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Wout van Aert, Tom Pidcock and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot are among the star names setting out on the journey westwards this weekend as Dublin plays host to the ninth round of the UCI Cyclocross World Cup.
Snow was general all over the Irish capital early on Friday morning, though it remains to be seen if the drop in temperatures in recent days will help to firm up a course that had been made very soft by heavy rainfall over the previous week.
The event takes place on the Sport Ireland campus in Abbotstown, to the northwest of the city, and the 3km circuit incorporates part of the facility’s pre-existing cross-country athletics course.
Aside from one section of sand, the circuit is largely composed of grass. In dry conditions, the hills would not pose an undue problem, but if the mud is as treacherous as it was earlier in the week, the tenor of the race could change.
“Even though there is some mud from the rain, it won’t be a running race,” course manager Chris Mannaerts of Flanders Classics insisted to Wielerflits. “It will also remain dry towards the weekend.”
Cycling Ireland will hold domestic races on the course on Saturday afternoon ahead of the main events on Sunday. In the elite women’s race, World Cup leader Fem van Empel (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) and Puck Pieterse (Alpecin-Deceuninck) stand out as the obvious favourites after their duels thus far, while Denise Betsema (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) will also hope to challenge.
Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) and Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Alpecin-Deceuninck) have opted against travelling to Ireland, but their absence is offset somewhat by the participation of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Ineos Grenadiers).
The Frenchwoman returned to action last weekend after a month out of competition, placing 12th at Superprestige Boom before failing to finish at the Antwerp World Cup. The Dublin race may come too soon for Ferrand-Prévot to contest the win, but she ought to be competitive all the same.
Among the elite men, Laurens Sweeck (Crelan-Fristads) leads the World Cup standings from Eli Iserbyt (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal), but while they will duel for points, all eyes will be on the anticipated contest between Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Tom Pidcock (Ineos).
Van Aert started his cyclocross season with second place in Antwerp last weekend and, in the absence of his eternal rival Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) this time out, he will be the favourite to claim the spoils in Dublin.
Pidcock, however, has now…
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