No salaries, no cameras, no guarantees – yet they train and race like their lives depend on it. Chris Marshall-Bell meets five full-time riders laying it on the line for the sheer love of it

CSI5* classes

Young climber looking to emulate the 1990s star riders who set him on his path to the pro ranks

A 20-year-old Irishman scores his biggest win so far in the show’s concluding grand prix and another London debutant stands leading rider with three wins

Two points: that’s how close Max Verstappen came to equalling Michael Schumacher’s feat of winning five consecutive Formula 1 world championships, despite having fallen more than 100 points behind in

World champion triumphs at his first cyclo-cross race of the season