'Prices have been fixed for several years'; cyclocross organizers did not have to negotiate extra for Van der Poel and Van Aert

Following on from Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert also announced his programme for the upcoming cyclo-cross winter on Monday. Both men will dive fully into the field over the Christmas period, which is set to lure huge extra crowds to the Belgian courses. Erwin Vervecken of organiser Golazo is understandably delighted with that.

So far, Van der Poel and Van Aert are set to meet five times in the field. The first clash will be in Antwerp, where Van Aert makes his comeback. After that, Hofstade, Loenhout, Mol and Zonhoven can also prepare for battles between the cyclo-cross titans.

Golazo organises the cyclo-cross races in Hofstade, Loenhout, Mol and Zonhoven. According to Vervecken, there is no big negotiation battle beforehand to lure the two stars. “The teams simply send over their calendars. There’s no negotiating over the fees either — those have been fixed for several years now,” the former rider told Sporza.

“They’re mainly looking for intensity to rev up the engine towards the spring. So they mostly pick out the races they enjoy,” notes Vervecken.

“Van Aert and Van der Poel are very welcome guests. People come out specifically for those duels. Hopefully they’ll be evenly matched and it will be very exciting. If we got a few sprint finishes, that would be fantastic.”

“That always brings extra people out. In Loenhout the place was bursting at the seams last year. We can see it in the ticket sales as well,” Vervecken says on behalf of Golazo.

What, then, does the former crosser expect from the two stars this winter? “Wout has had a good winter so far. The pressure came off earlier and he’s had a fairly stress-free build-up. A very good Wout and a very good Mathieu could serve up some beautiful duels.”