Race Thread

[KZD]

Puck crashed so Fem has a slight gap over her and Brand.

EDIT: 18 seconds advantage now at the end of the lap, this might have been the decisive moment of the race.

 

[glassmoon]

Puck crashed... 3rd small mistake. Not easiest of the races for her.

 

[Barkintheeye]

Van Empel is a very solid rider with an almost minimalistic approach. Her way of riding looks so easy and relaxed. No spectacular stuff, just doing her thing. Great and well deserved win.

 

[glassmoon]

Nice single handed wheelie from Puck... never change girl!

 

[Barkintheeye]

…and Pieterse took the “ loss” as a true champion, showing class

 

[Axel Hangleck]

Fem is the Champion and well deserved, but Puck is the star......

 

[Samu Cuenca]

A shame that Pieterse had those issues, but it would still have been a pretty hard task for her to beat Van Empel today.

Brand rode a solid race to get bronze. Persico tried her best, but she didn't have the same luck as last year. Alvarado was never really in it.

 

[jmdirt]

CONGRATS Fem!

 

[jmdirt]

Apparently the Dutch champs course isn't the only one that's rather wet. This is the British one.

I did a race at SeaTac (Seattle USA) that had a section where our bottom pedal stoke went under water for about 15 strokes. The rest of the course wasn't much better...not really a fun day.

 

[theyoungest]

Fem is the Champion and well deserved, but Puck is the star......

I disagree with this. Don't get me wrong, I like Pieterse and she's great, but I also love the more introverted style of Van Empel. When she's on it, it almost looks like she is in some zen-like state, a really special rider.

But it's just lovely to see that they are such good friends. Puck posted a training they did together on Strava this winter, with the title 'killing the competition'. She's so funny, even more so if you understand Dutch.

 

[Barkintheeye]

Take away from today’s races is that it only takes one mistake and then your chances are diminished massively. Quite unforgiving. Will be very interesting to see who can hold it together for the whole race. If both WVA and MVDP do it will be an interesting sprint to watch…

 

[pmcg76]

Womens race not the battle I was hoping for, but Congrats to Fem, a well deserved victory. Even without the mistakes, think Puck would have struggled on the climb to stay with Fem, her seated acceleration on climbs that we seen last week in Benidorm also is just crazy. Really want to see what Fem can do on the road. The first 8 across the line pretty much went to form.

Nys really dominated the U-23 race, but good battle for the minor placings.

Didn't see the Junior race, but sad to hear about Molengrafs misfortune. I usually cheer for the underdog, but when someone dominates all season, but loses out to luck, have to feel bad for them.

 

[theyoungest]

Take away from today’s races is that it only takes one mistake and then your chances are diminished massively. Quite unforgiving. Will be very interesting to see who can hold it together for the whole race. If both WVA and MVDP do it will be an interesting sprint to watch…

That's true, it's a fast course with only a few sections where you can make the difference. Or actually just one: the long climb. Van Empel was by far the strongest there, as was Thibau Nys. The rest of it is a lot of slippery corners, where you can only go as fast as the course allows without crashing.

 

[Pantani_lives]

Not much suspense today, but two deserving winners. Nys and Van Empel are the logical winners after their good season. That bit of rain made the course ideal.

 

[postmanhat]

Yes, the season's best rider is not winning the Worlds.......Which is why sports that have a season long championship are probably a fairer way to decide champions.

But well done to the young Canadians; they've been up there all season - and hopefully can stay in CX and not give it up.

On a nationalistic note, another good performance by first year Cat Ferguson, who hasn't raced much this year. Hopefully she can do a fuller program next season. And sorry Shirin, but Ava Holmgren is my new favourite rider based purely on their ridiculously cheerful personality.

 

[Pantani_lives]

Something always happens at a world championship. A crash, bad luck, a tactical issue... That one moment can be decisive.

The duel between MvdP and WVA can be decided by such a moment. Afterwards it will be 5-3 or 4-4 between them in professional world titles. They are both among the all-time greats already.

 

[RedheadDane]

The winner of the men's elite race tomorrow will have a 'Van' in his name!

 

[Axel Hangleck]

It's always interesting to see the first year Juniors, and how well they do; hopefully Cat can kick on next year and be up there; we have a few promising youngsters (Junior & U23) , but not quite medal level yet.

And the Junior races tend to be international with lots of different countries; but even by U23, that has quite often changed, with French, Swiss & Italian, etc riders dropping out of CX.
Most of the Junior/ U23 World Champions are soon signed up by the big teams, if they've not already signed. One does wonder where the Holmgrens will end up. Both also raced in the MTB Worlds, and again Isabella finished ahead of Ava, and Molengraaf.

 

[theyoungest]

The winner of the men's elite race tomorrow will have a 'Van' in his name!

Either From the Pool or From Earth will win.

 

[davidsonduke]

WE: Puck totally distanced the rest of the field over the barriers when she caught back up. But when she and Fem went through them together, just a slight separation that Fem quickly neutralized. Fem dominated the early races, fell off a bit with knee injury, and returned to early season form in the end.

 

[davidsonduke]

Also, two youngest riders finished 1-2, and if you take out 1-2, it looks like the race one would have expected a year or two ago. The U23-3 are just that much better than the field.

 

[jono]

Didn't see the Junior race, but sad to hear about Molengrafs misfortune. I usually cheer for the underdog, but when someone dominates all season, but loses out to luck, have to feel bad for them.

I agree that Molengraaf's mechanical took something away from the race, and maybe this isn't the point you're making, but watching the race to that point, I don't see that it's clear that she wins without the flat. Maybe without the flat AND without the crash. Nor are flats in CX 100% down to luck, though in a course like this where apparently no one ever flats (according to Wyman and Field on the commentary) that is a bit unlucky.

I really hope that the Holmgrens find a way to stick with CX. All of the incentives in Canada would push them towards a focus on MTB (especially the funding program for athletes in an Olympic sport) but their dad is the CX head for the federation so maybe he can steer them to remain in the sport.


Thanks for listening, this has been Canadian homer corner.

 

[davidsonduke]

In the three races this morning, that was the only flat I observed. Maybe I missed one.

 

[Pantani_lives]

The winner of the men's elite race tomorrow will have a 'Van' in his name!

Michael Vanthourenhout for the triple!?
Or Lars van der Haar!?

 

[Axel Hangleck]

I really hope that the Holmgren's find a way to stick with CX. All of the incentives in Canada would push them towards a focus on MTB (especially the funding program for athletes in an Olympic sport) but their dad is the CX head for the federation so maybe he can steer them to remain in the sport.

Yes, but I hope they can combine CX with MTB in the summer like Puck does. They're possibly the future of Canadian MTB, after Batty, Jackson and Arsenault......

Not many recent CX World Champions have preferred MTB over the road.....