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Race Thread

Page 96 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
I guess the more its ridden the snow gets easier to ride.
Unlike mud.
Ma be the should reverse the Womens the Mens order for snow.
I would say it's more difficult. Where it's rutting up, for instance at the top of the running hill and the short off camber uphill it's getting more powedery, so the looser snow is harder. Other parts it's compacting which although generally makes it more predictable in a straight line on the flat it will also become more slippery. Compacted parts will freeze more easliy and become an ice rink. Think Bieles on the first day when Pidcock, Worst Cant won where it was pretty sketchy on the parts that still had compacted snow/ice on.
 
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Van Aert and Vanthourenhout were outstanding technically in Overijse as well as today so both deservedly #1 and 2. MV doesn’t have the sustained power to match WvA but his technique is absolutely top world class.

Course and racing possibly better than expected, particularly the women’s race. Lovely to see Van Empel take it. Yet, hats off to Vos who rode an exceptional race (never thought of her as a very technical rider but that was wrong).
 
Yesterday I watched my first ever cyclocross race. How fun! And today was even more fun!
Some pics

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I had never seen cyclocross until yesterday, so watching this today was my second ever. I loved it so much! :hearteyes: It's the weirdest sport I have ever seen. I laugh my ass both yesterday and today, because it's so weird! But so fun! Also Pidcock looked so embarrassed when he couldn´t open his champagne and Van Aert had to do it for him. :tearsofjoy:
 
A double world cup this weekend in Rucphen and Namur. Rucphen was supposed to be where Mathieu van der Poel returned to action, but has been sidelined for another week until the race at Dendermonde. However Rucphen will see a lot of riders who've been training in warmer climes come back and also many of the north american riders are starting their european campaign following the US and Panam Champs over the past couple of weekends.

Rucphen is a new course, but has hosted the Dutch national champs and also a C2 uci race in the past. From memory of watching the dutch champs and also looking at the map, i'm expecting it to be a fast race although this video by Twan van Gendt suggests it might start to cut up in a few places, especially as the weather has been pretty damp over the past few days in the netherlands. It looks pretty technical, with many corners, a sand pit, hurdles, two sets of steps and a 'spiral of doom'. The steps arent long but the first set are awkwardly approached in a parallel direction, while the second set are slightly longer but really shallow. Not a big fan of the spiral, but I saw somewhere that it's smaller than previously.

View: https://youtu.be/_s2zAF7xiYA


Namur appears to be almost the same as last year, with only the pits and finish line moved to slightly different locations around the big square area and the start being moved to it's more traditional location of the road below the square. Interestingly the finish comes after the run up as opposed to following the long climb that causes issues at the start and twisty descent.
parcours-uci-world-cup-namur-cyclocross-wereldbeker-2021.jpg
 
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Rucphen is a bit, meh....doesn't look too challenging, but might provide decent racing. However, Namur, well it's probably the biggest test of the season. Though I'm still not sure about the cobbled climb they introduced a few years ago......
Yeah, it was already a pretty brutal course and I'm not sure what the cobbles actually really add to it. I do hope some landscaping has been done to the camber that follows it, as it's become a bit of a motorway these past couple of seasons.
 

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