Sanne Cant had time when she entered the home stretch in Lille. In the previous forty minutes she had set a considerable space between herself and Ellen van Loy and Loes Sels on her home circuit at the Belgian Championships. Such a considerable space that she could thank the spectators with a smile for their support, get off her bike, lift her new Super Prestige Disc up in the air, kiss the frame and only then continued riding the last meters to the finish line.

It already is the tenth national cross championship in a row that Sanne Cant of Enertherm-BKCP won. She still rode a Super Prestige with cantilever brakes when she won the European Championship in November. Only mid-December she changed to a Super Prestige Disc with hydraulic disc brakes and she likes them: “It is really different than cantilevers but I really like it. The first two races it was not easy, but now I know how to ride with it and I love it.”

In the Netherlands Mathieu van der Poel of BKCP-Corendon defended his championship title. The world champion fought a thrilling duel with Lars van der Haar. In the end only two seconds made the difference. After a fast start of the world champion at first only van der Haar could keep the speed on the technically demanding course, later Corne van Kessel and Mathieus brother David joined them.

Van der Haar used an interim low of van der Poel to tear a gap of 15 seconds. “Luckily I recovered again and gained the lead on the last few rounds”, van der Poel said after the race, and “I still feel the training camp in Spain in my legs. I hope it will pay in the upcoming weeks.” The training load of several trainings per day normally makes itself felt in a positive way after two to three weeks only. Then, at the end of January, the cross World Championships in Zolder will take place.

Van der Poel's family will keep the Dutch Championship in mind as something special, as Mathieu stood on the podium next to his younger brother who finished third. European Champion Lars van der Haar won silver. Dad Adrie van der Poel tweeted the following day: “I had to sleep it over first in order to realize what it means to see both your sons on the podium.”

In the junior race in the Netherlands Jens Dekker of Enertherm-BKCP showed his special status and sovereignly won the Dutch Championship after winning the European Championship before already. His fiercest competitor was team mate Jappe Jaspers from Belgium. He finished third ahead of Seppe Rombouts. Jasper's team mate Toon Vandebosch came in third in the sprint for the places. In the men's race Laurens Sweek of ERA-Murprotec rode a very good race in the Elite peloton. He only had to surrender to this season's serial winner, Wout van Aert.

“The start was decisive. As expected the race started at a very high speed and I had a good start which was good as I made some mistakes because of the high speed later on.” The fast circuit suited the 2015 Wold Championship runner-up in the U23 category, therefore he only had to let go van Aert in the fourth round and took advantage of riding error of Sven Nys.

At the Czech Championships STEVENS could not be overlooked. The new Czech Champion is Radomir Simunek, teammate of Laurens Sweek. He finished ten seconds ahead of Michael Boros and 20 seconds ahead of Adam Toupalik (both BKCP-Corendon) who had won the race the previous year. “The course wasn't very difficult, but you had to watch out for icy and muddy passages.” With this victory Radomier Simunek set his name on the roll of honor on which his dad is as well as four time Czech Champion.

In Switzerland Julien Taramarcaz was defeated by mountainbiker Lars Forster on the last round. “Of course I am disappointed to have lost the jersey”, said Taramarcaz after the race, “I gave my best the whole time. If this is not enough, you'll have to put up with the consequences.”

Philipp Walsleben retrieved his jersey at the German Championships in Vechta which he had already worn in 2014. Jessica Lambracht and Lisa Heckmann of STEVENS Racing Team won the silver and bronze medals in the women's Elite race. In the men's junior race Max Lindenau was narrowly defeated by Felix Drumm, Yannick Gruner finished third.

Marceli Boguslawski celebrated the biggest success of his cross career with a second place in the Polish Elite field on Super Prestige. Sara Yusto presented herself as happy winner of the bronze medal of the women's junior race in Spain. And in the United States Karen Brems won again the Master category race in the United States on STEVENS Super Prestige as well as Karen Tripp (Masters 55-59 years).