We’ll Say It: The 2024 Cyclocross World Champs Had a Predictability Problem

Another round of Cyclocross World Championships is in the books after this weekend of racing in Tabor, Czech Republic, at the iconic ‘cross venue. In the elite field, not much will change since Mathieu Van der Poel and Fem Van Empel repeated their victories, but on the bright side, that means less kit is going to be wasted as they keep their rainbow stripes.

If you missed the racing action, you can catch up over on FloBikes, or if you simply want a bit of commentary to take with you to your water cooler gossip sesh you have about cyclocross every Monday with your coworkers—who doesn’t, amiright?—we’ve got you covered.

Sixth place for Vida Lopez de San Roman in Junior Women

Bear National Team Racing’s Vida Lopez de San Roman has had a great season, possibly (hopefully) heralding in a new era of top-level racers for the US. This year, she won the Hulst Junior World Cup, and this weekend, finished sixth at Worlds.

“The race went pretty well. It was a hard battle. I fought the whole time,” she said in a press release from USA Cycling. “There was a group of three switching back and forth between positions then I made two or three passes on the last lap and a half and fought super hard toward the end. I am happy with my effort and my result. In the end, even though I was hoping for a little more today, I fought my very hardest and that’s what matters.” We’re just excited to see what she’ll do from here.

In fact, North Americans are arguably having a moment

While the announcers weren’t talking much about the North American contingent, a look at the results is actually encouraging. It's not just Lopez de San Roman posting good results. In the women’s race, American Clara Honsinger finished eighth and Canadian Maghalie Rochette finished tenth.

Last year, Canadian Isabella Holmgren took the junior World Championship win, and this year in her first year in the U23 field, she took fourth, just off the podium. Fellow Canuck Ian Ackert took sixth in the U23 field.

Fueling is becoming more of a thing

Clearly, we are in the time of the carbohydrate. In the women’s and men’s races, it was apparent that the craze of high carb fuel of taking in 120+ grams of carbs per hour isn’t just for the road, it’s made its way into the cyclocross zeitgeist as well.

Many riders could be seen slurping gels seconds before the start, and as they came through the start/finish, prompting questions around the type of gel they’re consuming.

My personal guess is that most are opting for isotonic gel options, which are more liquidy. Given the cold temperatures in Tabor over the weekend plus the lack of water bottles to wash down a gel, the only realistic way most riders could handle swallowing a gel would be in the slightly less solid format found in isotonic gels.

Many nutrition brands are adding them to their lineups in addition to standard format gels, and it’s clear they’re becoming the go-to for fast fuel without water.

Not loving the elite blowouts

This may be a personal gripe, but I know I’m not alone when I say that it’s a teensy bit boring watching Mathieu Van der Poel win his sixth World Championship by nearly a minute and Fem Van Empel ride to victory more than 30 seconds ahead of Lucinda Brand.

There’s no back and forth, just these racers riding away from the rest of the field within minutes of the race starting. (I can say that it’s not just me, since we actually had a mini-watch party that devolved into complaining about this specific topic.)

I know, I know, you certainly can’t blame those riders for being really, really ridiculously fast. I’m not mad at them, I’m mad about the situation. But you can wish that they had a bit more of a competition for the win.

Can we start a GoFundMe or petition to ensure that Tom Pidcock and Wout Van Aert are back next year, and maybe bring Pauline Ferrand-Prevot and Marianne Vos out of cyclocross retirement and back to racing for 2025?

What’s not to love about Zdeněk Štybar?

The former World Champ did not have a great race today in the elite men’s race, but there was something just so fun and so charming watching him finish his last lap in Tabor, the place he won Worlds back in 2010.

The Czech racer really leaned into the home team advantage and spent his last few minutes of racing interacting with the crowd, motioning at them to cheer for him, high fiving, and generally just looking pretty content with being a few minutes back.

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