Druivencross

The Druivencross is a cyclocross race in Overijse, Belgium, on record since 1960 and nicknamed the mother of all crosses. The course is hilly and partly cobbled. A Superprestige round again since 2023, it was raced in late October in 2024 and 2025.

The mother of all crosses, raced in Overijse since 1960

Overijse lies in the south of Flanders, and its cyclocross race is one of the oldest on the calendar. Pierre Kumps won the first edition on record, in 1960. The race goes by the nickname the mother of all crosses. The druiven of the name are grapes: the town also has the Druivenkoers, a road race tied to its grape festival, the Druivenfeesten.

From the mid-1970s to 1988 the race was run twice a season, and that is how Roland Liboton could win it 15 times between 1978 and 1987: in five of those winters he took both races. Before Liboton, Erik De Vlaeminck had won nine times and Roger De Vlaeminck six. The women came much later: their first race on record was held on December 23, 2001. Daphny van den Brand won it and three of the next five; the winners list has no women’s winner for 2008, 2009 and 2010.

A Superprestige round in the 1990s, the Druivencross was a World Cup round three times in 2021 and 2022 and came back to the Superprestige in 2023.

Sven Nys’s six wins on the hills of Overijse

The course is hilly and partly cobbled, and no rider since Liboton has won on it more often than Sven Nys, six times between 2004 and 2013. In 2006 Nys had a lead of a minute after six laps. Then his chain broke on the climb of the Tenotsberg. “I knew my chain was damaged and realised I needed to climb that hill with as little power as possible,” he said afterwards. He ran the rest of the hill, rode the descent on the broken bike and took a new one in the pit.

In 2011 one climb had forced riders to dismount all day. With three laps to go Tom Meeusen rode it; Nys ran, stayed with him, and the others were distanced. Nys later attacked on the climb again, left Bart Aernouts behind and won alone.

Two years later four riders started the last lap together. Nys surprised Lars van der Haar on the technical downhill on the last part of the course and won by a second, his fourth win in a row.

The kick that cost Bart Wellens the 2005 race

In December 2005 Bart Wellens won in Overijse after Lars Boom slid out on the final lap. During the race Wellens had thrown a kick at a spectator. He said afterwards that mud and beer had been thrown at him for four laps. The jury let him keep the win that day. After the UCI had met with the three race commissaires Wellens was disqualified, and the win went to Boom. Wellens was also suspended for the opening month of the 2006-2007 season.

The year the World Cup came to Overijse twice

On January 24, 2021, Overijse was the final stop of the 2020-2021 World Cup, six days before the world championships. Mathieu van der Poel had a flat tire early in the men’s race, and Wout van Aert was nearly 30 seconds ahead by the time Van der Poel had a fresh bike from the pit. Van der Poel closed to within 10 seconds, lost ground again when his rear tire slipped on an uphill, and a crash ended the chase. Van Aert won by about a minute and took the World Cup overall for the third time.

In the women’s race that day Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado went to the front at the top of the climb on the final lap and rode the descent ahead of Lucinda Brand, who had wrapped up the series before the start. The World Cup came back to Overijse on October 31 of the same year, when Eli Iserbyt and Kata Blanka Vas won.

Two women’s races decided just before the finish straight

In 2025 Sara Casasola and Lucinda Brand had been together at the front since the second lap, and nothing separated them as the final lap approached. Just before the finish straight Brand caught her arm on a wooden post and came down hard. Casasola rode the last lap alone and won by 28 seconds.

In 2013 Sanne Cant climbed away from Katie Compton at the start of the final lap. Compton recovered on the descent, waited for the last corner to accelerate and passed Cant in the closing turns before the finish straight. It was Compton’s third win in Overijse in three years.