In a sense, cyclocross is the most traditional of the current cycling disciplines. The sport has barely changed over the last decade, both physically and technically. With the rise of gravel and it’s wide tyres, the obvious question is often brought up; wouldn’t it be better to race on gravel or mountain bikes?
“I don’t know if it would be an advantage to the sport,” Cameron Mason answers in an interview for Cycling Weekly. “There’s the tradition of it, and I think that’s one important thing will keep cyclo-cross cyclo-cross, and make sure it doesn’t turn into mountain bike or doesn’t turn into gravel riding.”
What’s more, the UCI rules are very specific, stating, “For the cyclo-cross the width of the tyre (measured between the widest parts) shall not exceed 33mm.”
The Scot represening UK has made a grand entrance into the 2025/26 winter with only a headline victory missing in his result sheet. Next to two second places in Koppenbergcross and Hamme, the 25-year-old was also fifth at the European Championships, a pleasant throwback to his silver medal from 2023/24 after a miserable past winter.Lets not turn cyclocross into something else
Therefore, while it might make sense to talk about equipment changes from a practical perspective, it is clear that the options are fairly limited within the UCI rule frame.
“That’s why, like, yeah, that’s the main reason why our technology hasn’t changed for 10 years is because the tyre width hasn’t changed, so they haven’t had to change,” Mason says.
And the honest opinion of Mason, having raced both MTB and gravel in past, he wouldn’t really want to change anything about cyclocross anyways.
“On some courses, we’d also go faster on a mountain bike – but we’re not doing mountain bike racing. So these rules have to be in there just to keep cyclo-cross cyclo-cross, otherwise it turns in something else.”
Maybe except the Belgo-Dutch hegemony in the sport…