Going into the event, The Netherlands' Mathieu van der Poel and Belgium's Sanne Cant lead the respective men's and women's elite rankings.

Van der Poel has 2,583 points to his name, giving him a 226-point advantage over nearest challenger Wout van Aert of Belgium.

Van Aert's compatriot Kevin Pauwels is currently third with 1,635 points.

Cant tops the women's rankings with 2,490 points.

Czech Republic's Katerina Nash is second with 1,670 points, while the United States' Kaitlin Keough is third with 1,499.

Among the nations that will be represented at the event are Great Britain, whose under-23 men's team includes the trio that swept the junior podium at the 2017 World Championships in Bieles in Luxembourg - Tom Pidcock, Daniel Tulett and Ben Turner.

Evie Richards will be returning to cyclo-cross having had an impressive mountain bike season, finishing in the top three on five occasions at World Cup level.

"Competing on the World Cup course in Namur will be a key part of the squad's preparations for the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in February next year, as the course is hilly and quite similar in style to the course in Valkenburg," Matt Ellis, British Cycling's cyclo-cross co-ordinator, said.

"The hilly course will play to the strengths of the Great Britain cycling team mountain bike programme riders who will be competing in this event in the under-23 and junior categories.

"This World Cup marks the end of a nine-day Belgian based training camp for nine of the riders representing Great Britain.

"Junior rider Ben Tulett won the Vlaamse Druivencross event last weekend and we saw some great performances from British riders which has boosted the mood of the camp, so there's plenty of excitement to get racing again this weekend."