Fem van Empel won the Women Elite races in the first two rounds of the 2023-2024 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup. Lars van der Haar narrowly leads the Men Elite standings.
The 2023-2024 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup has just begun and the action is already intense at the summit after the first two rounds held in Waterloo (USA) and Maasmechelen (Belgium). Twelve more rounds will shape the overall standings, with the winners being crowned in Hoogerheide (Netherlands) at the end of January.
The first leaders of the series are Dutch: Fem van Empel (Team Jumbo-Visma) won both Women Elite races, picking up where she left off at the end of the last cyclo-cross season. She’s the reigning UCI World Champion, the defending winner of the overall standings of the UCI World Cup - and since then, the 21-year-old star has expressed her talents in other disciplines (road, gravel and mountain bike).
Although he also ventures on the road, her Dutch compatriot Lars van der Haar (Baloise Trek Lions) places more focus on cyclo-cross. It has served him well throughout his career and especially this month, with 5th place in Waterloo and a victory in Maasmechelen to take the lead of the Men Elite standings just ahead of Belgium’s Thibau Nys, the first winner of the season.
2️⃣ beautiful victories in a unique setting. Maasmechelen was more than just a race! 💥 #CXWorldCup pic.twitter.com/61n1BLARKd
— UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup (@UCIcyclocrossWC) October 29, 2023
Women Elite: Van Empel rolls from one season to the next
Last season, Fem van Empel led the overall standings of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup from race 1 until the end of the series, including wins in the first four rounds. She has started this season in similar style.
In Waterloo, Van Empel already opened significant gaps, claiming victory 36’’ ahead of a rival she knows very well, Fenix-Deceuninck’s Puck Pieterse (also born in 2002, she was 2nd last year both in the UCI World Championships and in the UCI World Cup), while 25-year-old Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Alpecin-Deceuninck) rounded out the all-Dutch podium, 1’51’’ behind the winner.
Without Pieterse, who also had a busy summer with huge success in mountain bike, the Maasmechelen round turned into a one-woman show. Van Empel distanced Alvarado on the second lap and eventually won with a margin of 1’28’’. Two more Dutch riders, Aniek van Alphen (Cyclocross Reds) and Inge van der Heijden (Crelan-Corendon) finished 3rd and 4th ahead of Luxembourg’s Marie Schreiber (Team SD Worx).
Van Empel leads the overall standings with a perfect score of 80 points, 25 more than Alvarado. Van der Heijden and Leonie Bentveld (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) both have 37 points and Great Britain’s Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon//Sram Racing) follows with 34 points.
Men Elite: Nys and Van der Haar strike early
After a dominant season at Under 23 level last year, Thibau Nys (Baloise Trek Lions) is ready to battle with his elders. And the 21-year-old Belgian showed it right from the start as he claimed victory in Waterloo ahead of his compatriot Eli Iserbyt (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal), who had won the opening round of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup in 2021 and 2022.
Nys will now aim to emulate his elder, winner of the overall standings in 2021-2022, and follow the tracks of his father Sven, winner of 50 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup rounds as well as the overall standings on three occasions.
But in Maasmechelen, Nys saw his Dutch teammate Lars van der Haar take off on the 5th lap to power to victory ahead of Iserbyt and Laurens Sweeck (Crelan-Corendon). Nys went down in the final lap and eventually finished 7th.
Van der Haar’s victory sees him take the lead of the overall standings with 61 points, only 1 more than Iserbyt. Nys follows with 59!
The 3rd of 14 rounds that make up the 2023-2024 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup will be held in Dendermonde (Belgium), on 12 November.