A 13-strong Great Britain Cycling Team will travel to Valkenburg for the 2018 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships which take place from 3-4 February.
2016 under-23 women’s world champion Evie Richards and 2017 junior men’s world champion Tom Pidcock will be among those representing their country in the Netherlands with rainbow stripes up for grabs in five races.
The team
Elite men
Five-time national champion Ian Field will compete in Valkenburg, looking for a strong finish to his season.
Field, who finished second at the 2018 HSBC UK | National Cyclo-Cross Championships earlier this month, won the 2017/18 HSBC UK | Cyclo-Cross National Trophy with a round to spare.
The British rider had a tough day at last year’s world championships, finishing 37th in the ice and snow in Luxembourg, but has three top 31 finishes at this season’s Telenet UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup.
Elite women
Helen Wyman heads to the Netherlands in terrific form having won her tenth national title at the recent HSBC UK | National Cyclo-Cross Championships.
Wyman has also had a strong season on the international circuit with back-to-back second place finishes in rounds four and five of the Telenet UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, finishing seventh overall in the series.
Her British teammate Nikki Brammeier missed out on a third consecutive national title at Hetton Lyons, but has also shown her class on the world cup stage - finishing second in round six in Belgium, one of five top ten finishes this season, securing her a fourth place finish overall in the world cup series.
The elite women’s lineup is completed by Bethany Crumpton - who celebrated winning her maiden HSBC UK | Cyclo-Cross National Trophy series earlier this month.
Under-23 men
History was made at the 2017 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships as the trio of Tom Pidcock, Dan Tulett and Ben Turner claimed a British one-two-three in the junior men’s race.
All three riders have now graduated to the under-23 ranks with Pidcock the red-hot favourite to claim back-to-back world cyclo-cross titles - and a third set of rainbow stripes in 12 months.
Pidcock has won four of the five under-23 rounds of this season’s world cup that he has competed in to secure the overall series and also claimed his first national title at under-23 level earlier this month.
Alongside Pidcock, 2017 junior men’s silver medallist Dan Tulett and bronze medallist Ben Turner will also compete in the Netherlands - with both riders having a hat-trick of top 30 finishes in this season’s world cup to their names.
Under-23 women
Evie Richards will look to make history once again at this year’s world championships as she aims to become the first-ever two-time under-23 women’s cyclo-cross world champion.
Richards won the inaugural under-23 women’s title in 2016 before settling for bronze in Bieles in 2017 but is another British contender in great form.
Richards won the national under-23 women’s title at Hetton Lyons this month and also claimed an astonishing victory at elite level in the sixth round of the Telenet UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup in Namur, Belgium in December.
At the final round of this season’s world cup, Richards finished third in the elite women’s round and will start in Valkenburg as the race favourite.
Anna Kay and 16-year-old Harriet Harnden complete a three-woman lineup in the under-23 women’s race.
Junior men
European cyclo-cross bronze medallist Ben Tulett leads a three-man selection for the junior men’s race in the Netherlands.
Tulett is joined by Jenson Young and Sean Flynn - with national junior champion Flynn achieving the best result of the trio at the final round of the Telenet UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup in Hoogerheide last weekend.
Great Britain Cycling Team for the 2018 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships, Valkenburg
The venue
Valkenburg is a municipality in the southeastern Dutch province of Limburg, just over 200km from Amsterdam.
The town, which is a popular tourist destination in the Netherlands, has a population of just 16,000 and has hosted the UCI Road Cycling World Championships a record five times.
The course is technical and hilly with a large number of off-camber sections and a grassy terrain.
Schedule
Saturday 3 February
10am - Junior men
12pm - Under-23 women
2pm - Elite women
Sunday 4 February
10am - Under-23 men
2pm - Elite men
How to follow
- Updates on British Cycling’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram
- Daily reports will appear on the British Cycling website
- Live coverage of the under-23 and junior races on the British Cycling website
- Live coverage of the elite races on Eurosport Player with highlights at 4pm on Saturday and Sunday on Eurosport 1
