We have live coverage of the Men’s 2014/15 Cyclo-Cross World Cup on Sunday 25th January. The race in Hoogerheide in the Netherlands is the last of this year’s six events.
Coverage is from 14:00 – 15:20 GMT
The crowds in Hoogerheide will be looking for strong performances from 20-year-old talents Mathieu van der Poel (BKCP-Powerplus) and Wout Van Aert (Vastgoedservice – Golden Palace Continental Team). The duo recently decided to race the UCI World Championships in the Elite Men category and they will feature in that category in Hoogerheide too. However the two young riders cannot threat 30-year-old Pauwels in the race for the overall World Cup win.
Pauwels has an 80-point lead over Lars van der Haar (Team Giant-Alpecin), which equals the number of points at stake for the winner of Sunday’s race. Pauwels only risks missing out on the World Cup victory if he fails to finish, while Van der Haar wins. That’s unlikely considering Pauwels has finished in the top 2 in every World Cup round. It is more likely that Van der Haar will be focusing on maintaining his second place in the World Cup standings as he has only a narrow seven-point lead over compatriot Corné van Kessel (Telenet – Fidea Cycling Team).
Fourth ranked German rider Philipp Walsleben (BKCP-Powerplus) needs to make up 14 points on Van Kessel to make the World Cup podium. Fresh Belgian champion Klaas Vantornout (Sunweb – Napoleon Games Cycling Team) makes his comeback in the World Cup after missing out two rounds due to illness. He’s currently ranked in ninth place.
