Race Thread

[postmanhat]

What a fantastic race. Really pleased for Vos after her disappointments on the road the last two weekends.

Honsinger still a ridiculously bad starter 40th halfway through the first lap, and ends up 13th

 

[Axel Hangleck]

Of course, the difference - condition-wise - between P-R and CX wasn't that big this year.

Hmm, not sure about that; the conditions today were super fast - quite a difference to last weeks women's P-R, which was wet, then damp.

As we've seen already this year, never write off the Goats; first Schurter, then Minnaar, now Vos.

Fabulous race from Neff; started miles back and finishes 4th. Only her 2nd CX race in 2 years.....if she had a decent grid position she wouldn't burn up energy to get to the front.

 

[RedheadDane]

Hmm, not sure about that; the conditions today were super fast - quite a difference to last weeks women's P-R, which was wet, then damp.

I meant generally. P-R this year wasn't that far off from the usual cross aesthetics.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

2nd round of the World Cup; Fayettville, Arkansas.

Would expect the women's race to be the most exciting, with another stacked field; with slightly more climbing it may see more/different contenders.
In the men's it's hard to look past Iserbyt; though Aerts & Vantourenhout should trouble him for a while; and Hermans, if he's recovered from his injury from Sunday.

 

[RedheadDane]

I bring good news: It's raining!

Didn't say it was necessarily good news for the riders.

 

[Sciatic]

Absolutely pouring down rain at the start of the elite women’s race in Fayetteville just now.

 

[RedheadDane]

Still pouring down around 15 minutes into the race. Brand and Vos are in the front.

 

[F_Cance]

Vos really wheelsucky in the last few years

 

[RedheadDane]

Vos... is... cracking?

 

[lemon cheese cake]

I didn't have much hope for the course seeing as it was mtb trails, but it's pretty good actually.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

So what happened with regards to Vanthourenout? Marty MacDonald and Ian Field seemed to be suggesting he was disqualified and then the decision reversed. What was Toon Aerts saying during his interview as he did mention disqualificatie I think.

 

[Barkintheeye]

The Fayetteville course looked okay as part of the cup but as a World Championship course I just don’t like it. Technically unchallenging for the elite riders and likely to be even less technical with more rain and mud and simply an attritional slug fest for those with the highest FTP. Congratulations to Van Aert who is likely to benefit. It’s all fine with courses like Dendermonde etc in the cup races but a WC should in my view be a course that challenges the riders like Namur, Zolder, Zonhoven, Hoogerheide etc.

Vos looked really solid until she surprisingly broke. Brand - maybe not the most technically exciting rider - strong as usual. The big positives are Blanka Vas and Pieterse that will make their mark soon enough. Honzinger maybe should work on her starts.

Mens race? It was taken off and down from Youtube I guess for infringing transmission rights of Discovery and GCN. Too bad that these races cannot be watched afterwards. Still from the race recap it looked to be a quite unspectacular and uneventful mud race without the three Big. With the risk of sounding like a whiny I hope for more when the World Championship comes

 

[Axel Hangleck]

I think we've already discussed the recent 'unchallenging' World Championship courses......Saying that, at least this course isn't flat - there is a climb, and a descent in it, so that is something. But, it seems as if they prefer venues which are mainly flat - I'd love to see Namur as a Worlds course.

Don't get me started on the coverage.....it's just average.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

I think it was Iserbyt or Vanthourenout who said it was similar to Valkenburg in the pre race interviews. After watching Curtis Whyte and Kerry Werner's prerides from the day before, that was my same view. Athough probably more the original Valkenburg prior to the changes for the world champs.

 

[ooo]

Why do they have changed order of Men's and Women's race for round 3?

Don't get me started on the coverage.....it's just average.

I am afraid it's below average.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Why do they have changed order of Men's and Women's race for round 3?

I am afraid it's below average.

I believe it was originally focused on having the men's race on prime time tv in Belgium and was also like that for the Trek Waterloo WC a couple of years ago. As neither Trek nor Fayetteville switched round, I guess it's just a recent tradition the organisers of the Jingle Cross have continued on.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

Why do they have changed order of Men's and Women's race for round 3?

I am afraid it's below average.

Well, yes. When you've watched a season of MTB on Red Bull TV, you realise the CX coverage isn't anywhere near good enough.

 

[Matteo Declercq]

Today I did the lap @Ruddervoorde (Superprestige Pro Cross next Saturday) : You can watch my GoPro Lap Course Preview on my YouTube channel :

View: https://youtu.be/gDZLwmZupZA


Kind regards from Belgium,

Matteo

 

[TourOfSardinia]

At Ruddervoorde
GCN hit a commentary low today.
Not even ambient sound.
Just a single guy that sounds like he's commentating out of his bedroom.

 

[Ricco']

At Ruddervoorde
GCN hit a commentary low today.
Not even ambient sound.
Just a single guy that sounds like he's commentating out of his bedroom.

They had two but one was muted for almost all the race, although they only realized that midway through the race. They don't have one person in regie who can check if all is well in the output provided by their media player to the consumers?

But the worst was the video mixing of Ronde van Drenthe for a couple of times during the race.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

Since Covid, very few of the GCN/Eurosport commentaries are ' on site'; it's from their HQ in Bath, I think. Maybe it's a cost thing as well.
Yet, a lot of MTB events have been 'on site' - whether it's MTB World Cup, Red Bull Hardline/ Rampage, Enduro World Series; the atmosphere comes across better as well.

 

[RedheadDane]

Small front-duo in Zonhoven. Iserbyt and Van Der Haar.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

Two decent races - but the women's race was the better, and more interesting. The amount of youngsters looks promising. Pieterse, Van Anrooij, Van Empel and the relevant unknown French youngster - Line Burquier; who won the Junior MTB XCO Worlds at Val di Sole 2 months ago. One wonders were all the Belgian women are?

 

[glassmoon]

Do we know when MVP , WVA and Pidders are starting to race?

 

[Lequack]

Do we know when MVP , WVA and Pidders are starting to race?

Apparently for Wout and MVDP not until the end of November / start of December. Not sure about Pidcock. But it's quite a wait and they will miss almost half the CX season.