The holiday week is a brutal one for a bike racer making a living in Belgium. First, Saturday’s Waaslandcross race in Sint Niklaas. There wasn’t racing on Christmas — but there was pre-riding for the World Cup at Zolder the day after.

On Thursday, we head to the DVV Trofee series race, Azencross, in Loenhout on December 28, then Brico Cross in Bredene on the 29th, followed by Superprestige Diegem on the 30th, and finally GP Sven Nys, a DVV series race that takes place in Baal, on January 1st.

It’s a busy few days, and not a lot of time for enjoying the holiday season. But with nationals and worlds looming, it’s unlikely that Sanne Cant or Wout van Aert were really planning on chugging eggnog or eating cookies by the kilo anyway.

Azencross is just days away — it’s a Thursday race this year, but if you’re watching in the U.S., you can still at least see the women’s race live before heading to work — so what do we expect to see?

The World Cup Revealed A Lot

Former world champion and current World Cup leader Mathieu van der Poel was recovering from a cold, but he’s back with a vengeance and took the win in the Zolder World Cup.

Azencross will provide another chance to watch him against current world champion Wout van Aert, who took third behind Laurens Sweeck. We’ll get a sense of how the two rivals are interacting in races now that Van Aert’s fitness seems to be on the upswing.

Tom Meeusen, Corne Van Kessel, Lars Van der Haar, Laurens Sweeck, and Wietse Bosmans may be in the mix as well — if not fighting for the win, fighting for podium contention.

In the women’s race, plenty of Belgian fans were hoping to see Sanne Cant take that 100th race win and come out on top after a few lower-placing finishes in recent weeks — and in Zolder their Christmas wishes were answered.

New Women At Azencross

At this point, the women who showed up first at Essen and Scheldecross earlier in December are starting to wear down — or at least be less fresh than they were six races ago.

But still, they don’t have a full season of racing in their legs yet, and this week is a test of everyone’s strength and ability to stay recovered and focused. Among the new faces are Maud Kaptheijns and Lucinda Brand, who took the win at Sint Niklaas.

Elite Americans Are Dwindling

Four American women will be on the start line at Azencross: Katie Compton, Corey Coogan-Cisek, Natalie Tapias, and Elle Anderson. Now a Belgian resident, Anderson has consistently been in the top 15 at races this year, while Coogan-Cisek and Tapias are new to Euro racing.

At the time of writing, there are no American men registered for the elite race. That’s because most Americans are back in the U.S. to prep for nationals, which will be at altitude in Reno this year.

All eyes will be on Compton, who was second behind Cant at the Zolder World Cup; she seems to be coming into fitness right in time for Reno’s nationals. 

But Compton also is leading the DVV series, and Azencross’s result could determine a major overall prize for her, so she won’t just be riding casually — she’s racing to win.

By Molly Hurford; Photos by Balint Hamvas – Cyclephotos