Van Aert, Van der Poel Head Up Impressive Jingle Cross Start List, Hyde Leads 17 Americans

Last year, Wout van Aert turned in a dominant performance at the Jingle Cross World Cup, overcoming a broken toe and a dropped chain to win the inaugural Iowa City World Cup. However, Mathieu van der Poel’s absence left fans feeling they maybe missed out on the opportunity to see one of the famed “beautiful duels” between Van Aert and his rival Mathieu van der Poel, who did not make the trip.

In 2017, U.S. cyclocross fans will certainly get their money’s worth from the Jingle Cross World Cup with Van der Poel deciding to give U.S. fans what they want this year. With Iowa City and Waterloo just three hours apart, the easier logistics of the Midwest World Cups have brought the Europeans over to the United States en masse.

Leaving for the US of A 🇺🇸✈️ pic.twitter.com/roqZrstU2F

— Marlux-NapoleonGames (@MAR_NAPG_CT) September 12, 2017

Van Aert and Van der Poel head up an impressive Jingle Cross start list that includes the top 11 riders in the UCI rankings and 16 of the top 20. Not surprisingly, 11 of those 16 are Belgians, including Van Aert, fan favorite Kevin Pauwels, European champion Toon Aerts and young star Laurens Sweeck, who had an impressive ride in Iowa City last year. The Dutch contingent is headed up by Van der Poel, Corne van Kessel and Lars van der Haar, who missed the U.S. World Cups in 2016 because of an injury.

The 17-rider U.S. contingent is headed up defending national champion—and winner in the Rochester Cyclocross C1—Stephen Hyde. Hyde will be joined by Sunday’s Rochester winner Kerry Werner, Jamey Driscoll, Jeremy Powers, Tobin Ortenblad and a host of young riders led by Spencer Petrov. Michael van den Ham heads up a group of five Canadians, Ian Field will be representing Great Britain and Garry Millburn, who won one of the days at the Fields of Joy UCI race in Australia last month, is making the trip to the U.S. from Down Under.

See below for the full start list. Stay tuned to Cyclocross Magazine for full coverage of the Jingle Cross Festival and World Cup beginning on Friday.

Men's Start List - 2017 Jingle Cross World Cup