Radquer is when Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel fight for victory. The Belgian and the Dutchman are far removed from the competition, says Swiss national coach Bruno Diethelm. The Bernese Oberlander expects his men's elite quartet to "ideally finish in the top ten" at the World Championships in Valkenburg, Holland, this weekend; national champion Lars Forster and Simon Zahner in particular have been in excellent form recently. However, Zahner crashed in the World Cup race in Hoogerheide last weekend, suffering bruises to his shoulder and leg. It is not yet clear whether and to what extent the injuries will affect the Zurich native. Swiss Cycling is not represented in the women's elite category due to the absence of mountain bike world champion Jolanda Neff through injury.

While Diethelm would classify top 15 results in the men's U23 category as very good results in view of the high performance density, he expects a top place in the juniors. The forecast is based on the performance of Loris Rouiller, last year's fourth-placed athlete from Belmont in the canton of Vaud, who won gold at the European Championships in the Czech Republic in November and achieved his first World Cup victory in Belgium a month later. The 17-year-old is regarded as Switzerland's greatest hope in the sport of cyclo-cross, especially with a view to 2020, when the World Cyclo-cross Championships will be held at the Dübendorf airfield.

The Swiss line-up

Men's elite
Lars Forster (Neuhaus SG/VC Eschenbach),
Severin Sägesser (Niedergösgen/VC Gränichen),
Marcel Wildhaber (Galgenen/ VC Eschenbach),
Simon Zahner (Dürnten/VC Meilen),

Men U23

Johan Jacobs (Berg am Irchel/VC Steinmaur),
Kevin Kuhn (Gibswil/VC Eschenbach),
Timon Rüegg (Oberweningen/VC Steinmaur), Mauro Schmid (Steinmaur/VC Steinmaur),

Women U23

Lara Krähenmann (Egg near Zurich/VC Meilen),
Noemi Rüegg (Oberweningen/VC Steinmaur),

Men U19

Noé Barras (Corin-de-la-Crête/Cyclophile Sédunois),
Rémi Premand (Choex/UC Montheysanne),
Loris Rouiller (Belmont-sur-Lausanne/VC Echallens),
Felix Stehli (Gibswil/IG Radquer Mettmenstetten),

World Championship program

Saturday, February 3
11 a.m.: Men U19
1 pm: Women U23
3 pm: Women's Elite

Sunday, February 4
11 am: Men U23.
3 pm: men elite.