of the long climb, but won't have an easy time to match Iserbyt in the technical sections. As for Sweeck he is showing good form but I think he will have a tough time fighting for the podium. Outside from them I don't see anyone capable of taking the win.
Read also
The women's race will start at 12:30 local time (19:30CET) and is estimated to finish at 13:15 local time (20:15CET). The men's race is set to start at 14:00 local time (21:00CET) and is estimated to finish at around 15:05 local time (22:05).
You can watch the broadcast of the race at the UCI website; GCN+/Eurosport Player internationally. The channels which will broadcast the race will include Telenet PlaySports and Proximus (Belgium), Flobikes (Canada), Ceská Televize (Czech Republic), TV2 Danmark (Denmark) and TV2 Norge (Norway).
PREDICTIONS:
Women's Elite
*** Lucinda Brand
** Fem van Empel, Denise Betsema
* Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, Annemarie Worst, Inge van der Heijden
*** Lucinda Brand
** Fem van Empel, Denise Betsema
* Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, Annemarie Worst, Inge van der Heijden
Men's Elite
*** Eli Iserbyt
** Michael Vanthourenhout, Laurens Sweeck
* Pim Ronhaar, Thibau Nys, Daan Soete
*** Eli Iserbyt
** Michael Vanthourenhout, Laurens Sweeck
* Pim Ronhaar, Thibau Nys, Daan Soete
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
claps 0visitors 0
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
- So all those who went to watch, including all from abroad, waled there, spent nothing? Most places hosting events of the sort manage to make it worthwhile. If it was so obviously fruitless, don’t you think by now they’d have run out of hosting candidates? Why do you think the Tour can command such high prices for departure and arrival locations? If it didn’t bring anything locally they’d have to pay to get authorisation to use cities.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- What a travesty ! That little deviation did nothing to impede Brand !frieders307-11-2026
- I also wanne beat Pogacar in the tour but it aint gonne happen. Jonas unfortunately getting dropped by del toro and seixas several times this TDF and jonas team is very weak and joinas on way down, it aint happening thats clear. its also clear it only happened cause Pogacar was hurt and had a broken wrist that time everytime both full strenght its not close we just have to be honest about it :/miguel07-11-2026
- They do this but literally let cars on courses to run over riders.mij07-11-2026
- Looking at that photo she appears to be several feet from her. I’m not sure how that impeded brands sprint.mij07-11-2026
- Lucky to not get disqualified
leedorney07-11-2026
Loading
Write a comment