The UCI finalized the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup schedule for the 2022-2023 season at the meeting of the Management Committee during the Road World Championships in Wollongong, Australia on Wednesday. Three changes were made to the previously announced schedule - with a round in Dublin, Ireland scheduled for December 11.
Dublin was originally due to host the World Cup in late 2020 but the round was scrapped because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first round of the World Cup in Ireland will take place on the Sport Ireland Campus in Dublin.
"We're very proud to add Dublin this season," says Flanders Classics CEO Tomas Van Den Spiegel. "We'll be racing in a true Irish environment. That will give the Dublin round its own identity, just like we saw for the Val di Sole and Flamanville races in the 2021-2022 season."
At the 2022 World Championships, riders complained about the length of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, which was expanded to 16 events last year compared with nine in the year before the pandemic-shortened season.
The World Cup is 14 rounds for 2022-2023 and still entails plenty of travel, starting in the USA, then to the Czech Republic before heading back to the historic heart of the discipline in Belgium and the Netherlands for five rounds. Riders then hit Ireland and Italy before returning to Belgium for the Kerstperiode and, after the New Year, have races in Belgium, Spain and France before the World Championships in Hoogerheide.
"The organisation of a round in a new country is part of the very significant development that the discipline's leading series has been undergoing in the last years, especially since the beginning of the partnership between the UCI and Flanders Classics," UCI President David Lappartient said.
The series will kick off as planned at Trek headquarters in Waterloo, Wisconsin on October 9, and then move to the 2022 Worlds host venue in Fayetteville, Arkansas on October 16 before moving to Tabor, Czech Republic the following Sunday.
The round originally planned in Rucphen, The Netherlands on October 30 has been moved to Maasmechelen, Belgium while the planned December 26 World Cup in Dendemonde has been replaced by Gavere, which was scheduled to host the Superprestige on December 3.
"We had to look for alternatives to Rucphen and Dendermonde," Van Den Spiegel said. "With Maasmechelen we're adding a Belgian round that we are really looking forward to. And finally, on Boxing Day we'll race in Gavere, adding a true cyclo-cross classic to the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup agenda of the upcoming winter."
London, which had been widely expected to host a World Cup round this season, did not make the cut. "We not only hope to be able to establish a long-term relationship in Dublin, but in the meantime, we will continue the work to add London to the schedule for the 2023-24 season," said Van Den Spiegel.
2022-2023 UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup Schedule
- 09 October 2022: Waterloo - Wisconsin (USA)
- 16 October 2022: Fayetteville - Arkansas (USA)
- 23 October 2022: Tábor (CZE)
- 30 October 2022: Maasmechelen (BEL) (was Rucphen)
- 13 November 2022: Beekse Bergen - Province of North Brabant (NED)
- 20 November 2022: Overijse (BEL)
- 27 November 2022: Hulst (NED)
- 04 December 2022: Antwerp (BEL)
- 11 December 2022: Dublin (IRL) - new
- 17 December 2022: Val di Sole - Trentino (ITA)
- 26 December 2022: Gavere (BEL) (was Dendermonde)
- 08 January 2023: Zonhoven (BEL)
- 14-15 January 2023: National Championships
- 22 January 2023: Benidorm - Costa Blanca (ESP)
- 29 January 2023: Besançon (FRA)
- 4 - 5 February 2023: UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships
