 The champion's jersey | |
| Race details | |
|---|---|
| Region | Luxembourg |
| Discipline | Cyclo-cross |
| Type | National championship |
| Organiser | Luxembourg Cycling Federation |
| History | |
| First edition | 1920 |
| First winner | Felix Neyen |
| Most wins | Claude Michely (12 wins) |
| Most recent | Loïc Bettendorff |
The Luxembourgish National Cyclo-cross Championships are held annually to decide the Luxembourgish cycling champions in the cyclo-cross discipline, across various categories. [1] [2]
Cyclo-cross is a form of bicycle racing. Races typically take place in the autumn and winter, and consist of many laps of a short course featuring pavement, wooded trails, grass, steep hills and obstacles requiring the rider to quickly dismount, carry the bike while navigating the obstruction and remount. Races for senior categories are generally between 40 minutes and an hour long, with the distance varying depending on the ground conditions. The sport is strongest in the traditional road cycling countries such as Belgium, France and the Netherlands.
Groupama–FDJ is a French cycling team at UCI WorldTeam level. The team is managed by Marc Madiot, a former road bicycle racer and winner of the Paris–Roubaix classic in 1985 and 1991. The team is predominantly French.
Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale is a French cycling team with UCI WorldTeam status. Its title sponsors are French sporting goods retailer Decathlon and French insurance firm AG2R La Mondiale. The team is predominantly French.
Unlike in most countries in Europe, sports in Luxembourg are not concentrated upon a particular national sport, but encompasses a number of sports, both team and individual. Despite the lack of a central sporting focus, over 100,000 people in Luxembourg, which has a total population of only 610,000, are licensed members of one sports federation or another.
Jeng Kirchen was a Luxembourgish road racing cyclist who twice finished 5th in the Tour de France. Kirchen won his native race, the Tour de Luxembourg, in 1952, and took a total of 16 professional wins. He was the uncle and great-uncle of fellow cyclists Erny Kirchen and Kim Kirchen.
Marc Madiot is a French former professional road racing cyclist and double winner of Paris–Roubaix. He also competed in the individual road race event at the 1980 Summer Olympics. Retired from racing in 1994, he is now best known as the directeur sportif of Groupama–FDJ, a UCI WorldTeam. He is also known as the president of the French Ligue National de Cyclisme (LNC). In 1987, he made disparaging remarks about the sport of women's cycling, calling it ugly and unesthetic.
Alcyon was a French professional cycling team that was active from 1905 to 1959, and returned in 1961 and 1962. It was started by Alcyon, a French bicycle, automobile and motorcycle manufacturer.
Steve Chainel is a French former professional racing cyclist. Chainel competed for the Auber 93, Bbox Bouygues Telecom, FDJ, Ag2r–La Mondiale, Cofidis and Cross Team Legendre professional teams.
Baloise–Trek Lions is a Belgian professional cycling team based in Belgium which focuses predominantly on the cyclo-cross season. The team is named after its main sponsors, Bâloise and Trek. The team had various different names in the past amongst which Spaar-Select and Telenet-Fidea.
Bob Jungels is a Luxembourgish road bicycle racer, who rides for UCI WorldTeam Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe.
Christine Majerus is a Luxembourgish former professional road and cyclo-cross cyclist, who rode for UCI Women's WorldTeam Team SD Worx–Protime and its predecessors from 2014 until her retirement in 2024. She won the 2013 Sparkassen Giro Bochum one-day road race and the general classification of the 2019 Holland Ladies Tour.
The Luxembourg National Road Race Championship is a cycling race where Luxembourg cyclists decide who will become the champion for the year to come. The event was established in 1922, and a separate Luxembourgish National Time Trial Championships has been held since 1999.
Leopard TOGT Pro Cycling is a Danish based team that acts as a development team for professional road racing cyclists. It was founded in 2012 as Leopard-Trek Continental, and merged in 2023 with the Danish Riwal Cycling Team to form Leopard TOGT Pro Cycling. It was previously a team registered in Luxembourg but after the merge represented Denmark.
Yvon Madiot is a French former racing cyclist. He won the French national road race title in 1986, going on to finish tenth in that year's Tour de France.
Jean-Pierre "Jempy" Drucker is a retired Luxembourgish professional racing cyclist.
Pit Schlechter is a Luxembourgish former professional cyclist, who rode professionally between 2010 and 2019 for the Continental Team Differdange and Leopard Pro Cycling squads.
Gusty Bausch is a Luxembourgian cyclo-cross cyclist. He represented his nation in the men's elite event at the 2016 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Heusden-Zolder.
Pit Leyder is a Luxembourgish former professional cyclist, who rode professionally between 2016 and 2019 for Leopard Pro Cycling and for the Cofidis team in 2019, as a stagiaire.
Arthur Kluckers is a Luxembourgish professional cyclist, who currently rides for UCI ProTeam Tudor Pro Cycling Team.
Mats Wenzel is a Luxembourgish road and cyclo-cross cyclist, who currently rides for UCI ProTeam Equipo Kern Pharma.