Three-time elite cyclocross world champion Mathieu van der Poel will make his debut on the cross circuit this weekend with the X²0 badkamers Trofee-Scheldecross in Antwerpen on Saturday and the Telenet in Gavère on Sunday. Superprestige in Antwerpen on Saturday and Telenet in Gavel on Sunday, will make their 2020-21 season debuts on the cross circuit.

Wielerflits reports that Van der Pol has nine races scheduled until the UCI Cyclocross World Championships in Oostende at the end of January. He will compete in the Superprestige in Zolder the day after Christmas and the GP Sven Nys in Baar on the first day of the new year, but the remaining three World Cups are missing from the lineup. He won all five World Cups he competed in last season and all six the year before.

The weekend of January 9-10 will feature 12 national championship tournaments in European countries, including Van der Pol, where the Dutch will be seeking their seventh consecutive title.

The decisive battle with rival Wout van Aert will have to wait two more weeks. Wieler Fritz reports that the Jumbo Wisma rider is in Spain training with the road team and is not expected to be on the cross start line again until the next World Cup in Namur on December 20.

Last weekend, Van Aert finished third in both the X²O Budkamers Trophy in Kortrijk and the World Cup opener in Tabor. He will face Van der Pol in the next three races, including Namur, Hellenthal, and Baar, but they may not meet again until the World Championships on January 31.

Van der Poel and Van Aert have shared the elite men's cyclocross world title six times in the past. Last year, Van der Poel won his third elite world championship in cyclocross in February, while Van Aert finished fourth, one spot off the podium.

The rivalry between the two, which Van der Poel downplayed, moved to the road this season: when Van Aert won his first monument in Milan-San Remo in August, Van der Poel responded by winning the Tour of Flanders in October.