At the start of the 2015-2016 season, it seemed inevitable that there would be a Belgian winner in the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships elite men's race. After all, defending champion Mathieu van der Poel was out of commission after a knee injury, and Wout Van Aert was practically unstoppable.
Since then, Van Aert has struggled to keep his momentum, while Van der Poel returned with a vengeance in December, and has not lost a World Cup since. The young Dutch rider's sheer dominance in the Hoogerheide World Cup in the lead-up to Worlds was a major warning shot to the Belgian team.
Fortunes can be easily reversed, as we saw in last year's Worlds, where Van Aert was the hot favourite and suffered mechanicals and crashes that pushed him into third behind Lars van der Haar.
Dutchman Van der Haar and Belgian Kevin Pauwels have been showing strong form in recent races, while the cagey veteran Sven Nys can never be counted out of the action.
On the women's side, defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot is out with injury, as is seven-time winner Marianne Vos, leaving the door wide open for World Cup winner Sanne Cant.
The Belgian had her strongest season yet, but late challengers such as Ellen Van Loy, Sophie de Boer, Eva Lechner and Nikki Harris have shown themselves in recent races.
2016 will be the first year for the separate youth women category (17-23), which comes in addition to the U23 men and junior men's races.
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