While the top American cyclocross racers will be in Lakewood, Washington, this weekend for the National Championships, it will be a busy weekend for European racers with Saturday's Hotondcross and Sunday's Vlaamse Druivencross. The racing will be as usual.

Last weekend, the Telenet Baloise Lions duo of Quentin Hellmans and Toon Arts dominated the competition in the absence of Van der Poel at the Essen Ethiascross and Sonnhofen Superprestige, respectively.

Eli Iserbyt continues to lead his teammate Michal Vanhollenhout by 2:10 in the overall men's standings of the DVV Trophy (calculated by overall time), but there has been a crack in their relationship in recent weeks, with Vanhollenhout 35 seconds further back in third place Lars Van der Haar (Telenet Baloise Lions) could be on the way.

On the DVV Trophy website, Vandhollenhout called Saturday's Hotondcross in Ronse "one of the toughest races of the season."

He also does not hold back about the fact that he still has four races left in this weekend's DVV Trophy and is trying to close the time gap with his teammate Iserbeath: the two-minute time difference is significant, but there are still a few "crosses" where he can make a difference. Saturday's race is one of them, and we may be able to make up some time there."

In the women's DVV Trophy, Annemarie Worst leads her 777 teammate Yara Castellain by just six seconds, while Ceylin del Carmen Alavarado (Corendon Circus) is another 1:16 behind the European champion.

Following Saturday's DVV Trophy, the Vlaamse Druivencross in Ovaleise, just over an hour's drive southeast of Brussels, will feature Van der Poel, Hermans, Van der Haar, Yzerbeet, and last year's winner, Arts and other big names will participate in the men's event.

In the women's event will be Alvarado, Castellaine, Worst, world champion Sanne Canto (IKO-Crelan), and Lucinda Brand (Sunweb), who won last year over retired British rider Nicky Brammeier.