After a summer of relatively few COVID-19 cases, the Netherlands is preparing to return to a partial blockade after the number of infected people jumped from 2,000 to more than 16,000 per day in September, despite 85% of the population being vaccinated.

Outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced a government order banning spectators from all major sporting events for the next three weeks, beginning Saturday.

The measure will keep the UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Luxembourg on December 18 closed, course designer Kamiel van den Bergh told Wielerflits.nl: "We have no other plans today. If this measure is actually implemented, it will be very difficult for us to organize. It is possible to hold the event without spectators, but the question is whether the municipality will agree. We have a meeting with them on Wednesday. In any case, I will continue to fight for it."

The Netherlands has had blockades in the past and races have been extensively cancelled, but only the Dutch National Championships were held on the closed VAM-berg course in Drenthe. [Hulst Cyclo-cross World Cup organizers have changed the course to Perkpolder, outside the city center, because the restrictions may still apply on January 2, 2022. [Bram de Brauwer, a member of the Hulst World Cup organizing committee, said of the blockade to Wielerfritz, "Better now than in four weeks."

"We have to wait and see. There is a plan B with no audience. And there is a Plan C for Perkpolder, which we also planned last year. But so far, everything is going according to plan. We have seven and a half weeks to cross and only three weeks for lockdown. That means there are still four weeks after that. And a lot can change in four weeks."