The future of Cyclocross: Where to go?

 The future of Cyclocross: Where to go?

Cyclocross has been dominated by Belgium and to a lesser extend Holland this decade. Almost every rider of the top 10 on a World Cup was a Belgian or Dutchmen, especially in the second part of the 2010ies. Even that the women category is a lot more international, it won't be enough to keep the sport relevant in the world on the long term. Where should we go to make cyclo-cross not like korfbal?

France

Belgium won the most titles in the men's category but the runner-up is France. France still has many cyclo-cross racers and organize a World Cup on almost a yearly base. They also have smaller races on a regular base. In the youth categories of World Cups we often see French riders making it to the podium. There is certainly a lot of potential that could become decent pros.

Czechia

Where does the last Non-Belgian or Non-Dutch worldchampion come from? Indeed, from Czechia! Over the past decade, the Central-European country delivered many decent riders like Randomir Shimunek, Petr Dlask and Zdenek Stybar. The Toi Toi Cup is the main classification in the Czech Republic. Here the best Czech riders can compete against each other on a regular base. The best riders from all over the world often meet each other in the World Cups of Tabor & Plzen what makes it also accesible to the local fans that want to see the best riders in the world in action.

Spain

Who obtains the 3th place on the world ranking? Yes, it's Spain. The Basque Country loves cycling and does the same to cyclocross. There are races in the Basque Country every month with many local riders. Spain used to host the World Cup in Igorre on a regular base. This year cycling & cyclocross legend Marianne Vos decided to take part in a race in Spain during the week of her training camp. Problably they can host a World Cup race again in the first week of December when many other pros have a training camp in Spain as well?

USA

It's a repeating event for a few years now: American riders coming over to Belgium to ride races during the busy Christmas period. The country already hosts a decent calender, including two World Cups. The USA is a big country so there is certainly a lot of potential. They were also the first non-European country to win a medal on a worldchampionship (silver in 2007), since then the general level seems to have improved slightly. In 2022, the worldchampionship will be hosted again in the US. Could we see the first American worldchampion by then?

 

Switzerland

Zweifel, Frischknecht, Tamararcaz,... They are only a few names of succesfull Swiss racers from the last decades. The World Cup in Bern showed that the Swiss can still organize very high quality races. Switzerland is one of the dominating countries in mountainbiking during the Summer Season. Maybe some of their best riders could also get attracted to take part in some cyclocross races during the Winter as well?