The biggest names are skipping the Superprestige cross in Gullegem on January 3, 2026, during the busy Christmas period, so the organization tried to pull off a major stunt. They reached out to the management of Tadej Pogacar, hoping to bring the road world champion to their race. However, he turned out to be unavailable.
"At one point, we realized that Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel, and Thibau Nys were all unable to come to Gullegem. In other words, we were missing a real marquee name. A top rider that would draw the crowd," organizer Stijn Tant explained to our website. "So we tried to be creative. That’s what we always do in cyclocross: think beyond the usual."
Cyclocross Background
"We asked ourselves: who else still does cyclocross? Then we landed on Tadej Pogacar. Not that he has done many cyclocross races, but still," the organizer said. The Slovenian Tour winner crowned himself Slovenian national champion in 2019 and raced national cyclocross events in Ljubljana early 2022 and 2023, but has never competed in our region’s cyclocross races.
"You can bury your head in the sand, or try to make it work," Tant says. "We had a decent budget for it. An amount of money that we felt was representative for someone like Tadej. We made contact with his manager, Alex Carera. But from that conversation, it became clear he is at a training camp in Spain and that participation was unfortunately not possible."
However, Van Aert was the best in Gullegem - photo: Cor Vos
Neither the manager nor Pogacar himself seriously considered the offer. "Money doesn’t matter for those kinds of athletes. The choices for Tadej are made based on his training program. That’s actually the case for most riders, we’ve noticed. We also hear from Wout and Mathieu that they only think: what fits best into my program? For example, Van Aert doesn’t do three days of cross in a row."
The organizers now have to take a different approach. "We can’t really call it a disappointment that Pogacar isn’t coming. The idea was: you have a 'no,' you can get a 'yes.' But it is what it is, and we’ve switched gears. We still have the top of the Superprestige ranking in Gullegem."
Atmosphere
"Besides that, we’re focusing on the atmosphere," Tant says. "We’re also trying to be a bit different than the others in that respect. For example, we’re opening our own 'Kuhstall,' where we bring together the worlds of cyclocross and après-ski. We’ve built a hut on the field, like you see in ski resorts such as Val Thorens. We can be proud of that."
Furthermore, Tant hopes to bring the focus back to sporting aspects in the coming years. "Especially since we are also a race that invests in grassroots sport. We’ve organized a sports camp for 70 children, we do fat tire races in the area. We try to go beyond just our race itself. And then it’s a shame if we can’t be top-class due to the absence of the best riders."
| Year | Winner |
|---|---|
| 2025 |  Wout van Aert |
| 2024 | Michael Vanthourenhout |
| 2023 | Wout van Aert |
| 2022 |  Tom Pidcock |
| 2021 |  Mathieu van der Poel |
| 2020 | Mathieu van der Poel |
| 2019 | Mathieu van der Poel |
