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Sciatic

Mar 4, 2011
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Barkintheeye said:
Happy to see Wout back in good form for the upcoming road season and that he still can put on good CX showing. Total control, he looked strong, relaxed and confident.
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Was good to hear in his post-race interview that he thinks he's ahead of schedule--although I don't know if he meant ahead of schedule recovering from the knee injury or ahead of schedule in prep for the Spring?
 
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awavey

Oct 3, 2021
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theyoungest said:
Sure, he even put 3 minutes into MVDP on this course at some point, but the current MVDP would probably be able to beat the current WVA here. Would have been closer than on most courses though.
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But current MVDP is resting due to rib injury, i still say they're broken,so he wouldn't have beaten current WVA on any course currently.

Top form MVDP vs top form WVA is really the question fans want to see answered, but neither are in that position.
 
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jono

Jan 31, 2021
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awavey said:
But current MVDP is resting due to rib injury, i still say they're broken,so he wouldn't have beaten current WVA on any course currently.

Top form MVDP vs top form WVA is really the question fans want to see answered, but neither are in that position.
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2020-21 is probably the most recent season when both riders were in good form, although I don't think either could have been at a true peak with the odd COVID mini-late-road-season as a lead-up.

MVDP won 6 of the 9 head-to-heads that season, but the 3 Wout wins were heavy mud races (Herentals, Dendermonde, Overijse).
 
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Ripper

Ripper

Sep 14, 2009
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I actually found it a fun race to watch. It's different, and it definitely rewards folks with sustained power. But I like that not all the cx courses are the same. Yesterday's race was also interesting, but was again a very different course.

I mean. where I come from there are lots of courses that reward technique to the extreme, which can be also be quite boring.
 
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awavey

Oct 3, 2021
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Axel Hangleck said:
Yes, but there were good reasons; road conditions near Bradford were terrible, and getting everybody there, including Paramedics, support staff, etc wasn't reasonable.
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werent they all there yesterday...when the weather was predicted to do what it did today.

and who could have predicted snow in Yorkshire in January o_O, I mean they had 6 inches, flippin eck I thought Northerners were made of sterner stuff than that, and theyre actually calling it heavy snow. 6 inches used to be the basic level youd get from January to middle of Feb back int t'olden days.

4 years ago the Tan Hill Inn,North Yorkshire, got snowed in for 3 days, in 3 metre snowdrifts, which isnt even their record snow in.
 
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Axel Hangleck

Jan 7, 2017
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Ripper said:
I mean. where I come from there are lots of courses that reward technique to the extreme, which can be also be quite boring.
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I don't want to sound like a Pinkbike reader, but off road racing is meant to have a degree of technicality - and not just raw power. I always feel CX is more biased to the power riders than technical riders - whereas XC MTB tends to get the balance better.
 
Barkintheeye

Barkintheeye

Feb 24, 2015
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awavey said:
But current MVDP is resting due to rib injury, i still say they're broken,so he wouldn't have beaten current WVA on any course currently.
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If he has a broken rib it’s bad news. Anyone who has broken their ribs knows it’s a painful healing process. First week feels like nothing. In the second week pain gets increasingly worse. Third and fourth weeks are terrible and then it starts to feel better. Even after a smaller trauma the ribs hurts bad and will impede you from riding hard and particularly in sports when the core is heavily engaged… like cyclocross. Good news is that base work is typically not a problem so he shouldn’t loose that much during the recovery.
 
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Sciatic

Mar 4, 2011
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Axel Hangleck said:
I don't want to sound like a Pinkbike reader, but off road racing is meant to have a degree of technicality - and not just raw power. I always feel CX is more biased to the power riders than technical riders - whereas XC MTB tends to get the balance better.
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I am no expert whatsoever, but isn't the balance toward power riders a given when courses cover so much grass, mud, and sand than on a solid (pavement or hard dirt) surface? And isn't that the nature of cross, given that it's traditional homeland and schedule is northwestern Europe in the late fall/winter, i.e., when it rains lots?
 
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Wvv

Wvv

Jan 3, 2019
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The Belgian nationals are on and around the race circuit of Heusden-Zolder. Very traditional cyclocross venue, with two world championships in 2002 (De Clercq) and 2016 (Van Aert). Wout almost never loses when he attends here, yet he skips the tricolor fight for spring reasons.

The parcours will look familiar, although they made some changes at the very end of the lap. Where they usually go down near the little forest section, they now need to go up which delivers a more demanding climb in the finale. It's still a fast course with a rather long finishing straight though. It should suit the likes of Nys-Sweeck-Vandeputte. If he has decent legs and stays out of trouble, it will be hard to beat Thibau.
 
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Gwbert

Dec 22, 2021
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Wvv said:
The Belgian nationals are on and around the race circuit of Heusden-Zolder. Very traditional cyclocross venue, with two world championships in 2002 (De Clercq) and 2016 (Van Aert). Wout almost never loses when he attends here, yet he skips the tricolor fight for spring reasons.

The parcours will look familiar, although they made some changes at the very end of the lap. Where they usually go down near the little forest section, they now need to go up which delivers a more demanding climb in the finale. It's still a fast course with a rather long finishing straight though. It should suit the likes of Nys-Sweeck-Vandeputte. If he has decent legs and stays out of trouble, it will be hard to beat Thibau.
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I like Zolder and agree that Nys on top form would be a very good bet, but he’s been really up and down. He must really want a Belgian nationals at some point though? Tbh it could go to any of Nys, Sweeck, Isberbyt, Vandeputte etc. they’ve all won convincingly this season! At least with Wout not attending it makes it interesting.
 
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Wyndbrook

Oct 4, 2020
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I'm in the UK and it looks like zilch viewing this weekend without hunting for dodgy steams.
The French races which have been listed on disco+ all week have now disappeared from my schedule, and there's no British champs on anything either.
 
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