PREVIEW | Cyclocross World Cup Namur 2024-2025 Men & Women - Favourites, Track, TV Guide & Poll

World Cup Namur this Sunday on the 15th December. The cyclocross season is taken up another notch, and we have one of the hardest races of the winter. This will be round 4 of the World Cup, and a significantly different one than the previous rounds.

Now it's winter... Last week, the weather forced organizers to cancel the 'beach cross' in Cabras, Italy, and this Saturday we've had the return of a somewhat muddy and very hilly race in Herentals. To put the cherry on top of the cake, we have the climber's course in Namur this Sunday. We've got technical descents that are in themselves quite the challenge, but the climbs mark the course. They are long and draining, not explosive, unlike the usual crosses.

These are both in gravel, packed dirt and even cobblestones. An incredibly hard lap, where you will see a few riders with modest starts because they will not want to burn themselves early on - it's also a very hard race to recover. The roughest ascent is in the final third of the lap taking place in cobbles/dirt, before the tricky off-camber section that also frequently causes riders issues. Despite all this, there is still a stairs section and a few running sections. It will be a thrilling cross.

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Map Namur World Cup 2024

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Women's Elite

*** Lucinda Brand
** Fem van Empel, Blanka Kata Vas
* Puck Pieterse, Zoe Bäckstedt, Sara Casasola

Prediction: Lucinda Brand

This truly is a climber's course and although Fem van Empel has repeatedly showed off her talent, and her capacity as a climber, the scale is in my opinion more tilted towards Lucinda Brand this time around. She knows how to pace these races perfectly and I think she will time her efforts to perfection here, using the tough course to get through the group quickly and not get blocked this time around. A few riders are very well suited to this track, but still it's nature should mean gaps will appear right from the start and they should be big by the end.

Puck Pieterse is making her debut this cyclocross season and form is a big question mark, but the Dutchwoman is a specialist in this kind of race and has an European and World MTB title this year to show for it, it's her kind of short but long enough efforts - besides being very good technically. I rate her above Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, whom I don't think will prioritize the World Cup, but should also struggle against her more suited rivals here. Sara Casasola is a terrific climber who can also aim for the podium and I would not exclude Zoe Bäckstedt from doing the same after she finished third in Dublin and is actually in third place at the World Cup. Blanka Kata Vas is also a strong climber well fit for this course, and Marie Schreiber is a true wildcard.

Many riders at the start, many more quality ones still to consider... Inge van der Heijden for example is also a quality rider who can perform here; we also have Annemarie Worst, Leonie Bentveld, Laura Verdonschot, Marion Norbert Riberolle, Sanne Cant, Hélène Clauzel, Amandine Fouquenet and Cat Ferguson who will be interesting riders to watch.

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Men's Elite

*** Michael Vanthourenhout
** Pim Ronhaar, Thibau Nys
* Lars van der Haar, Toon Aerts, Eli Iserbyt

Prediction: Michael Vanthourenhout

Not an easy race to predict, as has been the case with most so far this men's season, but that's a pleasure to say. A week before the 'big two' come in we've got a course where I see two clear favourites: Michael Vanthourenhout and Pim Ronhaar. It was already my impression, but after yesterday's race in Herentals that became obvious. Both are strong climbers and both seemed to have improved their form quite a bit in recent weeks, Ronhaar specially. Yesterday they were above the rest, they might again here, I think it will be hard for anyone to come too close.

Can Thibau Nys? Possible, he is a former winner of the Koppenbercross... But he isn't a reliable figure like the other two in such a cross, he can win or finish 10th and neither would be a surprise. His recent crashes aren't the biggest confidence boost towards this race, but I think the technical descents will very much be to his liking. Eli Iserbyt didn't have an easy day in Herentals yesterday, but neither did Lars van der Haar and Toon Aerts (puncture ruined a bit the latter's race) so all three are hardly looking at the win here; whilst Laurens Sweeck did race quite well yesterday but I think today's course is too difficult.

Furthermore we've got Ryan Kamp, Joran Wyseure, Toon Vandebosch, Jente Michels, Emiel Verstrynge, Victor Van de Putte, Michael Boros, Felipe Orts and Kevin Kuhn to eye for minor places. Niels Vandeputte and Cameron Mason will not star the race.

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The women's race will start at 13:40 and end at around 14:30 local time. The men's race will start at 15:10 and end at 16:15 local time.

You can watch the broadcast of the race at the UCI website and Eurosport/Max internationally, as well as the traditional outlets. The channels which will broadcast the race will include Telenet Playsports and PickxSports (Belgium), Ceska Televize (Czech Republic), NOS (Netherlands) and TV2 (Denmark).

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