Some of the world’s top cyclo-cross stars have, for years, preferred to skip some CX World Cup races to ride in national races that often paid them large sums of money just to be at the start.
The UCI is confronting this fact with a new regulation in the race calendar and threats to riders who decide to skip the World Cup. That is to say, the maximum entity of the world cycling continues betting on measures to protect the CX World Cup.
Just a few months ago, it was David Lappartient himself, president of the UCI, who launched the proposal that “if a CX rider prefers to compete in a national race when there is a World Cup, he will not be able to compete in the next World Cup and, therefore, neither the cyclo-cross World Championships”.
For the time being, for the 2024-25 season, the UCI has intervened the regulations to prevent important races from being held days before some races on the World Cup calendar that have been renamed protected (Dublin, Sardinia, Besançon and Benidorm), leaving riders with the only option of participating in the World Cup or not competing at all. In addition, it has adjusted the period and number of races in its competition.
Peter van den Abeele, UCI sport director, explained: “We want to involve the riders more in the UCI World Cup and encourage them to participate in the races. And that’s why we have chosen … to organize fewer races this year and to shorten the period in which the races take place. So that a more compact World Cup is created.”
And he went on to warn that new, even harsher measures could be coming for the racers, “If we see that the trend continues and that rule is played with, we could play even harder and take even harsher measures.” Alluding to Lappartient’s proposal to make participation in the World Cup conditional for all riders who want to be in the World Championships.
At the moment the UCI CX World Cup will start this weekend in Antwerp without Van Aert, Van der Poel or Tom Pidcock having announced their participation in any cyclocross race for now, but for sure the UCI will be as attentive to their calendars as the rest of us fans are.
Source: www.brujulabike.com