The Superprestige cyclocross series continues this Sunday with round 5 in Zonhoven, Belgium, where Toon Aerts (Telenet Baloise Lions) will look to defend his lead in the elite men's standings while Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Corendon-Circus) will do the same in the Elite Women's competition.

The day before, the big names in cyclocross will line up for the Ethias Cross in Essen, Belgium, with Aerts and rival Eli Iserbyt (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) resting up before Sunday's super-prestige race and the dominant The dominant Mathieu van der Poel will miss the cross weekend to attend the Corendon-Circus team training camp in Benicassim, Spain.

However, three-time cyclocross world champion and road star Zdenek Stival (Deceuninck-QuickStep) will be one of the main attractions in Essen.

Stibal will be back in action on Sunday's Superprestige, while Aerts will face a tough challenge from the trio of Pauwels Sausen-Bingor, Iserbeit, Michael Van Tulenhout, and Laurens Sweck. [Meanwhile, world champion Sanne Canto (IKO-Cleran) is in third place, seven points behind.

However, the men's and women's classifications in Sonnhofen on Sunday could all change, and with Van der Pol not competing in the men's race, it is expected to be a very close race.