PEZ’ cycling news roundup — with a special cyclocross flavor (with road spice, of course). Plus a look at rising star Paul Seixas’ social media; does it tell us whether he’ll race the Tour next year?
TOP STORY:
- What to Expect this Cyclocross Season
RACE NEWS
- Pogačar & Ferrand-Prévot Scheduled for BEKING 2025
- Vuelta Route Presentation Coming in December
RIDER & TEAM NEWS
- Lidl Acquires Majority Stake in Lidl-Trek
- Brazilian Rider Sanctioned by UCD
- What Can We Learn from…Paul Seixas’ Instagram?
What to Expect this Cyclocross Season
A pattern has emerged in the cyclocross world: A coterie of pure crossers spends the first several races battling for podiums, and thus for world cup points — until the Triumverate of Doom shows up.
We came up with that moniker because we already used “Big Three” to describe the trio of dominant riders during the road season. But really that Triumverate is now the Duo of Doom, as Tom Pidcock has — improbably — committed himself largely to the road, with a sprinkling of mountain bike races.
Yes, guys hailing almost exclusively from Belgium and the Netherlands will once again trade blows weekend after weekend — until their countrymen Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel, respectively, show up and deliver knockout punches.
As most of our responding readers requested that PEZ continue to cover cyclocross, we thought we’d offer a primer on this just-started season:
As ever, the UCI World Cup calendar, spread over 12 rounds from November into January, will host classic venues like Tabor, Namur, Koksijde, Gavere, Zonhoven and Hoogerheide. From one weekend to the next, you can follow contenders for the overall World Cup title, including Michael Vanthourenhout (Pauwels Sauzen–Bingoal), who is off to a strong start. Others include perennial contender Eli Iserbyt (Pauwels Sauzen–Bingoal), veteran Laurens Sweeck (Crelan–Corendon), Toon Aerts (Lotto), and Joris Nieuwenhuis (Baloise Trek Lions), who won the first race of the season, Exact Cross Heerderstrand.
Fan favorites include ‘cross scion Thibau Nys (Lidl–Trek), whom you’ll recognize from the road; Felipe Orts Lloret, whose gutsy, aggressive riding (and the fact that he’s neither Belgian nor Dutch) has won many aficionados’ hearts; and Niels Vandeputte (Alpecin–Deceuninck), whom a lot of people like because they mistake him for Mathieu van der Poel.
Niels Vandeputte
The UK’s Cameron Mason (Seven Racing) often features highly, while the U.S. really fields no contending riders at all this year. Road racing fans will also recognize sprinter Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step), who started his career on ‘cross courses.
Cameron Mason
Again, though, all of this changes when the Duo of Doom shows up. MVDP has been utterly dominant, winning six of the last seven world titles, failing to win only in 2022 — when he didn’t show up, leaving the top podium step to Pidcock, who won on a very strange course in Fayetteville, AR.
Van der Poel winning 2025 Worlds
Sticking with our motto — What’s cool in road cycling — we’ll abide by your guidance with a bit of ‘cross coverage — and we’ll ramp it up when Wout and MVDP show up. Stay tuned!
RACE NEWS
Pogačar & Ferrand-Prévot Scheduled for BEKING 2025
Port Hercule, Monaco will once again host BEKING, now in its fifth edition. World Champion Tadej Pogačar and multi-title winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot will race through the streets of the Principality.
The women’s field features Urška Žigart, Elena Cecchini, Anna Trevisi, and Ferrand-Prévot, winner of the Tour de France Femmes and world champion in several disciplines, including road cycling, mountain bike cross-country and cyclo-cross. Also competing will be Lorena Wiebes, one of the world’s fastest sprinters; Anna van der Breggen, a living legend who has won multiple world titles; and Kasia Niewiadoma, who won the Tour de France Femmes 2024 and the Tour de Romandie.
Alongside the host and tireless driving force behind the event, Matteo Trentin, the men’s peloton will include World Champion and G.O.A.T. Tadej Pogačar; 2025 Tour de France Green Jersey winner Jonathan Milan; and Italian climber Giulio Ciccone. The men’s line-up also features stars such as Matej Mohorič (winner of the 2022 Milano–Sanremo race), Tim Wellens (stage winner in Carcassonne at the 2022 Tour de France), Steven Kruijswijk, Lennert Van Eetvelt, Nicolas Vinokurov, Robert Stannard, Jensen Plowright, Sam Welsford, Wout Poels, Jan Tratnik, Danny van Poppel, Kevin Vauquelin, Axel Zingle, Matt Dinham, Laurens De Plus, Michael Matthews, Oscar Chamberlain and Larry Warbasse.
BEKING once again confirms its mission of bringing together sport and solidarity, transforming passion for cycling into powerful support for social and charitable projects and engaging the public in an experience that goes beyond the race itself.
Vuelta Route Presentation Coming in December
On December 17th at 7 pm, Unipublic will present the route of La Vuelta 26 from Monte Carlo. This will include host cities of all 21 stages of the August 22-September 13 edition.
This is an invitation-only event, so watch PEZ for all the facts, figures and feelings on the Vuelta ’26 curso!
RIDER AND TEAM NEWS
Lidl Acquires Majority Stake in Lidl-Trek
German discount grocery chain Lidl has acquired a majority stake in Lidl-Trek. Trek Bicycle will retain a significant stake in this joint partnership. The parties have indicated that the investment is intended to enable development of the “number one road cycling team.”
This announcment, coming on the heels of Lidl-Trek’s annual October training camp, took place at the Lidl Germany headquarters in Bad Wimpfen. Over 160 Lidl-Trek employees, including the male and female riders of the men’s, women’s, and development teams, gathered there for the official start of the 2026 season preparations. The team camp, which ran from October 20-24, is the first gathering for Lidl-Trek’s new roster, including athletes who will represent the team for the first time in January.
Roger Gierhart, Vice President of Trek Bicycle, said: “Expanding the partnership between Trek and Lidl is the perfect way to cap off an incredible season on the road for Lidl-Trek. Together, we have the resources, tools and expertise to take this team to the very top of the sport.”
Brazilian Rider Sanctioned by UCD
The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has santioned Brazilian rider Vinicius Rangel Costa has been sanctioned for violating its rule that riders be available for testing. Costa failed to disclose his location three times in a year, and will be ineligible to compete for 20. months.
The UCI delegated its anti-doping program to the International Testing Agency (ITA) in January 2021, while retaining results management and the prosecution of anti-doping rules violations. Since then, cycling’s clean sport efforts have been led by the ITA Cycling Unit, which is dedicated specifically to all disciplines of cycling.
What Can We Learn from…Paul Seixas’ Instagram?
Will he or won’t he? It’s the question vexing the cycling world as it searches for a solution to Pogačar’s domination: Will 19 year-old French phenom Paul Seixas ride the Tour next year?
In search of clues, we consulted his Instagram feed, where we found…not a clue.
We also didn’t find references to sponsors, photos of girlfriends, shots of surfing or golfing — any of the non-on-bike content that we’ve seen on other riders. Instead, this seems — for now — just to be a kid who loves riding and racing his bike and is thrilled to be doing so at a high level.
We’ll keep looking for those clues.
(Oh — and to those of you who requested cyclocross content: Looks like Seixas can bunny-hop barriers with the best of them!)
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The post EUROTRASH: Our Cyclocross Season Primer appeared first on PezCycling News.
