The new Cyclo-cross World Cup season opens on 27 November in Ostrava, Czechia. The course will run through the former industrial site of Dolní Vítkovice, putting the familiar grass and mud of cyclo-cross against steel structures and floodlights. Organisers plan it as the season’s only round in which the elite races take place entirely after dark.
Friday’s programme schedules the elite women for 18:15 and the elite men for 19:45, both local time. Junior races take place at the same venue on Thursday, 26 November, with free admission for spectators. Across the two days, visitors can watch emerging riders before the World Cup’s headline races begin.
Ostrava starts a twelve-round series that moves to another Czech city, Tábor, on 29 November. That opening gives fans two contrasting courses within a few days: an industrial evening setting in Ostrava and the next stop in Tábor. In cyclo-cross, changing surfaces and obstacles repeatedly alter a rider’s rhythm; here the light and the unusual setting will add another dimension to the racing.