Cyclocross team ERA-Circus enters the 2017-18 season featuring six Elite, three youth riders and U-23 World Champion Annemarie Worst and their weapon of choice the STEVENS Super Prestige. At last Friday’s presentation the team’s management lead by Marc Herremans especially welcomed new members Wietse Bosmans, Annemarie Worst and youth rider Timo Kielich. Yet, last season’s most successful rider Laurens Sweeck still will be the team’s ace up the sleeve for the upcoming winter.

Thanks to his crowd-pleasing powerful riding style, Laurens Sweeck can look back on a very successful season with two victories, 13 podium placings and a fourth rank in the World Cup overall classification. In the upcoming races he wants to tease the two top riders in the field, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert, a little more:

”Last year I was able to catch up to these guys in the finale a couple of times but then I could not muster the decisive one or two percent to beat them.” A good road racing season including a win in the 200km-long Grand Prix Jean-Pierre Monseré (UCI 1.1) in Belgium aboard a STEVENS Ventoux built a solid base for that.

In the races he plans to attack from the front right after the start and to race a consistently good season. He might enter a few races in November to build the form for the second half of the season and the championship races.

The first female rider of Team ERA-Circus is one of the greatest talents in cyclocross. Annemarie Worst excelled by finishing third in the Hoogerheide World Cup race and becoming U-23 World Champion just one week later. ”I want to improve even further and I’m looking forward to how I will be able to adapt to the race calendar.” In the upcoming season there will be 20 to 25 races about twice as many as last year, the 21-year old said.

Last year the Dutch national mostly raced cross country mountain bike circuits. Last summer she also drew attention competing in World Cup races aboard her STEVENS Sonora SL. For the ’cross season she wants to attain some good results, especially in Hoogerheide whose course suits her very well. ”Of course I’ll do everything necessary to be nominated for the World Championships in my home country in Valkenburg.”

Wietse Bosmans also spent the summer season racing on a STEVENS Sonora SL and managed to reach good results after having started from way behind.

Hendrik Sweeck and Yorben van Tichelt have won the first races for ERA-Circus. Hendrik won the season opener in Steenhuffel where he had started from the back of the field and it took him 20 minutes to reach the front and eventually dominate the race.

Last Sunday Yorben raced to his second victory plus a lot of UCI points in the Qiansen Trophy (UCI C1) in Beijing/China. At first, because of the hot and humid weather he had not been sure to reach the top five. This feeling changed, though, during the course of the race.

Team manager Marc Herremans showed confidence in the team’s line-up: ”We can achieve good results in all categories – Men’s Elite, Women’s Elite and Men’s and Women’s U23.” He even expects Laurens Sweeck to compete well on a weekly basis, since he had become stronger over the summer.

And Diether Sweeck, Wietse Bosmans as well as Yorben van Tichelt and Hendrick Sweeck were all candidates for further top placings. Due to her talent Annemarie Worst will surely be able to reach good results, just as Gert Smets and Timo Kielich in the U23 competition.