Round 2 of the 2024-2025 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup was held in Dublin, Ireland, on Sunday 1 December, with a sun that shone brightly on the five races on the programme.
With ten rounds to go before the series winners are crowned – in Hoogerheide - Noord Brabant, the Netherlands, on 26 January – Lucinda Brand, who has already won the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup trophy twice in the Women Elite category, is once again in the lead, neck and neck with her Dutch compatriot Fem van Empel (both on 70 points).
Belgium's Michael Vanthourenhout has a small margin over his compatriot Eli Iserbyt (65 points compared to 62) in the Men Elite rankings, while a number of young talents are beginning to emerge in a season that has just started.
Elite categories: experience talks
The discipline's emblematic champions immediately took the lead when the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup resumed in Antwerp (Belgium) on 24 November.
Iserbyt (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal), who won last season's UCI World Cup in the Men Elite category, has been a consistent performer since the start of the season and scored a solo triumph with an aggressive ride on the sandy circuit in Antwerp.
His compatriots Laurens Sweeck (Crelan-Corendon) and Vanthourenhout (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) could only follow in his wake, but the latter returned to winning ways in Dublin, taking his fifth UCI Men Elite World Cup victory, the first since December 2022, while Iserbyt finished fourth.
In the Women Elite, the versatile Van Empel wasted no time in showing off her UCI World Champion rainbow stripes at the front. The Dutch star took the lead on the second lap of the first heat to claim a resounding solo victory in Antwerp.
Van Empel got off to another excellent start in Dublin, attacking on the first lap. But Lucinda Brand reacted quickly and showed her mastery to win the Irish round of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup for the second year running, ahead of her young rival.
New faces on the rise
The 20-year-old British rider Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon-Sram Racing), who was crowned UCI Cyclo-cross World Champion in the Junior category (2022) and then in the Under 23 category (2024), took third place in the Women Elite overall classification in Dublin ahead of 21-year-old Marie Schreiber (SD Worx-Protime). Both riders have 44 points, but Bäckstedt scored more points in the most recent event (third place against Schreiber's seventh).
Hungary's Blanka Vas (SD Worx-Protime), another versatile young talent (23), rounds off the top 5 in the overall Women Elite ranking after two rounds.
In the Men Elite rankings, 23-year-old Joran Wyseure (Crelan-Corendon), a former Under 23 UCI World Champion (2022), moved into the top five after finishing fourth in Antwerp and fifth in Dublin, to kick off his second season in the Men Elite category.
The more experienced Felipe Orts (Ridley Racing Team) got off to the best start of his career, claiming Spain’s first ever podium, as he finished third in Dublin.
The Irish capital also played host to the first battles of the season in the youth categories. And the competitions began with a bang: Lidia Cusack claimed USA's first UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup victory in the Juniors category, while 16-year-old Frenchman Soren Bruyère Joumard made his UCI World Cup debut by doing the same. Belgian Jente Michels (Alpecin-Deceuninck), recently crowned Men's Under 23 European Champion, won in Dublin, where he finished third last year.
Promising battles ahead
More action will follow as six further rounds are scheduled in December, before the final rush in January for the trophies, awarded at the end of a double confrontation in Maasmechelen (Belgium) on 25 January and in Hoogerheide (Netherlands) on 26 January, just before the 2025 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships, which takes place in Liévin (France) from 31 January to 2 February.
Next weekend (8 December), the stars of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup will travel to Cabras in Sardinia, Italy, a venue that joins the series for the first time, before heading to Namur and its famous Citadelle circuit (15 December).
The youth competitions will resume on 21 December at round 5 of the 2024-2025 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, that takes place in Hulst (Netherlands), which will be quickly followed by round 6, organised in Zonhoven (Belgium) on 22 December.