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Pro Log: The latest in cyclocross; Olympians get New Year honours; New year, new kit
Welcome back to another edition of Pro Log. Here’s a rundown of the latest cyclocross results before we get started:
- Gullegem, Men’s Superprestige, Sat 4th Jan: 1st Wout van Aert, Visma-Lease a Bike, 1hr 01min 25sec; 2nd Eli Iserbyt, Pauwels Sauzen-Cibel Clementines, +10sec; 3rd Michael Vanthourenhout, Pauwels Sauzen-Cibel Clementines, +31sec.
- Gullegem, Women’s Superprestige, Sat 4th Jan: 1st Lucinda Brand, Baloise Glowi Lions, 44min 22sec; 2nd Zoe Bäckstedt, Canyon-SRAM, +06sec; 3rd Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, Fenix-Deceuninck, +06sec.
- Dendermonde, Men’s World Cup, Sun 5th Dec: 1st Wout van Aert, Visma-Lease a Bike, 1hr 02min 49sec; 2nd Emiel Verstrynge, Crelan-Corendon, +1min 20sec; 3rd Joran Wyseure, Crelan-Corendon, +1min 41sec.
- Dendermonde, Men’s World Cup, Sun 5th Dec: 1st Lucinda Brand, Baloise Glowi Lions, 55min 08sec; 2nd Puck Pieterse, Fenix-Deceuninck, +30sec; 3rd Fem van Empel, Visma-Lease a Bike, +41sec.
Two wins in two days for two riders
It’s been quite the start to 2025 for Lucinda Brand and Wout van Aert. A day after they won their respective races at Superprestige Gullegem in Belgium, the duo doubled up and won the World Cup race in Dendermonde.
Brand distanced her rivals on the last lap at Gullegem to take the win by six seconds ahead of Zoe Bäckstedt and Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado.
At the Dendermonde World Cup, Brand overtook Puck Pieterse on the second lap and stayed out front to take the victory and extend her lead in the World Cup standings. World Champion Fem van Empel completed the podium.
Masked Singer star Wout van Aert took victory in his second cyclocross race of the season at Gullegem, seeing off a strong challenge from Eli Iserbyt. Iserbyt’s teammate Michael Vanthourenhout placed third.
The Belgian went back-to-back in the mud at Dendermonde after distancing the field by lap four. Emiel Verstrynge and teammate Joran Wyseure were best of the rest.
Ten cyclists make the New Year Honours list
Ten Olympic and Paralympic cyclists were included in the New Year Honours list, receiving a mixture of MBEs (Member of the British Empire) and OBEs (Officer of the Order of the British Empire).
Tom Pidcock, who already has an MBE following his Olympic success in 2021, was given an OBE. Jaco van Gass, double gold medallist from the 2024 Paralympic Games, also received an OBE.
The Olympic sprint trio of Sophie Capewell, Emma Finucane and Katy Marchant were awarded MBEs following their blistering win in the team sprint. They followed this with a World Championships title in October to become the first British women’s sprint trio to win both in the same year.
Full list:
- Tom Pidcock: OBE
- Jaco van Gass: OBE
- Sophie Capewell: MBE
- Emma Finucane: MBE
- Fin Graham: MBE
- Jenny Holl: MBE
- Lizzi Jordan: MBE
- Danni Khan: MBE
- Katy Marchant: MBE
- Sophie Unwin: MBE
Purple is the new blue
More pro team kits are being revealed in the run up to the new season. Latest announcements include SD Worx-Protime, who have opted for a more purple vibe this year, as did Jayco-AlUla and Liv-AlUla-Jayco with their new Maap kit.
Not content with just a olive green kit alongside their regular blue, Fenix-Deceuninck women’s team has now added an orange, terracotta-esque colour as well, and will rotate between the three kits through the season.
Can’t wait to see what EF Education-EasyPost come up with…
See you next week.
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