UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup – Namur

The UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup round in Namur, Belgium, is the Citadelcross, a cyclocross race on the citadel that towers over the city and the Meuse. First held in October 2009, it joined the World Cup in December 2011, and every World Cup round here up to 2025 was raced in December. The course is known for its steep climbs, its cobbles and a rutted off-camber section.

Why the off-camber on the citadel decides the race

Namur is the capital of Wallonia, and its citadel towers over the Meuse and the city below. The citadel dates back to 937 and took its present form in the 17th century. The cyclocross race on it is much younger: it was first held in 2009.

In 2015 the field went up a cobbled climb straight from the start, and the rest of the lap goes up and down the hill. There are drops through the woods and climbs so steep that riders choose between pedaling and running. The best-known part of the lap is the off-camber, a rutted stretch where the course runs across the slope and the ground falls away to one side. In 2011, with heavy mud on the course, Tom Meeusen rode the whole section on the first lap and came out of it leading the race. In 2021 Erwin Vervecken moved the section ten feet up the hill, about three meters, to get away from the grooves of the years before. The British rider Helen Wyman said in 2016 that Namur is the most difficult course in the World Cup.

When did Namur join the World Cup?

The first two editions opened the Gazet van Antwerpen Trofee, on October 10, 2009, and October 3, 2010. Niels Albert and Daphny van den Brand won the first, Zdeněk Štybar and Sanne van Paassen the second. For the 2011-12 season Namur was given a place in the World Cup, and the race moved to December. On December 18, 2011, in heavy mud, Sven Nys recovered from two flat tires and beat Albert in the last few hundred meters.

Every World Cup round here up to 2025 was raced in December, and one winter is missing from the list. In 2022 the citadel held the European Championships on November 5 and 6, and Namur was left off the World Cup calendar for that season. Fem van Empel won the women’s European title on the first day, and Michael Vanthourenhout, winner of the World Cup round in 2021, won the men’s on the second. The organizer numbers the World Cup rounds only: the race of December 14, 2025, was the 14th.

Mathieu van der Poel’s six wins in Namur

Mathieu van der Poel won here for the first time in 2015 and for the sixth time in 2025. His second win, on December 18, 2016, shows what the off-camber does to a race. Wout van Aert, the world champion, slipped there on the first lap and went over his handlebars there on the second. Halfway through the race he caught his handlebars on the fence at the bottom of a descent. Each time he rode back to Van der Poel, and the two started the last lap together. Then Van der Poel rode the off-camber cleanly, powered up one of the steep climbs and was gone. “I felt that my legs weren’t good enough to ride the whole hour by myself,” he said afterward.

On December 20, 2020, Tom Pidcock led for most of the race and had 11 seconds with three laps to go. Van der Poel and Van Aert caught him on a climb that Pidcock rode and they ran. On the next-to-last lap Van der Poel went to the front on a long dirt climb and gapped them both; Van Aert finished second and Pidcock third. Van der Poel did not race in Namur again until December 14, 2025, his first cyclocross race of that winter. He crashed 20 minutes in, got back to the front and rode away on the last lap, when Thibau Nys crashed.

Lucinda Brand’s five wins on the citadel

Lucinda Brand won the women’s race four years running, from 2018 to 2021. In the last of those, on December 19, 2021, Denise Betsema sat 15 seconds behind her from the third lap to the sixth and last, one big mistake by Brand away from the lead. The mistake did not come.

Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado won the next two World Cup rounds here, in 2023 and 2024. In 2024, on a muddy course, she crashed on the last lap and held on to win by six seconds from Brand. A year later Brand, 36 by then, took the lead after five minutes. A puncture in the middle of the race led to a crash, and she won alone all the same, her fifth win in Namur.