Mud and glory

Flanders Classics and the rise of cyclocross

In 2019 Flanders Classics reached out beyond road racing and acquired the rights to run the UCI Cyclocross World Cup series. CEO Tomas Van Den Spiegel says there were several reasons.

‘Of course, it is big in Flanders so we really know cyclocross. It’s a great TV product – short at around an hour, on a closed circuit and with a lot of commercial possibilities. And it already had gender equality, or very close to it, in pay but also in viewing numbers and ratings. We thought it was a very attractive product.’

Van Den Spiegel also points to the versatility of riders such as Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel: ‘Cyclocross had momentum because we had these crazy kids that ride cyclocross bikes and mountain bikes dominating road racing as well. They are very inspirational. There were a lot of factors that allowed us, or even pushed us, into cyclocross.’

Since 2019 the calendar has expanded from its heartland into Spain and Italy too, with a round in London rumoured.

‘Flanders still is the centre of cyclocross, both when it comes to the calendar and from a financial point of view,’ says Van Den Spiegel. ‘We think it can be much bigger than that in the future.’