Race Thread

[del1962]

Was out for a ride on my bike this afternoon and was checking how I did on some segmenys and I noticed on one segment a climb of nearly 3k at 2% that the fastest time was a female by some distance, I looked into it and its by Anna Kay who won the Bronze at the worlds U23 and lives only a few miles from me,

 

[RedheadDane]

In Lille it's once again a battle between Alvarado and Worst. At one point Alvarado might have gotten a bit of a gap, but then she crashed. (She was quickly up again, though)

 

[RedheadDane]

Alvarado wins.

 

[Pantani_lives]

Alvarado wins.

Tell me something new.

It was almost a replay of last week, except that the sprint was a little closer. Shirin Van Anrooij (3rd) can make the Dutch domination even bigger the next years.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Van Aert is gone. Looks like Hermans has issues with his gears.

 

[Pantani_lives]

Van Aert's first win since the Tour?

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Van Aert's first win since the Tour?

yep

 

[RedheadDane]

Nice to see him back.

 

[Mavic]

Simply the best Cyclocross rider after Mathieu and the only one able to challenge him on a good day. Those two are in a league of their own, then comes the rest. Multitalented beasts. Respect Wout.

 

[KZD]

So nice to see Van Aert winning again. An important motivation boost for the classics.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Despite the riders being on the limit, the pace seemed to be a bit slower than with Van Der Poel. I think partly because the sand was quite loose and the ruts weren't holding the wheels well, but also because VDP wasn't pushing the pace.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Despite the riders being on the limit, the pace seemed to be a bit slower than with Van Der Poel. I think partly because the sand was quite loose and the ruts weren't holding the wheels well, but also because VDP wasn't pushing the pace.

I don't know how Mathieu being a minute up the road, would otherwise push the other rider's pace? That shouldn't matter unless they'd be in danger of getting lapped. I think it's just end of season, these guys aren't Mathieu (or Wout) and are knackered.

I did think it was interesting to see Pidcock suddenly slip back into mediocrity though, less than a week after the WC.

 

[davebqvst]

Apparently today's Superprestige race is cancelled because of storm Ciara

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Apparently today's Superprestige race is cancelled because of storm Ciara

Yeah, that's an anti-climax. Too bad.

 

[Mick Dundee]

I did think it was interesting to see Pidcock suddenly slip back into mediocrity though, less than a week after the WC.
[/QUOTE]

Check out the Trinity Racing update - he was saving his legs for the race that was cancelled yesterday - which I can well believe. I noticed that during the race on Saturday he was dropping off the back of the group contesting 3rd but finished in amongst them apart from Aerts and Sweeck.

 

[RedheadDane]

Don't think I've ever seen a woman rider jump the barriers before.
And at the front, it's a familiar sight, with Alvarado and Worst.

 

[postmanhat]

This is a fantastic course. Am rooting for Worst to take the sprint to compensate a little for the Worlds

EDIT - and as I type, the race is gone

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

What a fantastic recovery race from Betsema as well. At some point she was 35s back in 12th, 2 laps later she was in 3rd, 8 seconds behind. I'm certain if she started front row she wouldn't get dropped

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Don't think I've ever seen a woman rider jump the barriers before.
And at the front, it's a familiar sight, with Alvarado and Worst.

The young Dutch generation of woman have started training on it. I've already mentioned it a few weeks ago. The teens have been doing it for a while.

 

[jaylew]

The young Dutch generation of woman have started training on it. I've already mentioned it a few weeks ago. The teens have been doing it for a while.

Yeah, I've seen a few women jumping the barriers this year. Anna Kay, Aniek Van Alphen, Ellen Noble, Jolanda Neff, a couple other youngsters I'm forgetting

 

[lemon cheese cake]

A couple of moves going on between teams. Earlier in the year Thomas Mein and Emiel Verstrygne have signed for the Tormans CX team, with the team apparently wanting to expand to have a couple of women on it aswell. Shirin van Anrooij has obviously signed with Telenet Baloise, with her sister now presumably replacing Manon Bakker at Experza CX. Speaking on of Bakker, her and the other rider in black Mees Hendrikx have both been scooped up by Creafin Fristads.
Interestingly Hendrikx had signed for Creafin last year when it wasn't part of the Roodhooft conglomerate of teams. However he seemed to end up with Acrog Balen for the first half of the season and was left teamless when they swapped from Pauwels Sauzen to Tormans.

 

[Ricco']

Daan Soete is also joining Hens Maes, who will have Vinnie Baestaens, Tom Meeusen and him for next season.

Diether Sweeck will ride for Creafin from now on.

 

[Barkintheeye]

Having watched the last races of the season I must say that Annemarie Worst looks very good on the bike. She together with Alvarado have progressed markedly in terms of solid technique and speed. The rest of the field look sketchier though. There is probably going to be a quick development in improved technique and speed as the younger riders are more likely to be better bike handlers. Guess this follows what we see among junior men that look really solid. Shows that cyclocross has a positive momentum and that it is a good way into all kinds of professional cycling.

On a side note will we see Ryan Kamp closing in on the top 10 elite men next year or is it too early yet?

 

[jaylew]

Michael Vanthourenhout has got to be one of the most frustrating riders to be a fan of - he really lacks a winning instinct. I truly think he was the strongest guy this weekend and came away empty handed twice. He just seems to lack confidence. He never seems to want to carry on with an attack and is always looking back for someone else to take over despite the fact he seems to have one of the worst sprints in the field.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Having watched the last races of the season I must say that Annemarie Worst looks very good on the bike. She together with Alvarado have progressed markedly in terms of solid technique and speed. The rest of the field look sketchier though. There is probably going to be a quick development in improved technique and speed as the younger riders are more likely to be better bike handlers. Guess this follows what we see among junior men that look really solid. Shows that cyclocross has a positive momentum and that it is a good way into all kinds of professional cycling.

On a side note will we see Ryan Kamp closing in on the top 10 elite men next year or is it too early yet?

I think he might do what Iserbyt did and spend a year in the rainbow stripes and then move up, but in the non u23 races I think it's pretty likely. At the end of the season we've seen Vandeputte really come alive in the final few races so they could both be up there next season.