Wout Van Aert (Crelan-Vastgoedservice) leads the World Cup standings(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
The UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup will start in the US again in 2017, but the Las Vegas event CrossVegas, which has kicked off the series for the past two years, has been replaced. The schedule starts at the Jingle Cross in Iowa City and then eight days later heads to Waterloo, Wisconsin, home of Trek Bikes, for the second round.
Wout Van Aert started his season at the Trek CXC Cup last September, winning the C1 event handily.
Trek has been a high-profile sponsor of the sport for several years, after putting more emphasis on its line of cyclo-cross bikes. It supported Sven Nys during the last years of his career, and now sponsors Telenet-Fidea. Trek also streamed many of the major Belgian cyclo-cross races on its web site this season.
The World Cup has a four-week gap after the American races, with Koksijde taking place on October 22. The newest race is on November 19 in Bogense, Denmark. The same city was chosen to host the World Championships in 2019.
Germany is back on the World Cup calendar for the second year in a row, with another round in Zeven. The traditional December World Cup races take place in Namur and Zolder, while Nommay returns to the schedule in January.
Hoogerheide returns as the final round at the end of January before the World Championships take place in Valkenburg.
Watts Marketing, who first brought the World Cup to North American with CrossVegas, said it would be "returning the event to its roots", holding a C1 event for the elite men and women as well as holding a USA Cycling category race and the annual industry races. The company is also organising the Waterloo World Cup.
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“We’re excited to be part of World Cup Waterloo. Having brought World Cup cyclo-cross to the US it’s great to have a role in the further expansion of the World Cup series to new areas of the country,” race director Brook Watts said.
2017-2018 UCI Cyclo-Cross World Cup Schedule
Saturday, September 16, 17: Jingle Cross Iowa City (USA) Sunday, September 24, 17: Waterloo (USA) Sunday, October 22, 17: Koksijde (Bel) Sunday, November 19, 17: Bogense (Den) Saturday, November 25, 17: Zeven (Ger) Sunday, December 17, 17: Namur (Bel) Tuesday, December 26, 17: Heusden-Zolder (Bel) Sunday, January 21, 18: Nommay (Fra) Sunday, January 28, 18: Hoogerheide Province Noord-Brabant (Ned) February 3-4, 2018: UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships Valkenburg Province Limburg (Ned)
