"You can’t just race for 14 weekends and keep the same level" - Jens Dekker in favour of World Cup size reduction
Cyclocross
UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, will take place in Dublin, Ireland this coming weekend. After a glorious debut that brought out more than 30,000 fans last year, hopes were initially high for its return in the 2023/24 campaign. However, a series of unfortunate events has served to overshadow the race in recent weeks.
"The whole schedule is flawed from the beginning when they introduced these 14 weekends of racing," the 24-year-old Jens Dekker said to GCN. "That is just not how the cyclo-cross season operates and it has never done like that. You can’t just race for 14 weekends and keep the same level; you have to train somewhere and rest as well."
"For me, financially, it is almost impossible to go away for five weeks, which was the original schedule if you did the France-Ireland-France-Italy trip," explained Dekker – with the Troyes World Cup preceding Dublin, and Flamanville and Val di Sole soon to follow in the coming weeks.
"I have to pay a mechanic to do that and it’s just not possible, it is too much money, it is a full month’s salary basically. Most riders rely on volunteers to do that, but even then, people can’t take a month off from work to just travel around Europe."
Tom Van Damme, Chairman of Belgian Cycling, suggested to Het Laatste Nieuws this week, that perhaps it is time to reduce the number of World Cup rounds in Belgium.
"To be honest, I’m kind of in favour of having one World Cup round per country," agreed Dekker. "That wouldn’t mean 14 rounds, it would probably be a maximum of 10 with some growth opportunity in the next couple of years. That would probably be a better system to have a little less concentration."
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Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- He is boring
leedorney08-11-2026 - To Twoje przemyślenia te bla, bla :)
Dariusz08-11-2026 - Uwielbiam patrzeć, jak wyjeżdża na czoło peletonu i zaczyna się rzeź...Dariusz08-11-2026
- Yeah, unreal.
parisbound0008-11-2026 - there needs to be space in life for pointless comments!Ketterechts08-11-2026
- That is a very lazy way of putting it but so far on this website it seems like everyone is happy to look at everything lazily, even things that annoy them intensely. All they want to do is state their feeling and position but ask most to analyse a problem or come up with solutions or improvements and you’re stunned by silence. Nobody even really knows how this all happens. It’s very simple and quick to just say the UCI did it but I bet you they didn’t, I bet you not more than 2 people were involved, more likely just 1. The UCI may be ultimately responsible but it is not their decision, this is about hierarchy, power and delegation. The fact that protest is possible also means it isn’t over and that MORE people could get involved for a thorough review which could throw up anything. It is highly likely it was a sole commissar who decided and has that power in a first round. Therein might lie the problem the UCI has to consider, is it acceptable to give so much authority to one single person when it is quite possible for them to have a natural bias or be too easily susceptible to imposed bias. Who is to say an individual in this position isn’t susceptible to collaboration with outside players with interests in the results, nations, families, teams, betting companies, etc. On the one hand we have sports where these problems have been worked on way more to reduce such problems, on the other hand we have sports with far stricter and more draconian rules not even concerning safety or obstruction that nobody really questions like false starts or stepping out of lane or zones in athletics. If cycling hastowork on itself, it would be good if protagonists (all kinds) would start doing a little more than just moaning over outcomes.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Yes, so why not make comments less pointless?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026 - There really was nothing in it. Schreiber was so much faster, and Brand was fighting to stay in the wheel in the sprint. Schreiber did move a bit, but to say she closed the door doesn't make sense because Brand couldn't enter it anyway, abd she wasn't impeded.Rafionain-Glas08-11-2026
- He should have been allowed to go to Movistar. Right now both arent a good fit for each other and are just wasting each other's time and effortabstractengineer08-11-2026
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Slightly depressed today because of certain circumstances
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