Marie Schreiber will miss Sunday’s Flamanville World Cup after the muscle injury she sustained in Hamme failed to settle in time, extending what has become a disrupted and frustrating opening phase of her cyclo-cross winter.
The Luxembourg champion was hurt during the X2O Trofee in Hamme, where she was forced to sprint up the tarmac to reach the finish. That effort overstrained her psoas muscle, which runs from the inside of the thigh, through the pelvis and along the lower back. The issue has lingered all week, leaving her unable to race.
“This weekend no World Cup for me, because at the moment I have a muscle injury in my leg,” she wrote on Instagram. “But, as they say, every setback is a build up to a comeback.”
A difficult fortnight for the Luxembourg champion
Schreiber did attempt to race last weekend in Tábor, but she did not reach the finish. SD Worx Protime cyclo cross coach Sanne Cant explained after the race that the preparation had already been compromised.
“Marie had problems with her psoas muscle after the incident the previous week, when she had to run on the asphalt to reach the finish. Sprinting in cyclo cross shoes is not good for the muscles and joints,” Cant said.
“She started well in Tábor, but she crashed after the planks and landed on her right leg, the same leg with the muscle issue. After the fall she had no strength left, so stopping was the correct decision.”
Although the team stressed that they were not worried about her wider winter programme, the Hamme injury and the Tábor crash have now combined to delay her momentum. Her absence in Flamanville follows a longer run of disrupted preparation stretching back almost two years. Schreiber missed large parts of the 2023 to 24 campaign with recurring knee and back issues, returned gradually the following winter with flashes of her best form, and then established herself as a reliable top ten contender across the 2024 to 25 season.
Her breakthrough World Cup podiums in Antwerp and Maasmechelen last term were seen as markers of a rider ready to push into the sport’s top tier. She carried that progress into the early months of 2025, racing a full road programme with SD Worx Protime and using the summer to strengthen her base for this winter.
That context makes this setback all the more frustrating. Schreiber had targeted the pre-Christmas block to consolidate her World Cup standing and rebuild the rhythm she had during last year’s busy mid-season run.
Return date still unknown
With Flamanville off the table and Terralba only a week later, her next appearance will depend entirely on whether the psoas recovers fully. Cant and the team continue to emphasise a cautious approach to avoid turning a short-term problem into something longer-lasting.
What remains clear is that when she is healthy, Schreiber is central to SD Worx Protime’s cyclocross ambitions. The hope inside the team is that this pause is brief, allowing her to resume the winter with the same upward trajectory she established last season.
