The new round of the DVV Trofee series in Kortrijk, Belgium on Saturday will bring together some of the world's best cyclocross riders. In the elite men's race, Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus) will look to extend his unbeaten record to 33 wins, while in the women's race, Yara Kastelijn of 777 will look to defend her overall lead.

After two rounds, Pauwel Soutzen Bingor's Eli Yzerbit leads the elite men by 1:54 and European champion Kastelijn by 4 seconds.

Unusually compared to the World Cup and Super Prestige Series, the overall standings after each round of the DVV Trophy are calculated on the overall time of the riders, as in the Tour de France.

Van der Pol is the defending champion as far as the Belgian series is concerned, winning the overall again in the 2017/18 season. The last three years have all been won by Wout van Aert, who has not yet returned to cyclocross this winter as he is still recovering from his crash at the Tour de France.

Iserbitt will have to get the job done against a dominant force in the discipline, but van der Pol missed the series opener, the Coppenberg Cross, before winning the second round in Hamme.

Missing just one of the eight rounds of the series would have put his hopes of finishing at the top of the overall standings in the series in jeopardy. However, missing the final round of the DVV Trophy in Lille on February 8 is next to impossible, as van der Pol has announced that he will end his cross season after the World Championships on February 2, 2020.

On paper, Van der Pol should win in Kortrijk on Saturday, but the world champion is currently 3:55 behind, and of more concern for Iserbeet in this competition is his closest overall rival, Telenet Baloise Lions' Lars van der Haar would be. At last weekend's World Cup Round 4 in Tabor, Czech Republic, he finished fourth behind Van der Pol, Iserbeet, and Van der Haar.

While these four are clearly the dominant force in the men's events, the women's competition is more open.

Castelline took the lead in the first round of the series, and teammate Annemarie Worst also won a close race in Hamm's Flandrien Cross, so it is to the team's advantage to be four seconds ahead of the two 777 riders, but Clairfin Fristadz's Eva Lechner is only 1:23 behind and Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Corendon Circus) is only another 14 seconds behind.

More recently, Worst took the lead over Alvarado and Castellin in last week's World Cup, and world champion Sanne Canto (IKO-Crelan) seems to be back to her best after returning from injury. Saturday should be an exciting race.

Kortrijk is located in the heart of the Belgian Classics, with Coone next door, Wevelgem to the southwest, and Roubaix across the border in France.

The new race takes place in the center of town and is aptly named Urban Cross. The route crosses the Reyer River several times, so the battles between riders such as Van der Pol, Iserbyt, Castellaine, Canto, and Worst should be TV-worthy.

This article has been amended to state that riders who miss a round of the DVV Trophy will be assessed a five-minute time deficit and that Van der Pol will miss the final round in Lille on February 8.