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Race Thread

Page 21 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
That's for sure. When I read the articles last year, it actually sounded lke he had no interest in the General Classification. Generally speaking, I don't know if those riders are really defining them as objectives. For example, in Niels Albert's time, his coach Christophe Roodhooft relativised all those rankings because if you happened to be injured at the worst moment it's all over for you. The most significant thing is winning as many races as you can.

Anyway, perhaps the trip to the US has better support now but last year, it was pretty insecure. For example, Gianni Vermeersch paid the trip of his own pocket: €3,300. He thus needed to be at least twice top7 to cover all his expenses. Fortunately, He was 5th in Iowa and managed it but for Sanne Cant, poor thing: €4,000 investment and won €570. :eek:

Of course for riders like Wout Van Aert or Mathieu Van der Poel it's rather a "safe bet" as they are almost sure to be first and second in both races but still it raises questions.
 
Echoes said:
That's for sure. When I read the articles last year, it actually sounded lke he had no interest in the General Classification. Generally speaking, I don't know if those riders are really defining them as objectives. For example, in Niels Albert's time, his coach Christophe Roodhooft relativised all those rankings because if you happened to be injured at the worst moment it's all over for you. The most significant thing is winning as many races as you can.

Anyway, perhaps the trip to the US has better support now but last year, it was pretty insecure. For example, Gianni Vermeersch paid the trip of his own pocket: €3,300. He thus needed to be at least twice top7 to cover all his expenses. Fortunately, He was 5th in Iowa and managed it but for Sanne Cant, poor thing: €4,000 investment and won €570. :eek:

Of course for riders like Wout Van Aert or Mathieu Van der Poel it's rather a "safe bet" as they are almost sure to be first and second in both races but still it raises questions.

Now you talked about Vermeersch and I remembered to ask something that you may know the explanation.

I was looking for the updated line-ups for next year and noticed that there are a lot of teams based on Herentals. Is there an explanation for that? Also, the owner of Beobank and Steylaerts-Verona is the same, isn't it? That's why Vermeersch and Meisen were "loaned" to Beobank during the road summer season but are racing again with Steylaerts's colours from now on. Why don't they merge the two? Vermeersch and Meisen could be a great addition to Beobank. Not that they need it with VdP, Meeusen and a Walsleben who, based on his summer season, seems to be in great shape again.
 
It's hard to answer your questions but Herentals is about the epicentre of Belgian cyclocross, nowadays, have even been for a few decades already. Actually this relatively small area in the Antwerp province is a pool for most of the Belgian greats in that field: Wout Van Aert, Erwin Vervecken, Paul Herijgers, Bart Wellens, Tom Meeusen, Kevin Pauwels, Bart Aernouts, Sanne Cant, etc. Even the Van der Poel brothers have been raised in the area. I've always wondered how that come, never could find an answer. Sven Nys of course is an exception like a few others but most come from that area, called the Campine (Kempen). So I guess that the teams are just based there because that is where most riders come from (or is it the other way round?

Beobank has had a sattellite team ever since 2013, I think. Back then it was Kwadro-Stannah. It was by then an initiative by Christophe Roodhooft and his brother Philip in order to boost cyclocross outside of Belgium (at least that was the reason officially invoked): http://www.wielerflits.nl/nieuws/20778/nieuw-team-kwadro-stannah-ijvert-voor-buitenlandse-cross.html The first Kwadro-Stannah line-up mainly consisted of former Beobank (then called BKCP) riders: Radomir Simunek or Marcel Meisen already. I didn't really realise that Gianni Vermeersch was loaned to Beobank, actually, even though now that you are saying it, of course he won the Slag om Norg with the Beobank jersey but I really forgot about the fact he crossed for Steylaerts. :eek:

Don't forget that cyclocross is much more of a mano a mano sport than road cycling, so perhaps on the road Roodhooft might have needed extra teammates while he may have two separate teams for cyclocross.

