World Cup Weekend Preview
Maasmechelen and Hoogerheide
With the World Championship race a little over 1 week away, the world’s best cyclocross racers have one more weekend of World Cup racing to fine tune their fitness with the final two races of the World Cup cyclocross season.
21 North Americans will be racing their reflections as they fly past the mirrored greenhouse and research facility in the old mining town of Maasmechelen, Belgium. The Saturday racing includes only Elite men and women’s categories, while Sunday’s World Cup finale in Hoogerheide promises a “full slate” of Junior, U23, and senior Elite category racing. There will be 41 North Americans in Hoogerheide, Netherlands.
Elite Women
With the return to competition of Canadian National Champion Maghalie Rochette (CAN), plus more than a few other North American top-20 contenders like Sydney McGill (CAN), Vida Lopez de San Roman (Trinity Racing), Lizzy Gunsalus (USA), and Rafaelle Carrier (CAN), we’re most excited to watch the Elite Women’s races play out this weekend.
Maasmechelen
Rochette and Gunsalus are skipping Saturday’s race, making Carrier and Lopez de San Roman our two top North America picks at “Mirror Cross” in Maasmechelen. Carrier’s 14th place at the Dendemonde World Cup in late December, plus her more recent 7th at the GP Sven Nys and 3rd at the Telenet Superprestige in Gullegem, suggest that she’s on form and ready for a top 10 finish in an Elite Women’s World Cup race. Lopez de San Roman’s 13th at the Gavere World Cup, plus a 10th at the GP Sven Nys and 20th at the Zonhoven World Cup, make her our pick for top American finisher on Saturday. Our dark horse pick goes to Canadian Sydney McGill who was the top North American finisher at a VERY fast Benidorm World Cup just last weekend. Last year’s Maasmechelen, was slippery with plenty of sloppy (but not deep) mud. This year looks like it’s going to be dry and fast, similar to the course conditions in which McGill excelled last weekend!
Hoogerheide
To our eyes, Hoogerheide features some of the widest racing lanes of the season. Last year, the course was thick with mud; this year, forecasts for Friday, Saturday and Sunday currently predict partly cloudy (which means…sunshine!) and dry skies. And with hardly a pinch point in sight in the first few minutes of the race, we expect more riders than normal will have a chance to show off their form and fitness. 5th row starts are usually deadly, but on Sunday? If the North Americans are warmed up and get clipped in right away, they’ve got a legit shot at slotting in to the top-20 when Aniek Van Alphen, Inge Van der Heijden, and Puck Pieterse string it out and take turns trying to drop Lucinda Brand.
We can’t wait to see what the return of Maghalie Rochette to the European peloton on Sunday brings! In the fall she clearly had world-class form, but illness cut her Kerstperiode racing short, and she returned home to Canada to convalesce and train for the World Championships. She’s only giving herself this one race to clear out any cobwebs ahead of Worlds, and with a less experienced racer, we might dismiss Rochette’s chances at a top finish in Hoogerheide. But Rochette is a veteran racer with many top international results, so we won’t be surprised if she finishes 14th…or 44th on Sunday. We’re hoping for “14th” of course!
Lizzy Gunsalus had some very strong finishes in December including two 20th place finishes at the Koksijde and Dendermonde World Cups, but got sick and was a mid-pack finisher at best in January. Based on her recent vlogs though, it looks like she’s recovered, in good spirits, and training well, so we hope to see her on TV this weekend too!
Elite Men
With National Champion Eric Brunner* absent from both start lists this weekend, there’s only one North American that has a realistic chance of cracking the top-20. Pan American Champion Andrew Strohmeyer (CXD-Trek Bikes) was an absolute superstar in his first two World Cups back in November, racing at the front of the races and finishing in 12th and 16th places. Unfortunately, illness and back pain knocked him down from “Contender” to “Lead Lapper” for the month of December.
After a few weeks recovering and training in Spain, Strohmeyer returned to racing at the Benidorm World Cup last weekend. His 36th place finish there wasn’t what we were hoping for, but with such beasts as Cam Mason and Pim Ronhaar also finishing further back than usual in 35th and 34th respectively, we’re still hopeful that a “November Strong Strohmeyer” makes his triumphant return to World Cup racing this weekend.
*While his Competitive Edge Racing teammates have been racing in Europe since late November, Brunner appears to be focused on the road (racing) ahead with Project Echelon Racing. Brunner—with one exception—has not raced cyclocross in Europe this season and despite being automatically qualified for the team, he is not on the World Championships roster for America next weekend. Brunner’s 23rd place finish at the Benidorm World Cup in Spain last weekend suggest that we could, in theory, have two top-20 contenders in the Elite men’s race at World’s.
U23 Men—Hoogerheide
There are 5 Americans and 2 Canadians currently signed up to race the U23s in the World Cup finale on Sunday. In that group, Pan American and U.S. National Champion Henry Coote (Trinity Racing) is currently ranked 23rd in the U23 World Cup standings and has been racing VERY well starting in late December leading up to this weekend. We expect he’ll jump at least one spot up on the World Cup rankings in the final standings.
Junior Women—Hoogerheide
Canada’s Alexa Haviland and America’s Ada Watson are neck in neck in overall UCI world rankings, but in specific World Cup racing action, Watson is sitting comfortably ahead of all North Americans in 18th place. The CXD-Trek Bikes’ rider has scored points in every World Cup race she’s started (having skipped only Benidorm) and we expect her finish similarly well this weekend. Haviland has finished in front of Watson in the last two races they’ve competed in and she may very well do better on Sunday, but the 16-point gap between the two in World Cup standings is probably too large to bridge. U.S. National Champ Kira Mullins has been proudly racing in the Stars and Stripes jersey in Europe plenty this season and could be in the mix of the North American “race within the race.” Finally, Pan Am Champion and U.S. Worlds team selection Aida Linton will be joining the “Euro regulars” for the final World Cup race of the season. The Bear CX racer hasn’t competed in a cyclocross race since she won Pan Ams in early November, but when she shows up, she usually wins in North American competitions. Can she crack the top 10 against a full field of Euro-tough juniors, not having raced her cross bike in almost 2 months?
Junior Men—Hoogerheide
U.S. National Champion Ethan Brown is currently the top North American in both World Cup and International UCI rankings. Having scored points in both of the World Cup races he entered this season, he’s number 35 in 2026 World Cup competition. And with solid results in many other internationally sanctioned races, he’s earned 8th place in the overall UCI rankings! Joining him in the fight for top North American racer will be Pan American Junior National Champion Noah Scholnick and Canadian Junior National Champion Emilien Belzile among others.
Shame about Brunner skipping this weekend. Fast courses play into his strengths (he was inside top 20 for a good bit of the Benidorn race) so would have expected these courses to be good for him.