The Kerstperiode is over, long live the Kerstperiode!
12 races in 16 days. Sun, sea, sand, and snow. Eight elite winners. Multiple record-breaking crowds. Reignited rivalries. One broken ankle (sigh).
Admittedly, it may be hard to argue with friends, family, colleagues who hold the opinion that cyclocross can be boring given the dominance, on paper at least, of Mathieu van der Poel and Lucinda Brand, who won eight and seven events apiece. But there was plenty to get stuck into around the family festivities over the Christmas and New Year period – even if one of the major storylines was cut short by a broken ankle just as Wout van Aert appeared ready to match his lifetime rival.
Among the elite women, the Kerstperiode saw Brand's dominance threatened, and then dented this past weekend, as the likes of Puck Pieterse and Ceylin Del Carmen Alvarado peaked just in time, and others like Amandine Fouquenet remain easy to root for as a new calendar year beckons. As for the elite men, any race without the world champion has been a delightfully scrappy affair in the best way possible – take Heusden-Zolder and Gullegem (below). Not to mention the blossoming of new rivalries that we'll be watching for years to come.
Kit Nicholson
This week's results:
- X2O Loenhout Azencross (Monday 29 Dec) – Lucinda Brand and Mathieu van der Poel
- Superprestige Diegem (Tuesday 30 Dec) – Puck Pieterse and Tibor Del Grosso
- X2O Baal 'GP Sven Nys' (Thursday 1 Jan) – Lucinda Brand and Mathieu van der Poel
- Exact Cross Mol 'Zilvermeercross' (Friday 2 Jan) – Ceylin Del Carmen Alvarado and Mathieu van der Poel
- Superprestige Gullegem (Saturday 3 Jan) – Amandine Fouquenet and Niels Vandeputte
- World Cup Zonhoven (Sunday 4 Jan) – Ceylin Del Carmen Alvarado and Mathieu van der Poel
That's it for this season's Kerstperiode, but 'cross is far from over. Next weekend sees the field disperse to their home countries for their respective National Championships, but there'll be another CX gallery here at Escape Collective after World Cup Benidorm on Sunday 18 January.
Now settle in with a cup of tea, or perhaps a mulled wine or gluhwein, and tuck into this last bumper gallery.
There have been some mega showdowns in the mud of Loenhout in its long history. Having run almost continuously since 1984 (only cancelled in 2020 for obvious reasons), 'Azencross' is a race whose history is punctuated with some landmark events. For one thing, it was the first Belgian 'cross event to host a women's race alongside the men's 15th edition. It was also the first CX event to introduce the 'washboard' feature, a short stretch of successive humps where momentum is key.
(With minimal contemporary imagery for this race, there's a little more historical narrative to add context and give a better idea of the characteristics on the course.)
Four-time Azencross winner Marianne Vos on the aforementioned washboard sector; and between multiple winners Hanka Kupfernagel and Daphny van den Brand in 2010, finally breaking their stranglehold once and for all. The German-Dutch duo had shared all but one of the first 11 editions between themselves – 18-year-old Vos showed early signs of future dominance on this course with a narrow victory in 2005 (of which there is available footage on YouTube!).
Wout van Aert first won here in 2014, beating 19-year-old nemesis Mathieu van der Poel by a convincing margin, and added three more between 2016 and 2022 (the last time he beat Van der Poel on this course).
Loenhout has been the home of multiple hard-fought duels between the celebrated rivals, sometimes joined by a third adversary in Tom Pidcock, as in 2022, the last time Van Aert bettered his Dutch rival.
Van der Poel had won five times before this weekend, adding to his father Adrie's three Loenhout titles (1992, 1996 and 1997). He finally beat Van Aert twice in a row in 2017 (pictured) and '18, then returned to the top step on 29 December 2023, his mother's birthday – he's made quite a habit of gifting her a victory over the years.
Sanne Cant has been the most prolific winner among the elite women, taking her fifth and last in 2023. She was only prevented from taking a sixth by fellow Belgian Marion Norbert Riberolle in 2024. Other winners have included Shirin van Anrooij, Lucinda Brand (twice), and Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado.
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