Get ready for a PACKED weekend of fun, including a cyclocross World Cup race
Cyclocross season is back!
And even more importantly, so is the Trek CX Cup. The annual event at Trek Bicycle headquarters in Waterloo, Wisc., couldn’t take place last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Now with safety measures in place, the biggest cyclocross race in the United States, and one of the best racing weekends on the calendar (in our humble opinion) can take place.
The main event is the UCI men’s and women’s elite World Cup races on Sunday. The women will race first at 12:30 p.m. CT, then the men will take the course at 2 p.m. for the last race of the weekend. But before then, the course will be in near constant use, with all levels of amateur races taking place beginning Friday.
Costumes: Encouraged.
If you happen to be in Waterloo, you especially won’t want to miss the Legends races on Friday and Saturday evening, when amateurs get to race next to cycling royalty (past participants include Jens Voigt, Sven Nys and Cam McCaul), and the only objective is to have maximum fun.
In sum, it’s going to be an absolute blast.
Click here for more information, FAQs and history about Trek CX Cup …
… click here to see a full schedule of events …
… and read on for more information about the big-time racing taking place Sunday.
Tokyo Olympic champion Jolanda Neff relaxing post-race in 2019.
Who's competing
The elite women’s race will feature a World champion and an Olympic champion.
Baloise Trek’s Lucinda Brand had a dream season in 2020-21, capped by winning the cyclocross World Championship in Oostende, Belgium. She’ll be wearing the rainbow stripes in Waterloo against a stacked field. Notably, Trek Factory Racing’s Jolanda Neff is hopping back on a Boone after wrapping up an XC mountain biking season that included a gold medal in Tokyo.
Shhhhh ...
A host of young riders will also feature in the women’s race, including Baloise Trek’s Shirin van Arooij and TFR’s Maddie Munro and Hattie Harnden. Harnden is coming to Waterloo hot off an enduro racing season in which she won two Enduro World Series races and finished fourth overall.
In the men’s race, look out for Toon Aerts, who, along with Brand, won last weekend at the first Superprestige race of the new season. Baloise Trek teammate Lars van der Haar is also a podium contender, as are 20-year-old Pim Ronhaar, the defending U23 world champion, and 18-year-old Thibau Nys, the defending junior world champion and son of cyclocross legend Sven Nys.
Beautiful, sometimes sunny Waterloo.
The course
The Waterloo course is unique and, dare we say, iconic. It takes a circuitous route all over Trek HQ’s backyard, weaving around grass (and after a few days of rain, probably a fair bit of mud), through trees and under/over three flyover elements that help make Trek CX Cup one of the most spectator-friendly venues in the sport.
Perhaps the most notorious element of the course is Trek Factory Hill, a steep down-and-up hill near the back wall of HQ. If the course is slippery, expect to see riders hopping off their bikes and running up the climb rather than foolishly trying to pedal.
Some local wildlife.
How to watch
For cyclocross fans watching from the United States, both the women’s and men’s elite World Cup races are available with subscriptions to GCN or Flobikes. Flobikes is also showing the races for Canadian viewers. Streaming will begin at 12:20 p.m. CT.
You can also follow Trek CX Cup on Twitter and Instagram for results, video, photos and updates from the event. Don’t miss one of the best sporting events of the year!
