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Race details | |
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Date | October–January |
Region | Belgium and the Netherlands |
Discipline | Cyclo-cross |
Web site | exactcross |
History | |
First edition | 2016-17 |
The Exact Cross is a season-long cyclo-cross competition, formerly known as the Ethias Cross and the Brico Cross, consisting of 8 rounds throughout the season in Belgium and the Netherlands. It is one of six season-long competitions, alongside the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, Cyclo-cross Superprestige, the X²O Badkamers Trophy (formerly known as the DVV Trophy, before that the BPost Bank Trophy and before that as the Gazet van Antwerpen trophy), the EKZ CrossTour and the Toi Toi Cup. In contrary to the other competitions, the Ethias Cross does not award points or compose an overall ranking, but rather consists of separate races. Sponsored by the Belgian hardware chain Brico for the first three seasons and then by the Belgian insurance company Ethias from 2019 to 2022, [1] its main sponsor is the enterprise software provider Exact. [2]
The Cyclo-cross Superprestige is a season-long cyclo-cross competition, consisting of around 8 rounds throughout the season in Belgium and the Netherlands. It is one of three season-long competitions, alongside the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup and the X²O Badkamers Trophy.
Sanne Cant is a Belgian racing cyclist, who currently competes in cyclo-cross for UCI Cyclo-cross Team IKO–Crelan, and in road cycling for UCI Women's Continental Team Fenix–Deceuninck. Cant's cousin Loes Sels is also a professional cyclist.
Tom Meeusen is a Belgian cyclo-cross and road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Cyclo-cross team Group Hens–Maes Containers.
Pauwels Sauzen–Bingoal is a UCI continental cycling team that is based in Belgium and races predominantly the cyclo-cross season. The team is named after its main sponsors Pauwels Sauzen, a condiment brand, and Bingoal, a Belgian sports betting website.
David van der Poel is a Belgian-born Dutch former road and cyclo-cross cyclist.
Laurens Sweeck is a Belgian cyclo-cross and road cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Continental team Alpecin–Deceuninck Development Team for road racing and Crelan–Fristads for cyclo-cross. He represented his nation in the men's elite event at the 2016 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Heusden-Zolder.
Michael Vanthourenhout is a Belgian cyclo-cross and road cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Continental team Pauwels Sauzen–Bingoal. He represented his nation in the men's elite event at the 2016 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Heusden-Zolder.
Maud Kaptheijns is a Dutch cyclist, who primarily competes in the cyclo-cross discipline of the sport. She won the gold medal in the under-23 event at the 2015 UEC European Cyclo-cross Championships after eventual winner Femke Van den Driessche was disqualified. She also won the bronze medal in the women's under-23 event at the 2016 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Heusden-Zolder. Kaptheijns took her first UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup race win when she took victory in Duinencross Koksijde in October 2017.
Daan Soete is a Belgian cyclo-cross and road cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Cyclo-cross team Group Hens–Maes Containers. He competed in the men's under-23 event at the 2016 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Heusden-Zolder.
Yara Kastelijn is a Dutch racing cyclist, who currently competes in cyclo-cross for UCI Cyclo-cross Team Credishop–Fristads, and in road cycling for UCI Women's Continental Team Fenix–Deceuninck.
Thomas Pidcock is a British cyclist who currently competes in the cyclo-cross, mountain bike and road bicycle racing disciplines of the sport for UCI WorldTeam Ineos Grenadiers.
Annemarie Worst is a Dutch cyclist, who currently competes in cyclo-cross for UCI Cyclo-cross Team 777, and in road cycling for UCI Women's Continental Team Fenix–Deceuninck. She became world under-23 cyclo-cross champion in 2017.
Denise Betsema is a Dutch cyclo-cross cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Cyclo-cross team Pauwels Sauzen–Bingoal.
Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado is a Dominican-born Dutch cyclist, who currently competes in cyclo-cross for UCI Cyclo-cross Team Alpecin–Deceuninck, and in road cycling for UCI Women's Continental Team Fenix–Deceuninck. In 2018, she won the gold medal in the Under-23 race at the UEC European Cyclo-cross Championships in Rosmalen. She repeated this feat in 2019. On 1 February 2020 she became world champion in the elite category at the 2020 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Dübendorf, Switzerland.
Clara Honsinger is an American professional cyclist who currently rides for UCI Women's Continental Team EF Education–Tibco–SVB in road racing, and Cannondale–Cyclocrossworld.com in cyclo-cross.
The Toi Toi Cup is a season-long cyclo-cross competition, formerly known as the Budvar Cup, consisting of 8 rounds throughout the season in the Czech Republic. It is one of six season-long competitions, alongside the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, Cyclo-cross Superprestige, the X²O Badkamers Trophy, the EKZ CrossTour and the Ethias Cross.
Fem van Empel is a Dutch professional racing cyclist. In January 2021, she won the women's under-23 race at the 2021 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships. During the 2022–2023 season she won the women's elite race at the World Championships and the European Cyclo-cross Championships. On 22 January 2023, she secured overall victory at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup (2022–23). On 16 Feb 2023 at Brussels, Fem clinched the X20 Badkamers Trophy. The previous week, her first race in the World Champions jersey, competing in the X20 Badkamers at Lille she finished 1st doing a "Pidcock" across the finish line. In the cyclo cross season 2023 to 2024 Fem Van Empel was first in her first eleven races. Having finished the previous season with five successive firsts, it brought her run of first places in top level Cyclocross to sixteen. Fem Van Empel retained her UCI World Championship at Tábor on 3 February 2024. One respected commentator noted he had "run out of superlatives to describe Fems phenomenal talent", calling her "The Golden Girl of Cyclocross". Another described her performance as " pretty much perfection" . "Velo" noted that "her 18th victory out of what has been a 20-race season" is "a staggering success rate " .Fem completed her 2023 to 2024 season with a win to take the X²O Badkamers Trophy at Lille on 11 Feb. This took her number of wins for the season to 19 from 21 races. At the end of season 2023 to 2024 Fems' career total number of Elite level Cyclo-cross race wins was 37.
Shirin van Anrooij is a Dutch professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Lidl–Trek. and UCI Cyclo-Cross Pro Team Baloise Trek Lions. She is the current under 23 UCI Cyclo-cross World Champion.
Emiel Verstrynge is a Belgian cyclist, who currently rides UCI Continental team Alpecin–Deceuninck Development Team. He won the silver medal at the 2022 UCI Cyclo-cross Under-23 World Championships.
The calendar for the 2022–2023 men's and women's cyclo-cross season includes cyclo-cross races starting on 13 August 2022, and ending in February 2023. The individual events are classified into five categories. The highest category includes the world cup events (CDM), which gives rise to a ranking. Behind them, we find the C1 and C2 category races, which award points are for the world ranking, then the races reserved for those under 23, also called hopes and finally the races for juniors. There are also national championships (NC) which are organized in about thirty countries.