Since Cyclingnews‘ inception in 1995, our publication has been committed to offering our audience a full range of comprehensive coverage from the world of cycling, and cyclocross is no exception. The winter off-road discipline highlights the skills, power, tactics and technology used by the most talented athletes in cycling.
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This season you can expect full coverage and news of all the World Cups, World Championships and the Superprestige series, as the big-three stars of the sport Tom Pidcock, Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel return to competition in November.
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Cyclocross and Cyclingnews through the years
Before gravel racing, before mountain biking, cyclocross was the discipline of racing with roots that took bicyclists through the fields, into the woods and off the roads. The early days of cyclocross looked a lot like gravel, with racers keeping fit in the winter months by pushing the boundary of what terrain is rideable. Modelled on the steeplechase, cyclocross takes riders over barriers, upstairs, up and down impossibly steep gradients, across muddy off-camber sections and sometimes sliding down a slick descent on one’s backside.
Eventually, cyclocross became more professional. The first national championships started around the turn of the 20th century. The French called it cross cyclo-pédestre and hosted the first major international competition, the Critérium international de cross cyclo-pédestre, between 1924 and 1949. It was founded by L’Auto, the same newspaper that supported the creation of the Tour de France. Robert Oubron – perhaps the first cyclocross specialist in history – was the most successful rider, with four victories.
While the Critérium International was the ‘unofficial’ world championship of cyclocross, the UCI made an official version in 1950, where 1947 Tour de France winner Jean Robic became the first…
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