Photographer Balint Hamvas has snapped the world’s best riders at venues all over the cyclo-cross world.

He told RCUK what we can expect from this year’s courses, and the non-World Cup events which will also increase the extreme demands of cyclo-cross’s best.

He said: “The most challenging course will be Namur, in Belgium, where the fourth World Cup event is held. It’s similar to the Koppenbergcross in that both courses feature a lot of climbing, a lot more than your usual cyclo-cross courses, and both are infamous for their treacherous descents. There are also going to be quite a few sandpits to negotiate during the season, but Koksijde on November 23 will be the worst. It is so long that most riders simply can’t even dream about riding through it all.

“With the exception of Namur and Koksijde, the remaining courses are fairly straightforward, not particularly technical or challenging. Valkenburg is an unknown quantity at the moment, but it seems that the courses, in general, don’t necessarily favour riders with great technical skills. That being said, an ugly, rainy day can cause a lot of headaches at the Zolder and who knows what Valkenburg on Sunday will be like.

“Of course, half of the World Cup rounds this year are in Belgium, which at the moment might seem unfair, but the reality of the sport is that this is the only country where the sport can get a lot of people involved and where you can guarantee huge crowds. The sport is only growing dynamically in the US and in the UK, but in both of those countries the ‘cross community is not big enough to foot the bill of a World Cup – yet! Hopefully, that will change in a few years.

“Other courses, outside of the World Cup events, that I’m looking forward to visiting are the Asper-Gavere, which also hosts a Superprestige event, and Overijse – a one-day classic in early December. The Asper-Gavere course is fairly hilly, very technical and the surroundings of the race are wonderful. Overijse is one of the oldest cross races and there is an impossible switchback half-way in which always proves to be very spectacular. And my other favourite sandy course is Zonhoven, which will host a Superprestige event at the start of November – the sandy arena always delivers carnage in epic proportions as riders bomb down the steep hill in almost knee-deep sand!”