The storm last week threw a spanner in the workds at the fourth round of the World Cup in Koksijde whose cancellation suddenly gave Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel a race weekend off. On Saturday and Sunday, they will be back for two races in a row, beginning with the World Cup in the German city of Zeven.

After an absence of thirteen years, the World Cup will be back in Germany. The riders will find a course which has been designed by Belgian hands as the organizers of the Poldercross in Kruibeke have made their expertise available.

"It will be a tough race," Bram De Brauwer of the organizing committee tells Het Nieuwsblad. "At first sight it looks like a fast, fairly flat course, but make no mistake: there are a lot of difficult and technically demanding sections. In the rear end of the site, there is a hill which will be climbed three times, there will be bars in the course and several small dams which will give the riders some deceptively steep sections. That will certainly destroy the momentum a bit, because as it looks now, it will be muddy.”

Wout van Aert has won two World Cups while Mathieu van der Poel took the victory in Valkenburg after his injury forced him to miss the first two rounds. Van Aert leads comfortably in the standings with 230 points. Laurens Sweeck is in second place with 174 points.

There will be no time to rest as the Flandriencross in Hamme, the third round of the DVV Trofee, will be held on Sunday.