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Race Thread

Page 45 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Czech nationals now live:

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Anybody with a stream for the beligium race today?
If you have a VPN you can follow the official streams of Sporza or RTBF
 
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Welp, that’s a perfect example of how team tactics can take the excitement straight out of a race, at least for first place. I mean, it was perfectly executed, so kudos to them, I switched off after a while, though.

To be fair, Sweeck looks really strong today, so he might have won it regardless, but the definitive move and subsequent gap was the result of team tactics. It doesn’t help that Aerts crashed yet again when he was maybe starting to chase.

I wonder what Iserbyt is really thinking when he has to abide by team tactics regardless of how strong he might have felt himself on the day. I suppose that it is the same for many riders, but Iserbyt is more of the “team leader”.
 
Welp, that’s a perfect example of how team tactics can take the excitement straight out of a race, at least for first place. I mean, it was perfectly executed, so kudos to them, I switched off after a while, though.

To be fair, Sweeck looks really strong today, so he might have won it regardless, but the definitive move and subsequent gap was the result of team tactics. It doesn’t help that Aerts crashed yet again when he was maybe starting to chase.

I wonder what Iserbyt is really thinking when he has to abide by team tactics regardless of how strong he might have felt himself on the day. I suppose that it is the same for many riders, but Iserbyt is more of the “team leader”.
Jep, probably the most boring race of the season. Regardless, i think Sweeck was the best today. He had to come back from 15th spot, even though Aerts was trying to strangle everybody. You could also see the chasing group fall apart, so the race was hard enough.
 
Cant’s rivals for the WC keep diminishing. First Ceylin, unfortunately choosing to ride the U23 category, and now Vos is out too, due to surgery.

Cant looked good at the BK though, might just pull it off again for the WC. She’s a master peaker.
 
I can't really understand why does Ceylin choose to ride the U23 race. She is already one of the best in the World, she should hve the motivation to ride in the elite category.

Agreed, I’ve said that multiple times. She missed out on winning it last year and it seems she feels the need to “right that wrong” so to speak. She seems to value being world champion on U23 level before moving on to the elites and also argues having enough time to win in the elite category, which is true.

In my opinion she’s missing out on a genuine chance of being elite WC right away. Based on the current season, she’d arguably be the top favorite, just about edging Worst. A lot can happen between now and next season so why not go for it? She’s in top form leading up to the WC.

Oh well, it’s her choice at the end of the day so we have to respect it even if we see it differently.
 
@Mavic @KZD

Ceylin said today (as in sunday) that she will announce tomorrow (as in monday) the age category where she will ride in Dubendorf, with Wielerflits reporting that she will race the Elites, according to sources they have.

Since she said in November that she would race the U23 and now is saying that she will announce it tomorrow, my bet is that she has indeed change her mind and will go for the Elite title.
 
@Mavic @KZD

Ceylin said today (as in sunday) that she will announce tomorrow (as in monday) the age category where she will ride in Dubendorf, with Wielerflits reporting that she will race the Elites, according to sources they have.

Since she said in November that she would race the U23 and now is saying that she will announce it tomorrow, my bet is that she has indeed change her mind and will go for the Elite title.

Thanks for that bit of information. It’s great news if she does choose the elite category.

It’s never a guarantee that anyone will win a given race, especially a WC which comes down to form and luck of the day. With that being said, I think currently Ceylin is in the best possible physical and mental state to be in the mix for the title.

She’s on a winning streak and has just been crowned Dutch Champion which is kind of a mini WC seeing as the Dutch ladies have pretty much been dominating the whole CX season. The result is an obvious boost in confidence which will seemingly lead to a change of heart regarding the WC category she will race in.

Assuming she rides in the elite category my favorites, in no particular order, are Worst, Alvarado and Cant.
 
Does anyone know why, although Pidcock won the race and is the elite champion, the U23 champ is Ben Tulett?

In other news, Alvarado will indeed go for the elite title.

Great news for us also, she was going to be the absolute favorite for the U23 title. But now, we should be set for a good battle with Van der Heijden against the Experza trio of Kay, Bakker and Norbert Riberolle and also Kata Vas and Van Alphen.
 
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Does anyone know why, although Pidcock won the race and is the elite champion, the U23 champ is Ben Tulett?

In other news, Alvarado will indeed go for the elite title.

Great news for us also, she was going to be the absolute favorite for the U23 title. But now, we should be set for a good battle with Van der Heijden against the Experza trio of Kay, Bakker and Norbert Riberolle and also Kata Vas and Van Alphen.
As strawberry jams said, he registered as an elite at the beginning of the season. However, like last year as the U23 and Senior races are ran together, according to UCI rules, Tulett was only awarded a silver (senior) and gold medal (subsequently he won't be allowed to wear the national stripes in races for the next year). As It wasn't broadcast due to British Cycling "not being able to afford it" i'll give a run down. The course was very muddy and probably 40% of the course was running for a large proportion of the race fields. With the course having a short start straight immediately into an off camber, bank, off camber, steps, off camber, cambered hairpin turn round a tree, that was the most chaotic start i've been in with riders and bikes sliding all over the place.
Elite men: Tom Pidcock
U23 men: Ben Tulett (no jersey)
Elite Women: Hattie Harnden
U23: Hattie Harnden (no jersey)
Junior Men: Rory Mcguire
Junior Women: Millie Couzens

Definitely looking forward to the U23 womens races at worlds. Will be interesting to see where the US u23 champ fits in as Katie Clouse hasn't ended racing against these riders because she dislocated her shoulder in the first race over in europe at Namur. However she was in that large leading group in Bogense and eventually finished 6th or 7th if I remember correctly.
 
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As It wasn't broadcast due to British Cycling "not being able to afford it" i'll give a run down.

I truly find it hard to believe that. Just what do they spend our money on? If they can't afford to highlight a national championship in a sport were we've won 6 Gold medals in Junior/U23 World level in recent years, then they're failing in their duty of running & promoting 'their' sport.
Other countries seem to manage it.......
 
The red carpet section on the docks!
The mega-carousel in the Dutch course was great too.
Not a fan of the spiral of doom personally. It's a bit of a gimmick that has come over from a couple of american courses from a few years ago that only promotes single file racing with a pinchpoint in the centre. Plus it can be quite confusing for both fans and riders to see where a rider actually is in the spiral and gauge the distance.
 
Cant’s rivals for the WC keep diminishing. First Ceylin, unfortunately choosing to ride the U23 category, and now Vos is out too, due to surgery.

Cant looked good at the BK though, might just pull it off again for the WC. She’s a master peaker.
I don't see it. For me, it's Alvarado, Brand, and Worst in some order with Kastelijn an outside shot depending on the course which I haven't looked into yet. I think Cant is a long shot at best.

So glad to see Ceylin switch to elites. She's ranked #1 in the world, the Dutch champ (in a year when all the best riders are Dutch), and leading the DVV, World Cup, and Superprestige series. It would have made no sense for her to race U23s, especially considering she'd never wear the jersey. As an added bonus, the women's U23 race will be so much better now.

I didn't realize there was this much cross talk going on here this season. A shame I missed it.
 

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