Hulst is a municipality and city in southwestern Netherlands in the east of Zeelandic Flanders.
The Western Scheldt, in the province of Zeeland in the southwestern Netherlands, is the estuary of the Scheldt river. This river once had several estuaries, but the others are now disconnected from the Scheldt, leaving the Westerschelde as its only direct route to the sea. The Western Scheldt is an important shipping route to the Port of Antwerp, Belgium. Unlike the Eastern Scheldt estuary, it could not be closed off from the sea by a dam as part of the Delta Works. Instead, the dykes around it have been heightened and reinforced.
Zeelandic Flanders is the southernmost region of the province of Zeeland in the south-western Netherlands. It lies south of the Western Scheldt that separates the region from the remainder of Zeeland and the Netherlands to the north. Zeelandic Flanders is bordered to the south and to the east by Belgium.
The Sluitingsprijs Oostmalle is a cyclo-cross race held in Oostmalle, Belgium, which is part of the BPost Bank Trophy until 2014. Since the 2014-2015 season it became an independent race but still with the back-up from the UCI. It is traditionally the last important race of the cyclo-cross season. The race is held in the woods of Christophe Lenaerts and the military airfield.
The Western Scheldt Tunnel is a 6.6-kilometre (4.1 mi) tunnel in the Netherlands that carries highway N62 under the Western Scheldt estuary between Ellewoutsdijk and Terneuzen. It is the longest tunnel for highway traffic in the Netherlands.
The Noordzeecross is a cyclo-cross race held in Middelkerke, Belgium with the first edition in 1959. Since the 2011 edition the race is a part of the Superprestige.
Perkpolder is a hamlet in the southwestern Netherlands, situated in the municipality of Hulst, Zeeland. It is known as a departure point for the ferry Kruiningen-Perkpolder that connected Zuid-Beveland and Zeelandic Flanders.
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.
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.
Thomas Pidcock is a British cyclist who will compete in the cyclo-cross, mountain bike and road bicycle racing disciplines of the sport for the Swiss Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team from January 2025. Prior to his release in December 2024, he rode for UCI WorldTeam Ineos Grenadiers.
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 five season-long competitions, alongside the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, Cyclo-cross Superprestige, the X²O Badkamers Trophy and the HSF System Cup. In contrast to the other competitions, the Exact 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, its main sponsor is the enterprise software provider Exact.
Denise Betsema is a Dutch cyclo-cross cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Cyclo-cross team Pauwels Sauzen–Bingoal.
This event was held on 2 February 2019 as a part of the 2019 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Bogense, Denmark. Participants must be women born in 2002 or before. The race was won by Sanne Cant of Belgium, winning her third consecutive title.
The 2020–21 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 4 October 2020 and 24 January 2021. In 2020, the UCI redesigned the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, expanding the total number of races to 14. The defending champions were Toon Aerts in the men's competition and Annemarie Worst in the women's competition.
Blanka Kata Vas is a Hungarian professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam SD Worx.
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.
Puck Pieterse is a Dutch cyclist specializing in cyclo-cross and mountain biking. She is the 2024 World mountain bike champion in Cross-country Olympic.
Mathieu van der Poel (NED)
Niels Vandeputte (BEL)
