Albert looks for double at cyclo-cross worlds

Defending champion Niels Albert will try to make it two in a row Sunday at the 2010 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Tabor, Czech Republic.

Albert, 23, who captured the world title last year in Hoogerheide, Netherlands, in his debut in the men's elite race, has been a force on the World Cup this season. The young Belgian opened the 2009-10 campaign with three consecutive victories before closing out the season with another win last week in Hoogerheide, site of his world championships triumph.

Albert won four of nine World Cup stops this season and currently leads the standings in the Superprestige series, but he won't be without serious challengers in Tabor.

Czech racer Zdenek Stybar should have the home crowd fired up and with good reason. The 24-year-old won three World Cup stops this season -- second only to Albert's four -- including a narrow win over Albert in Igorre, Spain, and enjoys a small lead over the Belgian in the UCI standings.

Stybar rode well at his country's national champioships earlier this year, winning his second Czech title, but has found it difficult to break through at the worlds. After taking silver in his first year as an elite rider at the 2008 event, Stybar came back to score second again last year in Hoogerheide.

Two consecutive runner-up finishes at the worlds have no doubt left Stybar salivating for gold, and his familiarity with the Tabor course, where he won his national title this month, should make him the top challenger to Albert.

Other contenders for gold include Belgian veteran Sven Nys, the 2005 world champion and bronze-medal winner the past two years who has multiple World Cup victories in Tabor, and compatriot Kevin Pauwels, who won handily over Albert at the December World Cup stop in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium.

Nys is also the reigning Belgian national champ.

Jonathan Page, currently 13th in the UCI rankings, is the top U.S. hopeful. Page, 33, who rode to a surprise second-place finish at the 2007 worlds for the only U.S. medal ever in the men's elite race, has two top-10 World Cup finishes this season, including eighth at the season-ender in Hoogerheide.

Other U.S. riders to watch include reigning national champion Tim Johnson, 33, and Ryan Trebon, 29, who has two wins in the U.S. Grand Prix series this season and placed second to Johnson at the U.S. nationals.