The opening round of the UCI Cyclocross World Cup 2024-25 will be held in Antwerp this Sunday, with world champion Femme van Empel and European champion Tybau Nis set to start. 

The biggest names on the men's side are the current world champions Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Tim Pidcock, who will not be present at the start in Belgium as they will continue to race a significantly reduced cross-calendar before the road season begins.

This is the first time since 2015, when the Las Vegas race brought the World Cup outside Europe for the first time, reduced from 14 races to 12 races, without the US round, Waer

And the last few years began on 10 May 2019, before being reformed and expanded on 9 May. The line is also the much later beginning of the Cyclocross series

This change has led to the UCI's World Cup run after last season's drama unfolded which chose to skip rounds outside Belgium and the Netherlands in favour of the Superprelige or X2O Trofee series races close to the sporting heartland. It is part of an attempt to make it more attractive to the public.

The saga began when Nys triggered a reaction from Uci chairman David Lappartient in a conversation with DirectVelo that Belgium skipped the World Cup in Dendermonde on Sunday, the 12th, citing fatigue despite participating in the Superprelige race at Niel the previous day.12 He skipped the World Cup.

"If riders prefer to ride a national event during the World Cup round, they won't ride the next World Cup round, so they won't ride the world Championship," says Lappartient. 

"The World Cup is not a competition where you can choose and choose as you like. All riders have to play the game."

This prompted further responses from riders and team managers with the main complaint that the current format of the World Cup was too large and not fit for purpose along the rest of the calendar. Teams are often forced to choose, choose and choose, due to the cost, easy to participate in the race in Belgium over the World Cup rounds in the United States, Ireland and Spain.

As the modified series was about to begin, UCI pulled back slightly from the threat of Lappartient, but is not afraid to punish riders if the new format does not alleviate the problem of the round being skipped. 

"If the trend continues and we see that the rules are being followed, we can see if we can play it even harder and take even tougher measures," UCI Sports Director Peter Van den Abeele told Het Nieuwsblad.

"But honestly, I don't think it's necessary. I think the puzzle that lies ahead now is something everyone can agree on. As a full-time cyclocross rider, I don't really understand that you don't ride everything. I find it very hard to accept it.

"We certainly want to involve our riders more in the UCI World Cup and encourage them to participate in the round.

To prevent riders from skipping the race, certain rounds of the World Cup have "protected event" status from the uci, and the discipline of "promoting balanced participation in events on the UCI Cyclocross International Calendar" is trying to broaden the field of participation.

The World Cup in the new round of Dublin, Hulst, Besançon and Cabras will be implemented with a new "protected Events" status that allows the uci to refuse registration on the UCI International Calendar of races that wish to be held on the day before or on the day of the mentioned round.

"To be clear: We do not want to wipe out other races, do not bother you." But you have to understand: When you go to a new field, it's a shame, and you first realize that the top riders are almost also

"No one benefits from it, and certainly not the discipline itself." In Belgium, everything is going well and no one has problems with it, but you need to find the right balance of offers inside and outside Belgium. And now there is also a clear hierarchy between the different classifications."