Race Thread

[Echoes]

Not so long ago, you still had finish on grass like in the first three years of Zonhoven: 2008 (1'10") on a different place than today's finish or here, 2010 (at about 1'00" David Van der Poel winning the junior event on the same finish as today's which in the meantime has been artificially asphalted). I remember finishes at Erpe-Mere in the noughties which were on grass or at Fiuggi when Niels Albert won in 2015.

The one-hour rule can in the late eighties or early nineties, TV demands, I guess. Up until that point, cyclocrosses could easily exceed one hour of racing (for the winner, mind you). Sometimes, they can miscalculate it though. Happened last Wednesday, on the Koppenberg. They entered the final lap while having already raced for an hour. That has to do with the hardness of the new Koppenberg route with the finish on top of the famous climb. "An attack against the bodies" said most of the written press, last year (I think that is what Van Aert himself said). That's why you had the three main contenders out of breath at the end, lying down on the ground, especially Mathieu.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Hm, last 2 seasons Vd Poel had an injury stricken start to the season, causing Van Aert to massively win everything and Vd Poel being good at the end. Now it seems it's the other way around. Van Aert seems completely off. He should not lose to Aerts and Vd haar for instance.

However I wonder if we will see a good 2nd half, considering he's also switching to road prep pretty soon

 

[Axel Hangleck]

Has the interest in the season really dropped off? There is no other decent cycling taking place apart from 'Cross, so it's disappointing the lack of interest.

 

[glassmoon]

Re:

Has the interest in the season really dropped off? There is no other decent cycling taking place apart from 'Cross, so it's disappointing the lack of interest.

well... it kinda has imho. MVP dominating the field the way he is... I'm pretty confident to say it's settled already
watched last WC (in Denmark?) and as soon as MVP got 10m gap I knew it's over (unless mechanical or really bad mistake)

 

[davebqvst]

Wout van Aert wins in Zeven, ahead of Mathieu Van der Poel and Toon Aerts. I only caught the last two laps, did MVDP crash/have a mechanical again or was WVA just stronger today?

 

[jmdirt]

KFnC on box the box today!
Wout grabs one from MVDP!

Axel, my interest is solid, but I don't have any coverage other than what I read on the www so I can't discuss much without seeing how the race played out. I need to look around YouTube for some video. Plus, my (time) priorities this time of year are: work, life, riding, NFL...not much more time in a day.

 

[jflemaire]

Re:

Wout van Aert wins in Zeven, ahead of Mathieu Van der Poel and Toon Aerts. I only caught the last two laps, did MVDP crash/have a mechanical again or was WVA just stronger today?

He had a mechanical (chain stuck) in the first or second lap and lost about 40 seconds. He was about 15 places down after that but quickly got back to second. Maybe a bit too quickly since he seemed to be unable to gain any more time -- though he may have decided to leave this one to Wout and concentrate on the next day.

 

[jmdirt]

Noble and KFnC on the box today!
MVDP!

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

every race where vd poel was absent or had bad luck, Van Aert won.

Van Aert has by the way complained about the bikes (Felt) and he's not the only one. The road riders of that team (verandas) also already complained during the year about the slow Felt bikes.
Nuyens (team manager) wasn't happy with the critics. So Nuyens/Van Aert have a small clash now..

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Re:

every race where vd poel was absent or had bad luck, Van Aert won.

Van Aert has by the way complained about the bikes (Felt) and he's not the only one. The road riders of that team (verandas) also already complained during the year about the slow Felt bikes.
Nuyens (team manager) wasn't happy with the critics. So Nuyens/Van Aert have a small clash now..

"small" I've been told by somebody close to the team that Nuyens and Van Aert were ready to throw some punches. WvA apparently didn't like Nuyens complaining about the results when the entire team had been complaining about the bikes since day 1 and apparently the team also bought second hand 2013 Felt bikes to race on, as the riders felt better on those.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Re: Re:

every race where vd poel was absent or had bad luck, Van Aert won.

Van Aert has by the way complained about the bikes (Felt) and he's not the only one. The road riders of that team (verandas) also already complained during the year about the slow Felt bikes.
Nuyens (team manager) wasn't happy with the critics. So Nuyens/Van Aert have a small clash now..

"small" I've been told by somebody close to the team that Nuyens and Van Aert were ready to throw some punches. WvA apparently didn't like Nuyens complaining about the results when the entire team had been complaining about the bikes since day 1 and apparently the team also bought second hand 2013 Felt bikes to race on, as the riders felt better on those.

WvA, Dupont, Duijn and another rider rode the Tour of Belgium on a bike from between 2011-2013. Gaetan Bille bought himself the latest Felt bike but Nuyens prohibited him from riding on it. Riders rode the omloop on a cross bike.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

I saw a tweet this morning from Jose Been about this. I thought it was strange when Wout changed from Colnago to Felt from the start of this year...and the re-organisation of the team/ teams. Looks all a bit amateur...

