2018 Pre-Season European Power Rankings

Soete is a name on this list few may be familiar with. He’s a young rider on the rise and, most notably, finished third at Belgian Nationals last season. He’s inconsistent, but improving, so expect to see him in the top-ten a lot more this year.

If you don’t know who Iserbyt is, get familiar with his name. Over the next few years, he will be a regular in the front group of some of the sports biggest races. At 21 years old, he’s still a U23, but will probably be seen in more Elite races this year. He only participated in two Elite World Cups last year (both in the US), where he finished 11th and 26th. However, he is the U23 World Champion, Continental Champion, and racked up 11 wins, five second places and one third place finish last season. This makes him a true threat to the Elites and should he jump up sooner, he will be a top-ten regular.

Van Kessel may be a bit of an unknown to the more casual fan. He’s a Belgian who races a lot in Switzerland and travels to smaller races. While he does participate in some of the bigger races on the calendar, he’s not consistent enough to be considered a regular threat. With that said, he should improve on his top-ten finishes at the larger races and be in contention for a few top-fives.

Last year Hermans stepped up to the elite ranks and found great success. He had six top-ten finishes in the World Cup, several podiums at smaller races, and picked up a C1 win at the EKZ CrossTour. As a result, he should continue to be a factor in major races and land on a podium or two at some of the bigger races.

After a stellar U23 career, van der Haar’s jump to the elite ranks has seen some setbacks. Last year, things started to come around for the Dutchman. Last year he was second at nationals and the Continental Championships as well as fifth at Worlds. He is constantly in the mix and had several top five finishes last year. He should be in contention for, and on, several podiums this season.

Sweeck had a great season last year that included four wins and a second place at Belgian Nationals. He was on the podium multiple times and had dozens of top-ten finishes. As with many on the list, he should be a podium threat every times he races this season. More importantly, he should pick up one or two big wins as he continues to climb to the top.

If you only watched worlds last year, you would know Vanthourenhout by his impressive second place performance. A rider who excels in the mud, Vanthourenhout is quickly becoming a podium contender. He only had one non top-ten finish (Diegem), which is somewhat of an anomaly of a race as it takes place at night and on and off city streets.

It may be fair to call Aerts the second best Belgian in cross. He has slowly risen through the ranks and this year should be a podium contender at virtually every race. He was fourth at Worlds last year; just getting beat by home favorite Mathieu van der Poel. He was third at the European Championships and fourth at Belgian Nationals. The most impressive stat: he only had one non top-ten finish where he was 11th at Koksijde.

The defending World Champion seems to rise to the occasion when it matters. He tends to do better in mud, which seemed few and far between last season. While van der Poel dominated the victory column, van Aert only finished of the podium four times last season. Much like van der Poel, van Aert branched out this “offseason” picking up a 9th in the Tour of Flanders, 13th at Paris-Roubaix, 3rd at Strade Bianche, 10th at Gent Wevelgem and the overall at the Tour of Denmark. It will be interesting to see if his summer form helps, our hurts, the Belgian.

The clear favorite going into this season, van der Poel can seemingly do it all. While he missed out on the rainbow stripes last year, his season was impressive. He had 30 plus victories and took the overall in the DVV Trofee, Superprestige, World Cup and UCI ranking. This may sound like the stats of a now retired Belgian, but van der Poel simply dominated last year. Not to mention his “offseason” where he wont two more national titles in mountain biking and road racing.