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Well I've actually changed my mind on this course - it's actually pretty good, and comparisons with Dendermonde are unfair; it's produced two excellent races, even with the expected winners. I'd have no problem with it staying on the calendar. Just move it to a month earlier, so more of the top riders turn up.
Topsy turvy race but it definitely made for good action.
Anything is better than Dendemonde, apart from yesterday in Essen. I think the changing conditions definitely helped but it was a good course. As I wrote yesterday, adding an accompanying round in somewhere between Dover and Holyhead that preceeds or follows this may also help attracting a larger field.
Moving it a month earlier probably would have precluded the participation of Van Aert and Pidcock. So not sure if that would lead to more top riders showing up. The women's start list wasn't that impressive (also as a result of sickness), but among the men basically only MvdP was missing.
Eurosport were perfectly good today. No issues like cutting off interviews and staying for the podiums. The duo of Field and Hatch was a good one as well.
Never get weather like that in Dublin in November, so probably not an exact comparison. I hope they do bring it back there, but that they sort out a beer-and-hot-whiskey license for next time.
On the TV coverage I believe they missed a Wout's issues due to an advert break.
Clara Honsinger just won her 3rd (or 4th?) consecutive US Nats jersey. No surprise, but still an achievement.
Really well deserved victory for Wout showing class, power and determination.
Pieterse should need to figure out a strategy in advance to beat Van Empel when the course isn’t technically decisive enough. I believe Van Empel will win every time when Pieterse goes head to head with her just on power and grit,
The course was better than expected but the lack of at least one decisive section makes it a little too… uneventful. Yet there were quite a lot of changes among the top six riders so some potential is there.
Oh and PFP just wasn’t close to the top riders. Anyone has information on if something was off? Couldn’t hardly be due to a too technical course and I thought she had an engine like Wout (comparable among the women)?
Pieterse should need to figure out a strategy in advance to beat Van Empel when the course isn’t technically decisive enough. I believe Van Empel will win every time when Pieterse goes head to head with her just on power and grit,
The course was better than expected but the lack of at least one decisive section makes it a little too… uneventful. Yet there were quite a lot of changes among the top six riders so some potential is there.
Oh and PFP just wasn’t close to the top riders. Anyone has information on if something was off? Couldn’t hardly be due to a too technical course and I thought she had an engine like Wout (comparable among the women)?
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Finally back from the race today. Haven't seen anything on TV yet, but yes the course worked out better than I initially feared. The muddy conditions definitely made the course tougher, 2nd half is actually good. Was interesting watching the warm-ups and the riders trying various lines on the corner I was at. Conditions changed as sun appeared and there was a lot of slipping and legs out.
Womens race did suffer from lack of depth, the gaps were huge after Van Empel/Pieterse and first 7 were exactly as expected. Also, even though there was a decent crowd present, don't think many knew the women's field.
Mens race was good as it was constantly changing and Van Aert looked a level above. Also Laurens Sweeck is nowhere as big as what he looks like on TV, maybe it is because some of the rest are small guys.
Overall, muddy and cold so did feel like proper cross, good crowd out at it, though atmosphere maybe not at the level of the Belgian crosses. Enjoyable day overall though, despite a lack of beer and not enough food trucks, people had to line up forever.
Now I have to watch the replays to see if I can spot our crew.
Womens race did suffer from lack of depth, the gaps were huge after Van Empel/Pieterse and first 7 were exactly as expected. Also, even though there was a decent crowd present, don't think many knew the women's field.
Mens race was good as it was constantly changing and Van Aert looked a level above. Also Laurens Sweeck is nowhere as big as what he looks like on TV, maybe it is because some of the rest are small guys.
Overall, muddy and cold so did feel like proper cross, good crowd out at it, though atmosphere maybe not at the level of the Belgian crosses. Enjoyable day overall though, despite a lack of beer and not enough food trucks, people had to line up forever.
Now I have to watch the replays to see if I can spot our crew.
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PFP has been off in every single race so far… this race she actually looked good at the start before fading again.
If PFP was any other rider, you'd tell her to forget challenging for the Worlds, as she's miles off. However, we're talking about PFP; we know her record at peaking for Worlds over the years; even this year Lecomte put over 2 mins 30 into her in the French MTB Cup 2 weeks before the Worlds. PFP then beat her by over 3mins in the Worlds.
As for Puck, I don't know how she can beat Fem on the majority of courses; technically she's a level above, but there aren't enough courses that suit her. It's the opposite on the MTB; were on the World Cup courses she has put minutes into Fem. And that is one of the reasons I suspect we don't see more top MTB-ers bothering with CX.....It's better suited to road riders.
PFP looks a little heavier than she looked when winning the XCC, XCO, and XCM World Championships this year. That's understandable as it's really quite difficult to peak that many times in a year. She's probably slowly working towards a peak for January/February.
I was really disappointed seeing the preview videos but as soon as I arrived I could see this would be great. The last twists/turns/climbs were really tough and brilliant from a spectator point of view. You could stand on one little hill and see so much.
Large visiting crowd too and thanks so much. We don't get to showcase cycling in Ireland very often and I have been nervous all week that it wouldn't live up to the traditional races but seeing the positive reviews fills me with pride, relief and joy
'Technically a level above' is stretching it a bit. It's true, Puck has an advantage, but in some parts Fem is already better (like riding through the sand) and in others she's quickly catching up. I think she's already remarkably good for someone who has only done two full seasons of cross. In MTB that inexperience is probably even more apparent, combined with a bad position on the starting grid and you have no chance for a result.
Fem is not a road rider though. She does have the characteristics for it, but she's hardly done any road races so far. It seems she first wants to focus on the MTB next year, to try to get to the Paris Olympics (which would be a tall order, I think there's just two spots available and apart from Puck there's also Anne Terpstra she'll have to contend with).
Patience. Puck did well a couple of times during the race and put the pressure on when Van Empel was a little bit off. That’s probably the only way to do it. Let most of the race go and put in a massive attack on one of the more difficult places and then to try to stay ahead. Not calling it easy but probably the best option. It should be noted that Pieterse got a little unlucky at the barriers and then had to put a big effort in to make it back.
If a rider chooses to jump from U23 to Elite in cross, does it need to also race as an Elite in MTB, for example?
Puck best option is just to force Fem to pull and wait for the last lap to put in a big attack on a technical section and/or she could focus on training to increase her functional threshold power. She can get little gaps but doesn't have the power/endurance to hold the gap. Increasing her FTP would not be easy though as she is probably up there among the top five in women's CX.
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