The 2024 Cyclocross World Championship is just a few weeks away! The world's fastest 'cross riders will tackle a challenging course in Tábor, Czech Republic (Czechia) on February 2-4, 2024. Let's preview the course, review your options for live stream race coverage, and meet the favored riders.
When and where is the 2024 Cyclocross World Championship?
The 2024 Cyclocross World Championship takes place in Tábor, Czech Republic, starting Friday, February 2, 2024 and ending on Sunday, February 4, 2024.
Events are spread across a 3 day period:
- Team Relay on Friday, February 2
- Junior Women, Men U23, and Elite Women on February 3
- Junior Men, U23 Women, and Elite Men on February 4
How to stream the 2024 Cyclocross World Championship
For visitors in the USA, FloBikes is the live streaming provider for the 2024 Cyclocross World Championships. FloBikes is a subscription service that costs $149.99 annually. Read my review of the FloBikes service.
With GCN+ ending their subscription service at the end of 2023, FloBikes is now the primary way to watch cyclocross in the United States. In addition to the 2024 Cyclocross World Championship, FloBikes has also acquired the streaming rights to some content that was previously on GCN+, including the X²O Badkamers Trophy and Superprestige series. Flo also has the rights to the UCI Cyclocross World Cup series as well.
Course preview
Here's the course map of Tábor for the 2024 Cyclocross World Championship:
Weather
It's currently 30 °F in Tábor and the various webcams show a little bit of snow accumulation. Keep a close eye on the forecast as race day approaches.
The 2024 Cyclocross World Championship will be only the latest in a long line of racing at Tábor. Czechia's national championship was just held on the same course as a tune-up, and many memorable races have already occured here in the past.
Here's some highlights of the 2010 World Championship in Tábor with snow and frozen ruts:
Riders to watch and predictions
A discuss of riders to watch must begin with who ISN'T racing. There are two riders capable of winning who have already announced they will not start - Wout van Aert prefers to spend his Winter preparing for the upcoming road season, with a special focus on the Spring Classics like Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders. Tom Pidcock is another former World Champion in cyclocross who will not start in Tábor.
That makes Mathieu van der Poel the overwhelming favorite for Gold on the men's side. At the time of this writing, he's currently riding a 10 race winning streak and has been dominant thus far in the 2023/24 season.
Other riders to watch:
- Eli Iserbyt, the newly crowned Belgian National Champion
- Michael Vanthourenhout, the European Champion
- Cameron Mason, the new British National Champion
- Thibau Nys, Pim Ronhaar, Lars Van der Haar, and Joris Nieuwenhuis are some of the other riders who have stood on the top step in the major series this year
- Finally, Zdeněk Štybar will end his legendary career, announcing that his hometown race in Tábor will be the final of his career
On the Elite Women's side, Fem van Empel was the class of the early season and dominated. Still strong, she's looked more beatable recently, but still outdistances everyone except for her strongest competitors.
Those are Lucinda Brand, Puck Pieterse, and Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado. It's hard to imagine anyone not on that list having a real shot.
- Brand looks great, winning the weekend after she broke her nose in a horrific crash
- Alvarado is nursing a back injury, which could impact her performance
- Pieterse, meanwhile, has 4 wins already this season, plus a bunch of 2nd and 3rd place finishes
This could be a great battle if the course turns into a frozen, muddy, icy, snowy mess, with Pieterse's bike-handling skills and Brand's straight line road power putting van Empel to the test.
Tickets
For those lucky enough to be able to watch in person, tickets are available on the official website.
Just curious? A 3 day ticket is 38 Euros, while single-day tickets are 15-23 Euros. That's about $40 and $25 USD, respectively. Not bad for a world-class event.