At some points you had the same situation with Rabobank (the elite road team) and Rabobank offroad. So for instance when Lars Boom occasionally got back to cyclocross for Rabobank, he was officially no teammate of the Rabo offroad riders despite racing for the same sponsor.

Also by the way, don't be mislead by Philip Walsleben's road performances. He is just a very good road rider for his cyclocross standard. For about 4 or 5 years now I would have the same expectations as you do about him and then be disappointed. At the Tour of Belgium for instance, he would always do some nice things or at the late Circuito Montañes. Hopefully I'm wrong because I like the guy but I'm afraid it will be just the same winter for him. :(
 
First race, first win for Mathieu Van der Poel. The dutch attacked in the end of the first lap and wasn't seen again, building an advantage that went all the way to more than half a minute. The second place was ultimately disputed by Michael Vanthourenhout, Wout van Aert and Laurens Sweeck, with the world champion taking that place despite a strong attack from the Marlux rider on the last lap.

Next week: World Cup - Jingle Cross Iowa City, USA. Live at 22h30 central european time (21h30 in the UK and Portugal).
 
Anyone can access this link for the official YouTube coverage of tomorrow's World Cup? If so, are you in Europe?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGEQ5Fdmz-Y

I'm afraid that this year the YouTube will be geoblocked in Europe, since Eurosport acquired exclusive broadcast of the UCI World Champhionships and World Cups for the next four years. And the bad news is that tomorrow's World Cup is only scheduled to be live on the Player. I didn't want to pay 30 euros to see 9 or 10 races.
 
Re:

Ricco' said:
Anyone can access this link for the official YouTube coverage of tomorrow's World Cup? If so, are you in Europe?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGEQ5Fdmz-Y

I'm afraid that this year the YouTube will be geoblocked in Europe, since Eurosport acquired exclusive broadcast of the UCI World Champhionships and World Cups for the next four years. And the bad news is that tomorrow's World Cup is only scheduled to be live on the Player. I didn't want to pay 30 euros to see 9 or 10 races.
I live in the Uk and it seems to be available. However I don't know how these things work, so it might be geoblocked when one actually comes to watch it. I think if it is they will probably ungeoblock the live recording after all/at least one of the scheduled programs comes out.

Heres a link to the broadcasting rights for the first two world cups in Iowa and Waterloo:
http://www.uci.ch/mm/Document/News/...UCICyclo-CrossWorldCup-TVSchedule_Neutral.pdf

edit: just read the bottom of the document
*Live/replays from the UCI YouTube Channel geo-blocked in the following territories (applies to Iowa and Waterloo stages if not stated otherwise):
Algeria, Bahrein, Belgium, Brunei, Czech Republic (Iowa only), Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Italy (Iowa only), Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Marocco, Malaysia, New-Zealand, Oman,
Palestine, Qatar, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, Tunisia, UK, United Arab Emirates, US, Vatican, Yemen,
Lets hope they do eventually make the full length replays available.
 
Re:

Axel Hangleck said:
It was live on the Eurosport player - but just stopped before the podium presentations. After watching the MTB World Cup on RedBullTV, it's a level down from that coverage.

I understand that, but there are people, like me, who subscribe to packages that include EuroSport and would like EuroSport content to be available. OK if they choose to make it only Player for live broadcast (they need some reserved content for that or no-one will pay), but seems just a bit dog in a manger to not make it available eventually. It'll end up on YouTube illicitly within a day or two, they may as well put it out in a way that encourages their (indirect) subscribers and gains some advertising revenue.
 
Re: Re:

Armchair cyclist said:
Axel Hangleck said:
It was live on the Eurosport player - but just stopped before the podium presentations. After watching the MTB World Cup on RedBullTV, it's a level down from that coverage.

I understand that, but there are people, like me, who subscribe to packages that include EuroSport and would like EuroSport content to be available. OK if they choose to make it only Player for live broadcast (they need some reserved content for that or no-one will pay), but seems just a bit dog in a manger to not make it available eventually. It'll end up on YouTube illicitly within a day or two, they may as well put it out in a way that encourages their (indirect) subscribers and gains some advertising revenue.

