This weekend, the cyclo-cross season reaches its pinnacle with the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Hulst set to crown new champions across junior, under-23 and elite categories.
The main storyline going into the elite races is that Mathieu van der Poel could top off his already illustrious cyclo-cross career with an historic eighth world title in front of his home crowd in the Netherlands on Sunday.
The Dutch star previously hinted that a win in Hulst would give him a choice to ‘retire on a high’, so if he does delight his home crowd with victory, then he might hang up his cyclo-cross bike for the final time and focus on other road and mountain bike priorities.
As for Saturday’s women’s race, Dutch riders will also be favourites for a home victory in the women’s race, but the outcome is far from certain following a season full of twists, turns and injuries.
Fem Van Empel (Netherlands) has won the title for the last three years, but the 23-year-old put her career on hold this winter and won’t defend the rainbow stripes in her home nation.
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…