Sven Nys is a former professional cyclist competing in cyclo-cross and mountain bike. With two world championships, seven world cups, and over 140 competitive victories, he is considered one of the best cyclo-cross racers of his generation, and remains a prominent figure in cyclo-cross. Apart from cyclo-cross, Nys is also fivefold national mountainbike champion, and has competed in that discipline in two Olympic games.
Hanka Kupfernagel is a retired German professional cycle racer. During most of her career her primary focus was cyclo-cross racing, however, she has also won major road, track and mountain bike races. She has won seven consecutive medals at the UCI Women's Cyclo-cross World Championships, including three gold medals for 2000, 2001 and 2005; two silver medals in 2002 and 2003; and the bronze medal in 2004. Her major career victories also include a gold medal in the individual time trial competition at the 2007 UCI Road World Championships in Stuttgart and a silver medal in the road race at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.
Katie Compton is an American former bicycle racer. She specialized in cyclo-cross racing and is a 15-time national champion. Compton formerly piloted a tandem with a blind partner in Paralympic events.
Daphny van den Brand, is a Dutch cyclo-cross, road bicycle and mountain bike racer.
Lars Anthonius Johannes Boom is a professional cyclo-cross and mountain bike racing cyclist from the Netherlands. He has also competed professionally in road racing, having raced between 2004 and 2019.
Adri van der Poel is a retired Dutch cyclist. Van der Poel was a professional from 1981 to 2000. His biggest wins included six 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 Cyclo-Cross championships. The Grand Prix Adrie van der Poel is named after him.
The Druivencross, also known as Vlaamse Druivenveldrit, is a cyclo-cross race held in Overijse, Belgium. The race is organised by the VZW Sportvrienden Overijse and was first held in 1960. The race is regarded as a Cyclo-cross classic and has a difficult and dangerous parcours that often results in crashes.
Alpecin–Deceuninck is a UCI WorldTeam cycling team that is based in Belgium. It competes both in the road and cyclo-cross seasons. The leaders of the team have in the past been cyclo-cross world champion Niels Albert, Philipp Walsleben and Radomír Šimůnek. The team's current lead rider is the cyclocross and road world champion and multiple monuments winner Mathieu van der Poel.
Lucinda Brand is a Dutch racing cyclist, who rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Lidl–Trek in road racing, and UCI Cyclo-cross Pro Team Baloise–Trek Lions in cyclo-cross. After four years with Rabo–Liv, in August 2016 Team Sunweb announced that Brand had signed a two-year deal with the team, with a role as a team leader, road captain and as part of the team's sprint train. In 2023, Brand collaborated with fellow professional cyclist Maghalie Rochette to create the cycling-focused podcast Dirty Talks.
Thalita de Jong is a Dutch racing cyclist, who currently rides for Dutch amateur team JEGG–DJR Academy. In 2016, de Jong won the elite women's title at the Dutch National Cyclo-cross Championships, the UEC European Cyclo-cross Championships and the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships.
Mathieu van der Poel is a Dutch professional cyclist who rides for the UCI WorldTeam Alpecin–Deceuninck. He competes in the cyclo-cross, mountain biking and road racing disciplines of the sport.
The 2014 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships is the World Championship for cyclo-cross for the season 2013–14. It took place in Hoogerheide, Netherlands on Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 February 2014. Hoogerheide is also the place where the Grand Prix Adri van der Poel is held, up to the 2012–13 season a race in the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup.
The Cauberg Cyclo-cross is a cyclo-cross race held in Valkenburg, Netherlands. This race is up and around the famous Cauberg, which is the final of the Amstel Gold Race. Former World Champion Adrie van der Poel designed the parcours and its variations. Since the 2013-2014 season it became a part of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup. In October 2017 there was no edition held, because the Cyclo-cross World Championships is on the same parcours in February 2018.
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.
The 2017–18 Telenet UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup was a season long cyclo-cross competition, organised by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). The UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup took place between 17 September 2017 and 28 January 2018, over a total of nine events. The defending champions were Wout van Aert in the men's competition and Sophie de Boer in the women's competition.
The 2018–19 Telenet UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup was a season long cyclo-cross competition, organised by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). The UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup took place between 23 September 2018 and 27 January 2019, over a total of nine events. The defending champions were Mathieu van der Poel in the men's competition and Sanne Cant in the women's competition.
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.
Mees Hendrikx is a Dutch cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Cyclo-cross team Crelan–Corendon.
The cycling rivalry between Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel is considered among the greatest and longest lasting rivalries in the sport, as they are contemporaries and have competed against each other since they were both eight years old. They raced each other for the first time in a major event in the 2012 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships – Men's junior race and continuously since October 2013, originally in cyclo-cross and as their ambitions grew further also in road racing. The supporters of both riders, the Belgian media and later worldwide sports journalists began comparing one another regarding track record, racing style and personality.
Mathieu van der Poel (NED)
