The juniors ( male and female) will not be able to compete for the cyclocross world title this year. The International Cycling Union (UCI) has canceled the World Championships for juniors in Ostend, the U23’s (espoirs) will get the green light.
The organization of the Cyclo-cross World Championships in Ostend (January 30-31) took their time before announcing this. Only at the beginning of December did the last question marks disappear and an agreement was found with the UCI, Belgian Cycling, the Flemish government, and the City of Oostende, a fishing town known as “Little England” because of the history of the ferry boat connection to the English coast
But the UCI must now put on the brakes again due to the corona crisis. The juniors, who have not competed since the end of October, will also remain left at the World Cup. There is good news for the Under 23’s, as for once they should not compete with the pros, but can compete for the rainbow jersey in their own category. Thibau Nys, current junior world champion and son of Sven, can therefore take a shot at a new world title as a first-year U23. The Dutchman Ryan Kamp is the defending champion of the U23’s .
“We wanted to complete an entire program, but the decision was taken over our heads”, says World Cup organizer Rik Debeaussaert. “Today we were officially informed by the UCI.”
“I don’t know exactly why the juniors were not allowed to race. We had no decision-making power over it, the government has decided. In the promises, we emphasized that it is an important stepping stone to the pros and they can start.” Whether the World Cup now takes place in one day? No, Saturday the promises men and the women elite are on the program, Sunday the promises women and the men elite. The program, therefore, remains the same, except that we only have a broadcast of 4 hours instead of 6 hours on TV.
