A cyclo-cross bike or cyclo-cross bicycle is a bicycle specifically designed for the rigors of a cyclo-cross race. Cyclo-cross bicycles roughly resemble the racing bicycles used in road racing. The major differences between the two are the frame geometry, and the wider clearances that cyclo-cross bikes have for their larger tires and mud and other debris that they accumulate.
The UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships, to use the official name, is the recognized world championship for cyclo-cross and has been organized annually since 2000 by the Union Cycliste Internationale, the sport's international governing body.
Groupama–FDJ is a French cycling team at UCI WorldTeam level. The team is managed by Marc Madiot, a former road bicycle racer and a former winner of the Paris–Roubaix classic. The team is predominantly French.
Team Jumbo–Visma is a men's professional bicycle racing team, successor of the former Rabobank. The team consists of three sections: ProTeam, Continental, and Cyclo-cross.
Thomas Frischknecht is a former Swiss mountain bike and cyclo-cross racer, often called Europe's Elder Statesman of mountain biking, because of his extraordinarily long career at the top level of the sport. A professional since 1990, he was on top of the Mountain Bike World Championship podium for the first time in 1996 and most recently in 2004.
Erik De Vlaeminck was a Belgian cyclist who became cyclo-cross world-champion seven times, a record equalled only by Marianne Vos.
Katie Compton is an American bicycle racer. She specializes in cyclo-cross racing and is a 15-time national champion. Compton formerly piloted a tandem with a blind partner in Paralympic events.
Rolf Wolfshohl is a former professional road bicycle racing and cyclo-cross racing cyclist from Germany. Wolfshohl is best known in cyclo-cross for winning the world championship three times, and in road racing for winning the 1965 Vuelta a España. He won the German National Road Race in 1968.
Marianne Vos is a Dutch cyclo-cross, road bicycle racer, mountain bike racer and track racer, who currently rides for UCI Women's Team CCC Liv. Vos has drawn comparison to Eddy Merckx as being "the finest cyclist of [her] generation".
The UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships are the world championships for cyclo-cross organised by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). Since 2016, five events are organized each year – men's elite, women's elite, men's under 23, women's under 23 and men's under 18 (Juniors). Traditionally, the elite events are held on a Sunday with the other events held on the Saturday the day before.
Laurence Leboucher is a French professional cross-country mountain bike and cyclo-cross racer. She is a three-time Olympian and two-time world cyclo-cross champion.
Maryline Salvetat is a French cyclist born in Castres. She participates in road cycling as well as in cyclo-cross and mountain biking. In 2002, 2004 and 2005 she became French national champion in cyclo-cross. In 2004, she also won the silver medal at the cyclo-cross European and World Championships.
CCC Liv is a women's professional cycling team, based in the Netherlands. The title sponsors are CCC, a Polish-based shoe retailer and Liv, a sub-brand of Taiwanese bicycle manufacturer Giant Bicycles. The team's directeur sportif is Jeroen Blijlevens. Riders for CCC Liv compete in the UCI Women's World Tour and other Elite Women's Cycling events throughout the world.
Adri van der Poel is a retired Dutch cyclist. Van der Poel was a professional from 1981 to 2000. His biggest wins included 6 classics, two stages of the Tour de France and the World Cyclo-Cross Championships in 1996. He also obtained the second place and silver medal in the World Road Championships in 1983 behind Greg LeMond and five second places in the World Cylo-Cross championships. The Grand Prix Adri van der Poel is named after him.
Renault was a French professional cycling team that existed from 1978 to 1985. The team cycled on and promoted Gitane racing bikes.
Steve Chainel is a French racing cyclist for French amateur team Chazal–Canyon. Chainel has previously competed for the Auber 93, Bbox Bouygues Telecom FDJ, Ag2r–La Mondiale and Cofidis professional teams.
André Dufraisse is a former cyclo-cross racer from France, a professional from 1950 to 1964. Dufraisse won the World Cyclo-cross Championships five times from 1954 to 1958, and was cyclo-cross champion of France seven times between 1955 and 1963. Dufraisse switched to cyclo-cross after finishing second in the 1953 world championship and from then on dominated the sport - in 1956 he won 19 of the 20 races he entered.
Dominique Arnould is a former professional road, cyclo-cross and mountain bike cyclist. As a professional, the greatest wins in Arnould’s career were the World Cyclo-Cross World Championships in 1993 and a stage win in the 1992 Tour de France. In addition Arnould was the Cyclo-Cross Champion of France five times between 1989 and 2003. He also raced professionally for the Giant mountain bike team, earning several top ten results at world championships in this discipline as well. He retired from professional cycling in 2004 and assumed the position of Directeur Sportif for the French ProTour cycling team Bbox/Bouygues Télécom, now the Continental Professional Team Europcar.
Mathieu van der Poel is a Dutch cyclist, who currently competes in the cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing and road bicycle racing disciplines of the sport, for UCI Professional Continental team Corendon–Circus. He is best known for winning the Cyclo-cross World Championships in Tábor in 2015 and in Bogense in 2019, the Junior Road Race World Championships in Florence, Italy in 2013, and twice winning the Junior Cyclo-cross World Championships, in Koksijde, Belgium in 2012, and Louisville, USA in 2013; the first rider to win multiple titles at that level. As well as this, Van der Poel was the winner of the 2018 Dutch National Road Race Championships in Hoogerheide.
Konrad, Gabe (1996). "Cyclocross: History & What You Should Know". Bicycle Trader Magazine. Retrieved March 4, 2006.