I agree with you, it's pretty poor from Eurosport. Surely live sport should take priority over recorded highlights?
And going by comments on Twitter to the UCI CX account, most people were unaware Eurosport now had the rights, as opposed to YouTube as is normal.
Eurosport call themselves 'The Home of Cycling' yet I can't recall an advert for the CX World Cup....pretty poor.
 
They got the deal finished this week, I hope it's just a case of little time to make it into the tv channels and that by Koksijde they will start to show it live on ES 1 or 2.

At least in Portugal we got to see it on YouTube.

I think the YouTube is off in the UK because they will show it delayed tomorrow night.
 
What a beast! Once again from start to finish, Le MVP! 31 seconds after 2 laps, one of the most impressive starts I've seen him doing.

Van Aert better than last week but once again without any sort of rhythm, he looked totally spent once he crossed the finish line.
 
It was over 3 minutes into the race. I appreciate excellence and MVP is one of my favorites but these races are getting boring. It was already happening last year with both he and Van Aert. I find the women's races to be more entertaining these days.

I guess MVP has great form from the mtb and road racing over the summer but I wonder how long it'll last. You have to figure he'll have a bit of a lull at some point before building back up for Worlds. Or could he possibly be this strong the entire year? Good performance from Soete.
 
It's hard to enjoy Mathieu's total dominance when one appreciate a road bunch sprint won by Sagan. It's logical after all. Even if both have the same nasty wheelying habit but at least Mathieu is still low-profile and discrete off the bike.

I would always cherish a solo from first to last lap in cyclocross. Even when it was by Niels Albert (whom I disliked but appreciated the talent). If we love the sport we don't need suspense. Just admire the talent.

On the road, I'd take women's cycling any day. In cross, both are equally as enjoyable to me.
 
Echoes said:
It's hard to enjoy Mathieu's total dominance when one appreciate a road bunch sprint won by Sagan. It's logical after all. Even if both have the same nasty wheelying habit but at least Mathieu is still low-profile and discrete off the bike.
I can appreciate any kind of win, and while I've never been one of the biggest Sagan fans out there, I appreciate and admire his talent and have changed my tune on him somewhat.

I cheer for Mathieu to win pretty much every race he enters, whether road, cross, or mtb. I'm thrilled he won but I have to admit that it's just not quite as enjoyable to watch when there's very little drama. Maybe I should ask him to at least wait until midway through the race before destroying everyone.
Echoes said:
I would always cherish a solo from first to last lap in cyclocross. Even when it was by Niels Albert (whom I disliked but appreciated the talent). If we love the sport we don't need suspense. Just admire the talent.
I don't disagree here. I would add that if we love the sport we should also appreciate all kinds of wins, whether by attack, sprint, breakaway, mtf, etc...

I did not like Albert either. I always preferred Nys, Stybar, and even Boom.
 
jaylew said:
Echoes said:
It's hard to enjoy Mathieu's total dominance when one appreciate a road bunch sprint won by Sagan. It's logical after all. Even if both have the same nasty wheelying habit but at least Mathieu is still low-profile and discrete off the bike.
I can appreciate any kind of win, and while I've never been one of the biggest Sagan fans out there, I appreciate and admire his talent and have changed my tune on him somewhat.

I cheer for Mathieu to win pretty much every race he enters, whether road, cross, or mtb. I'm thrilled he won but I have to admit that it's just not quite as enjoyable to watch when there's very little drama. Maybe I should ask him to at least wait until midway through the race before destroying everyone.

I think I'm behind this thought also. I enjoy when he goes solo from the start, but I hope it's not the only thing that would happen. As a VDP fan I'm over the moon when it happens, but I also like to see good duels. Hope Van Aert comes back stronger, my favorite crosses of last season happened all when they both challenged each other to the max (Gieten, Zonhoven, Namur, etc.).
 

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