Yesterday the eleventh round of the World Cup was held in Rucphen, the Netherlands. Let me stress from the outset that cycling mega-star Mathieu van der Poel, whose participation had been announced, was unable to race due to injury. That, together with the fact that another super rider, Wout van Aert, is skipping this weekend altogether, evened out the riders’ chances considerably, and all nine laps of the men’s race proved extremely tense from start to finish.
Worldcup Cyclocross Rucphen 2021 – Coppa del Mondo di Ciclocross 2022 – Rucphen – 18/12/2021 – Eli Iserbyt (BEL) – photo Tim van Wichelen/CV/BettiniPhoto©2021
In these circumstances, first fiddle in the race was played by Belgium’s Eli Iserbyt, winner of five of the previous ten rounds and, accordingly, the overall World Cup leader by a wide margin. However, at the double barriers near the finish he was overtaken by Britain’s great hope, Tom Pidcock, who went on to claim a historic victory.
Worldcup Cyclocross Rucphen 2021 – Coppa del Mondo di Ciclocross 2022 – Rucphen – 18/12/2021 – Thomas Tom Pidcock (GBR – Team INEOS Grenadiers) – photo Tim van Wichelen/CV/BettiniPhoto©2021
As a reminder, Tom Pidcock is the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion in another cycling discipline: there he had already made history in mountain bike cross-country (XCO).
Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games – Olimpiadi Tokyo 2020 – Mens MTB Race – Izu Mountain Bike Course 41km – 26/07/2021 – Thomas Pidcock (GBR) – photo Luca Bettini/BettiniPhoto©2021
It seems Tom has developed a taste for making history, and in Rucphen he added a brilliant new chapter to his own sporting history and that of his country:
This is the first-ever cyclocross World Cup round victory both for him personally and for Great Britain!
Worldcup Cyclocross Rucphen 2021 – Coppa del Mondo di Ciclocross 2022 – Rucphen – 18/12/2021 – Thomas Tom Pidcock (GBR – Team INEOS Grenadiers) – photo Tim van Wichelen/CV/BettiniPhoto©2021
Featured image: ROBERTO and LUCA BETTINI/www.bettiniphoto.net
Inside post thumbnail image: ROBERTO and LUCA BETTINI/www.bettiniphoto.net
Special thanks to the Italian photographers ROBERTO and LUCA BETTINI for permission to use their watermarked works in our publications.
Glasgow, Zurich, Kigali and Montreal! Remco Evenepoel has shattered everything [...]
September 22, 2026
The 273-kilometer meat grinder of Montreal became a triumph of [...]
September 28, 2026
When Giancarlo Brocci, an Italian hopelessly in love with the [...]
March 10, 2019
