A look at this weekend’s Cyclocross races – 1st & 2nd October 2022

The big race last weekend at Exact Cross Beringen saw Pauwels Sauzen take another pair of wins by Eli Iserbyt and Fem van Empel. The team is dominating this early part of the season with 4 wins from 4 in the series. Iserbyt’s race was fairly dominant in the end but was in the balance in the early laps. The women’s race was the pick of the weekend with a stunning head to head ride between Fem van Empel and Lucinda Brand. Both experienced mechanicals early on – a chain drop for Van Empel and a puncture for Brand. The gap ebbed and flowed, with the Dutch riders separated by only a few metres. When it came to a head to head sprint, it was the younger rider who came out best – maybe a sign we’re in the process of a generation shift in women’s cyclocross.

The American races saw the favourites Vincent Baestens and Annemarie Worst win both days with plenty on social media about the scenes in the mud on the course. One section saw riders struggling to even walk up the muddy climb and another where riders were almost sledging down a descent on the mud. 

It was a similar story over in France and Switzerland. In both races, the favourites Clement Venturini and Amandine Fouquenet in France and Kevin Kuhn and Helene Clauzel in Switzerland took the victories.