Shirin van Anrooij thought her cyclocross season was over when she suffered a deep laceration on her arm, allegedly caused by disc brakes, in a World Cup crash in Tabor in November. The Dutch rider, who won the first junior women's world title last year, has confirmed to Cyclingnews that she will compete in the under-23 race at the UCI Cyclocross World Championships in Ostend, Belgium, on January 30-31.

"You will see me at the World Championships," van Ambrooy told Cyclingnews from the Trek-Segafredo team training camp in Italy last week.

"I will leave training camp on Thursday to compete in two cyclocross races at home, including the World Cup in Overijse, and the following week I will compete in the World Championships.

The final Word Cup of the season will be held in Overijse on January 24; due to health restrictions at COVID-19, the World Championships will only be held in the U23 and Elite categories from January 30-31. under 23 men and elite women will compete on Saturday, January 30, while under 23 Under 23 Women and Elite Men will race on Sunday, January 31. Fans are not allowed to watch the races.

"I want to make it to the World Championships and that's been my main theme for cyclocross this season. If my arm and knee go as planned, I'll be on the starting line."

Van Anrooij competes in cyclocross for the Baloise Trek Lions team and on the road for women's world team Trek-Segafredo, which is currently holding a team camp in Italy.

In November, reigning junior world champion Juan Anroy was taken to a hospital in Ceske Budějovice after being injured in a crash during the elite women's race at the UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Tabor. The most severe of her injuries was a deep gash the width of her arm, which required two surgeries to correct a laceration believed to have been caused by a piece of disc brake debris. The first surgery was performed at a hospital in Ceske Budějovice, and the second at a hospital in Herental, Belgium.

"Nobody really understands what happened, and neither do I," van Ambrooy said. 'In front of me, in the first row, two girls bumped into each other and fell over. I had nowhere to go and went straight over them. I was on my stomach and fell hard, and I think I probably touched the disc brake and it went straight into my arm. I had two surgeries and took a long time to recover. It was unfortunate and could have happened to anyone. It's not possible to get such a big cut from a disc brake."

Juan Anroy said his recovery took longer than expected. He initially received 25 stitches and thought the wound had healed after the first surgery, but an infection developed deep in the muscle and he had to undergo a second surgery to remove the infection.

"At first I thought it would heal well. 'I returned from the Czech Republic to a hospital in Belgium and had a second surgery. They found an infection deep in my arm and had to reoperate to clean my entire arm. It took longer than expected, and with antibiotics, it could have gone more smoothly."

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Now 18 years old, van Anrooy hopes to compete in the under-23 women's race at the World Championships and win the rainbow jersey for the second time in her short but successful career.

"I'm in the under 23 category now," she said.