Top 10 - CX races of the 2010s
Had to isolate yourself due to the coronavirus?
That’s fair and sensible, but it does mean a reduced exposure to that other, much more enjoyable contagious virus - CX fever.
We’re helping to correct that with this list of great CX races throughout the 2010s.
Obviously as an English-speaking website, we’ve tended to select races with English-language commentary available - something that wasn’t widely available before the UCI started consistently streaming World Cup CX races in HD in the early 2010s. This means it’s mostly comprised of UCI World Cups and World Championships, as our Flemish isn’t quite good enough to fully appreciate the pirate Sporza feeds that were more common before that time.
Nevertheless, there’s plenty of truly great CX racing here - from tight tussles with a world championship on the line, to key moments in the development of the sport, to two riders just giving each other hell because it’s what they do.
10. Start your engines - Women’s Koppenbergcross, 2015
While this is an entertaining race in its own right, with 20/20 hindsight it’s most interesting as the race that started cycling’s first mechanical doping controversy. If you pay attention as the riders climb up the Koppenberg for the first time around three minutes in, you can see the black and yellow-clad figure of Femke van den Driessche mysteriously float to the front of the race…
…about three months before she was the first rider ever to be sanctioned for mechanical doping.
9. Half-Aussie Jens Dekker’s finest hour - Junior Men’s World Championship @ Heusden-Zolder, 2016
As a website that proudly represents Australia and New Zealand, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the biggest achievement in the history of southern hemisphere CX up to this point: Jens Dekker’s victory in the Junior Men’s World Championships in 2016.
Although Dekker wears the colours of the Netherlands as he crushes his competition (including current Elite CX stars like Tom Pidcock and Gage Hecht), he’s proudly half-Australian, and spends a good portion of his off-seasons down under. He’s also a really nice guy off the bike, even showing up to a local Melbourne group ride to generously give tips a few days before crushing the competition at the 2018 Melbourne Grand Prix of CX.
8. Dutch Delight - Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado vs. Lucinda Brand vs. Annemarie Worst - UCI World Championships @ Dubendorf, 2020
We’re bending the rules a bit here as this race took place in February 2020, but seeing as it was the world championship for the 2019/2020 UCI season, we’re willing to include it. In a race that was widely predicted to be a romp for the Dutch, the three podium finishers quickly distanced the rest of the racers before battling it out for a win amongst themselves.
Although the action goes from a simmer in the early going to a rolling boil of a final lap, the course around the Dubendorf airport isn’t exactly inspiring, so it’s a little light on truly spectacular racing manoeuvres, or inspiring comebacks.
NB: If you want to see this race with English commentary in Australia, it is available to stream on Kayo or Redbull.TV.
7. Vos the boss - Women’s World Championship @ Louisville, 2013
The very best, at her very best.
We could go into more detail, but it’s best to just sit back and enjoy the greatest cyclist of her day (and possibly ever) at the peak of her powers. Bonus points for the snowy course in Louisville - the first time the CX world championships had ever travelled over the Atlantic.
6. Wout van Aert vs. Lars van der Haar - UCI World Championships @ Heusden-Zolder, 2016
The race has pretty much everything. There’s a hot start, a weird crash that changes the whole complexion of the race and some great one-on-one racing in the last lap - the highlight of which is a downhill pass on slick mud that’s straitjacket-wearing, small-animal-torturing insane.
Gets marked down a little bit for how poorly the Dutch riders are treated by an extremely drunk Belgian crowd (more than one rider had beer thrown at them), but in just about every other respect this race is phenomenal.
5. Sven Nys vs. Zdeněk Štybar - UCI World Championship @ Hoogerheide, 2014
A classic example of styles making fights. On one hand you had the crafty tactical nous of defending world champion Sven Nys, seeking to add a third rainbow jersey to his collection and further cement his reputation as one of the greatest cyclocrossers ever, even as his career entered its twilight.
On the other hand, there’s the sheer power of Zdeněk Štybar, another twice world champion fresh off a first full-time road season that included a star-making performance at Paris-Roubaix.
Add in one of the most famous courses of the sport at Hoogerheide and you’ve got a classic race on your hands.
4. Sanne Cant vs. Katie Compton - UCI World Cup @ Milton Keynes, 2014
Although the UCI World Cup series never returned to the English city of Milton Keynes, it certainly wasn’t because they couldn’t put on a good race - watch Katie Compton and Sanne Cant duke it out over some bonkers off-camber corners and steep muddy hills before an absolutely nail-biting finish.
3. Wout van Aert vs. Mathieu van der Poel - UCI World Cup @ Namur, 2016
Back before the rivalry between Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel was less one-sided than the bicep definition of a professional arm wrestler, it was known as The Beautiful Duel. Although under normal circumstances it was believed that MVDP was the more talented of the two, he also had an air of mental fragility that often opened the door for the pugnacious and more tactically savvy WVA - including in one of the races mentioned above.
At its heart though, the two riders just loved racing and loved racing each other, and whoever came out on top in the early going almost invariably won the race. But it wasn’t always the case, and sometimes the two young rivals would tear strips off each other until your jaw would hit the floor.
Behold Namur 2016: the most beautiful of the Beautiful Duels.
2. Marianne Vos vs. Sanne Cant - UCI World Championships @ Bieles, 2017
The seven-time world champion and living legend, racing against the season’s most dominant rider, desperate to fill out the biggest gap in her palmarés. Cold, icy conditions and some truly insane off-camber descents. There’s a moment when the race looks like it’s won, where you could swear it’s all over -only for things to change in the blink of an eye.
If you have’t seen it yet, treat yourself right now.
1. Sven Nys vs. Wout van Aert - UCI World Cup @ Koksijde, 2015
The old master, seeking that one last big win.
The young, talented upstart with the world at his feet.
One of the classic courses in the sport of cyclocross.
If you have seen it before, you’ve probably already started the video by now.
If you’ve never seen it before, just watch - you won’t be disappointed.