Zeddam in the Netherlands will host the European cyclo-cross championships on 7 and 8 November, twenty years after staging the world championships. The lap will measure 2.97 kilometres. Its designers have kept a connection to the 2006 course while adapting it for today’s racing.
A key feature this time will be Zeddam’s rebuilt staircase: roughly one hundred steps, three metres wide and fifty metres long. A new sixty-metre riders’ bridge will also carry the course past the windmill. The staircase was too narrow to feature in the world championship route twenty years ago.
Erwin Vervecken designed the new course; he won one of his world titles in Zeddam in 2006. Saturday’s programme includes junior women, under-23 men and elite women, while junior men, under-23 women and elite men race on Sunday. The venue will connect a memorable chapter of cyclo-cross history with a new generation of riders.