 

[jmdirt]

How can they build a bike that far off? If that's true, they need to get some new engineers.

 

[jflemaire]

Re:

How can they build a bike that far off? If that's true, they need to get some new engineers.

Exactly. That's why I think it's nonsense. Van der Poel seems to have more mecanichals than Van Aert. He still manages to win a lot of races, though.

 

[jmdirt]

PFP made a nice return tot the sport!

 

[davebqvst]

...and MVDP makes it 2 for 2 this weekend, winning the DVV Trophy race at Essen yesterday and today the Druivencross at Overijse.

Interesting tweet (and replies to said tweet) by Adam Myerson:
"I’m at the point where watching MVDP ride away on lap 1 just makes me angry. What happens when sponsorship disappears because only 1 rider is on TV for most of the men’s race?"

Now I'm only getting into cross the last few seasons, basically since Mathieu and Wout have been winning everything, so still have a lot to learn about 'cross history, but didnt Nys dominate for years before these guys came around (and Nys retired)? Or were his wins less crazy exhibitions, not the "ride away on lap 1 and lead for the rest of the race"-type rides MVDP does?

 

[jflemaire]

I only followed the latest years of Sven Nys but indeed even though he won a lot those races were much more disputed affairs. Other riders (Niels Albert particularly) still managed to beat him, or battle with him until the very end when they were outsmarted by Nys. Youtube has a lot of races from those years; they're worth a watch. Nowadays I find the ladies races much more interesting.

 

[Ricco']

Anyone knows where to watch the replays of the races?

Since Flobikes have taken over the streaming of the Superprestige, DVV, Soudal and some off-trophy races, it's been a nightmare to find a proper replay when I can't watch the race live. And now they even want 30 euros/month to watch a couple of races per week. That's not the way to globalize the sport I think.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

Re:

Anyone knows where to watch the replays of the races?

Since Flobikes have taken over the streaming of the Superprestige, DVV, Soudal and some off-trophy races, it's been a nightmare to find a proper replay when I can't watch the race live. And now they even want 30 euros/month to watch a couple of races per week. That's not the way to globalize the sport I think.

I don't think the sport is doing anywhere near enough to grow, and go global. Actually, do the Belgians really want 'their' sport going global?

I've seen Helen Wyman is still looking for sponsorship. Well no British company is going to come forward as there's nowhere for exposure here in the UK. Apart from the World Cups, there is no 'official' streaming of any races....
Why geoblock races - it makes no sense; unless you don't want the sport growing.

 

[Ricco']

Re: Re:

I've seen Helen Wyman is still looking for sponsorship. Well no British company is going to come forward as there's nowhere for exposure here in the UK. Apart from the World Cups, there is no 'official' streaming of any races....
Why geoblock races - it makes no sense; unless you don't want the sport growing.

Yes, it makes no sense.

Noah (the guy from Youtube account Cycling Games), Roderic Kreunen or Cyclocrossable did a good job providing the streams and the full replays of the races for anyone who didn't had Sporza, Play Sports or whatever other belgian or dutch channel. But now Flobikes take everything out of YouTube and charge 30$/month to see 1 or 2 races per weekend and without commentary.

Eurosport also bought the rights to the World Cups but they are stuck on the player.

UCI should make it a priority to improve exposure if they want the sport to grow.

 

[Gung Ho Gun]

Re:

I only followed the latest years of Sven Nys but indeed even though he won a lot those races were much more disputed affairs. Other riders (Niels Albert particularly) still managed to beat him, or battle with him until the very end when they were outsmarted by Nys. Youtube has a lot of races from those years; they're worth a watch. Nowadays I find the ladies races much more interesting.

Even before Albert, in his most dominant years, Nys quite often waited until the last two rounds before making his move. He made his opponents put up some resistance, which also increased the popularity of Wellens, who never went down without a proper fight (but nearly always went down, in the end).

Of course, Van der Poel and Van Aert are already making plenty of money. If cyclocross loses its popularity and its money in future years, they will have a lucrative road career. Nys and Wellens had to build the sport up and turn it into long term profit. They knew that boring races and lack of overall drama would severely impact their earnings, and raced accordingly.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Re:

I only followed the latest years of Sven Nys but indeed even though he won a lot those races were much more disputed affairs. Other riders (Niels Albert particularly) still managed to beat him, or battle with him until the very end when they were outsmarted by Nys. Youtube has a lot of races from those years; they're worth a watch. Nowadays I find the ladies races much more interesting.

BTW tomorow, both Neff and PFP will start.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Well today was at least pretty entertaining. Though I still had the feeling Vd Poel had something in reserve all along

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Boxing day stream please

 

[davebqvst]

There are a couple of streams available on cyclingfans, amongst them the official UCI-Youtube-Channel, but it's geoblocked in some countries.

Awesome race just now in Zolder, I think the best race of the season so far for me (of those I watched), so many changes in leadership and what vicious power by Cant in the end on that uphill section. Let's hope the men's race delivers as well.