Many professional sports traditionally take it easy around Christmas. But not all of them: while the Premier League in the UK traditionally continues its season on Boxing Day - 26 December - the world's best ski jumpers compete for the overall ranking of the Four Hills Tournament between 29 December and 6 January. And what many people don't know: The end of the year is also an absolute highlight for cycling fans in cyclocross racing. In cycling-mad and cyclocross-loving Belgium, this period even has a special name: the "Kerstperiode". Literally translated, "Kerstperiode" means "Christmas period", but in cyclocross terms it refers to a series of elite races that all take place around Christmas and New Year's week in Belgium. As many of the venues in north-east Belgium are so close to each other, riders, teams and fans can attend many cyclocross races around the festive period without having to travel far.
The most important cyclocross races at the turn of the year 2022/23
The cyclocross season kicks off on 23 December in Mol with a race in the Exact CX series. The final race will take place in the Cyclocross season 2022/23 the C2 race in Herentals on 3 January, which is part of the X2O Badkamers Trofee.
- Friday, 23 December: Mol - Exact CX
- Monday, 26 December: Gavere - UCI Cyclo Cross World Cup
- Tuesday, 27 December: Heusden-Zolder - Superprestige
- Wednesday, 28 December: Diegem - Superprestige
- Friday, 30 December: Azencross Loenhout - Exact CX
- Sunday, 1 January 2023: GP Sven Nys - X2O Badkamers Trofee
- Tuesday, 3 January 2023: Herentals - X2O Badkamers Trofee
Cyclocross race: Van Aert, van der Poel and Pidcock meet several times
The three cycling super-all-rounders Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel and Cyclocross world champion Tom Pidcock will be in the thick of the action in these races. Just how meticulously the young Briton prepares for these duels was recently demonstrated in the Training camp on Mallorca when he won the prestigious Strava KOM in Sa Calobra. It will therefore be exciting to see whether Tom Pidcock can transfer his form from the training camp to the Belgian mud courses, keep the cross specialists around Eli Iserbyt or Michael Vanthourenhout in check and annoy MVDP and Van Aert.
With his success at the UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Dublin on 11 December, the Belgian has impressively demonstrated that Wout van Aert can compete for victories in these cyclocross races even without much preparation time or race kilometres. And Mathieu van der Poel also appears to be fit again after his crash in Boom on 3 December and hungry to claim his third World Cup victory of the cyclocross season after Hulst and Antwerp. The starting trio will meet for the first time on 23 December in Mol. Three days later at the CX World Cup in Gavere, it will be time for revenge.
Anyone who misses the Cross World Cup in Gavere because they are busy putting in kilometres on their racing bike for the Rapha Festive 500 will have three more chances to follow the top cyclocross stars live on TV or at the track in the following days. According to their race calendars, van Aert, Pidcock and van der Poel will be reeling off the same race programme with the races in Heusden-Zolder, Diegem and Loenhout. As the cyclo-cross races only last about an hour and the start times are usually in the afternoon, there is still enough time to get on a gravel bike, road bike or cyclo-cross bike beforehand.
Where can you watch the cyclocross races live?
All listed cross races around Christmas 2022 and the turn of the year will be broadcast on GCN+ (for a fee) and on Eurosport Player (for a fee). However, usually only with English commentary. In the free-to-air television in Germany transmits Eurosport following races on TV:
- Exact Cross in Mol - 23.12. from 13:40
- UCI World Cup in Gavere - 26.12. from 13:30
- Superprestige in Zolder - 27.12. from 15:00
- Exact Cross in Loenhout - 30.12. from 13:40
It always starts with the women's elite race. Around 1:15 to 1:30 hours later, the starting signal is given for the men's cyclocross races, which all last around 60 minutes.
