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Race Thread

Page 118 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
And Belgium, not sending any women.......

You can't force them to go, so I don't know what the answer is. But it's not giving up the US rounds...that would be a massive mistake.

Start lists:

View: https://twitter.com/cyclocross24/status/1577292877390036993
Brand, Van Empel, Betsema, and Worst are there, that’s not so bad a field with the North Americans?
trying to remember—did something happen (illness, injury) to Magalie Rochelle and that’s why she’s not on startlist?
 
Brand, Van Empel, Betsema, and Worst are there, that’s not so bad a field with the North Americans?
trying to remember—did something happen (illness, injury) to Magalie Rochelle and that’s why she’s not on startlist?

Yes, pretty much everyone who's started their season is there it seems? Plus Honsinger, who won the Trek Cup on Friday in her first race of the year.

Evie Richards will also be there, but only supporting her team-mates, as she's 'too slow to race' at the moment. Only one way to solve that problem Evie.
 
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The women's race was as expected; very good close racing between the Dutch ladies.....Van Empel looks in very good form, and looks to have made a jump. How long can she keep it up? But it was good to see Alvarado back at the front of a race and Brand appears to be trying to ride into form; the Euros in Namur are in a month....that's her course.
Vas is still racing in Hungary/ Czechia, so who knows how good her form is? Puck will be back soon after an excellent summer on the MTB. And Burquier is still racing MTB in France, so who knows if she will turn up.

The men's wasn't quite as good, Eli got an early gap, and went away - despite Sweeck looking to close at one point. Lars completed the podium, but will miss next week - but will return for Tabor. A nice competitive 5th for Thibau, as well.
 
Despite retiring a couple of years ago, Nikki Brammeier came 2nd in the National Trophy series in the UK today.

I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not. Great for her to show what an excellent rider she still is, but also a demonstration that the level below Kay isn't exactly world class. Backstedt is on a rest, as is Harnden who is an Enduro rider, who does a bit of CX and has just finished the EWS season.
 
I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not. Great for her to show what an excellent rider she still is, but also a demonstration that the level below Kay isn't exactly world class. Backstedt is on a rest, as is Harnden who is an Enduro rider, who does a bit of CX and has just finished the EWS season.
I was just remarking at the performance to be honest, but putting it like that does create some perspective. I think the likes of Maclean Howell (4th in last year's junior worlds) should progress well and it was her first elite/u23 race. There are riders like Amira Mellor who were missing from that so she might have been closer to Kay, but those de 2nd to 9th were spaced out just over a minute, so it's still fairly close behind.

In terms of Pieterse and Vas, we should at least get a good indication of how they are against each other as I think they're both racing a C2 in Oisterwijk in the Netherlands next weekend.
 
Quite a number of riders starting their season in the forthcoming days, including a certain Mr Stybar. He races in Slovakia in Dohnany Sat and Sun, while Line Burquier starts in Switzerland at Steinmauer on Sunday. As I wrote above, Puck Pieterse will race for the first time this season in the Netherlands in Oisterwijk alongside Blanka Vas. Then in Ardooie in Belgium on Thursday, I've heard Quinten Hermans and Zoë Bäckstedt will begin racing.

On mentioning Vas, and to answer the question of @stonerider , Vas was doing a training session with Lars Boom at the Tom Dumoulin Bike Park yesterday so he's definitely still working with her.
 
Maybe she'll surprise me when her injuries/illnesses are sorted, but I really struggle to see her competing at the front of cx races unless it's Namur style. And even then I think she's stuggle to top 10. The front appears to be a lot more competitive these past couple of/few seasons than when she was pulling those rides off.

You're probably right, but it's very hard to tell as she's only ridden a handful of CX races in the last two seasons. In the meantime, she's progressed to being one the best MTB riders in the world. So it would be interesting at least, to see if that improvement transfers to cross.
 
Something else I've noticed, is that both Honsinger & Backstedt seem to be running Sram, when on the road they use Shimano......
Honsinger has the same paint job on the frames as last year, so i'd assume they're the same bikes as last season. With Backstedt maybe it's so they have consistency throughout the team meaning wheels with different tyres can be swapped between riders. Plus I don't think the mens EF team are directly sponsored by Shimano like for instance Jumbo, or Ineos and i'd assume that carries over to the slightly connected womens team, meaning technically they're free to use what components they want.
 
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What are the current rules on organisers having to hold a junior women's race? I seem to remember things changed slightly due to covid, but as far as I can remember they were originally introducing a Junior womens world champs (Duebendorf 2020), followed by a World Cup series the next season (2020/21) and then the season after (2021/22) all races would have to have one.

I ask this as:
  • None of the belgian races have had one so far (despite two having enough juniors to warrant one),
  • Oisterwijk also didn't (and had enough for a decent field)
  • The BC National Trophy and some of the spanish races have had good sized fields
  • Some of the US races have had pitiful numbers in the junior womens races
  • The swedish uci elite races this weekend had barely enough riders to make it worth having an event.