• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

Race Thread

Page 188 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Mvdp is the better crosser, having more explosivity and technique. So mvdp is almost always having an advantage. But as you say yourself, Wva has more (diesel)power, so the muddier / more running, the less of a disadvantage Wva has. That’s not a myth, as the results say so.
While I agree that Wout is better at sustained efforts and is probably also the slightly better runner the difference when both are in top form and having a great day is minimal. It should also be noted that Wout and Mathieu have different preferences in specific cycling disciplines and train accordingly. I’m certain that Mathieu has spent significantly less time in the windtunnel perfecting his position for time trialing (as well as climbing). I think Mathieu has proven that even with less training in that regard he could get great results if he did focus more on say time trialing (sustained efforts).

Furthermore, Mathieu has beaten Wout on mud courses plenty of times as well. I feel Dendermonde has propelled this “difference” to stupid heights.

I’d love to see a proper list of all the muddy/sandy courses they both have contested to see what the results indicate.
 
Last edited:
Mega Massive sprint. These two guys are insane. Here's hoping this is the setup to a great year on the road for MVDP. #5 rainbow after this season must be sweet.
I fear that on the road if they are in small elite groups at the end of races like RVV, one of the other riders will win as MVDP and WVA look at each to see who will chase. Unless one of them gets away solo well before the finish.
 
I reckon both of them now fully realize how important their rivalry is for:
  1. the attention of the crowd;
  2. the attention of the media;
  3. the attention of the sponsors;
  4. their sponsor deals;
or in the end: the rivalry makes both of them very rich, much more than if one of them wouldn't be there. They even realize that their rival winning is better for rivalry, that's why they don't care too much anymore if they miss a win or 2, as long as both of them win, and they have a race until the end, they have a good business model.

That’s absolutely true and Mathieu alluded (albeit a little vaguely) to most of your points above. Personally I concur and any race - CX or road - where these two are absent and not battling each other is massively less interesting.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Volderke
Perhaps not the best examples, Dubendorf was when Wou was still reovering from his Tour crash, he maybe would have still been beaten in Ostende, but he did puncture.

Dubendorf you’re right. Ostende not really. I did a write up of each lap (here in this Race thread) and both of them had their mishaps. In the end MVDP rode the sand sections better and distanced Wout on lap 5 and from there the race was more or less over.
 
While I agree that Wout is better at sustained efforts and is probably also the slightly better runner the difference when both are in top form and having a great day is minimal. It should also be noted that Wout and Mathieu have different preferences in specific cycling disciplines and train accordingly. I’m certain that Mathieu has spent significantly less time in the windtunnel perfecting his position for time trialing (as well as climbing). I think Mathieu has proven that even with less training in that regard he could get great results if he did focus more on say time trialing (sustained efforts).

Furthermore, Mathieu has beaten Wout on mud courses plenty of times as well. I feel Dendermonde has propelled this “difference” to stupid heights.

I’d love to see a proper list of all the muddy/sandy courses they both have contested to see what the results indicate.

Yup, Mathieu has bested Wout many more times in Koksijde, Antwerpen and Zonhoven than the opposite. Mol (Zilvermeer) might be even or advantage Wout?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Spine Concept
I thought it was a pretty anaemic course; nowhere to make a real difference technically.....the off-camber section is far shorter than where we've seen Alvarado, PFP & Neff crash.

Tulett is actually named on the Ineos MTB team for this season.....which was a surprise to see. I think Pidcock mentioned he's fallen in love with CX again......so hopefully he'll do more.

Yes, yesterday's races, though not as close, were far better due to the rain. Very dull course when it's dry, and there's too many of them being introduced to the world Cup recently.

Still, nice to see MVDP in shape for the classics, and fantastic crowd.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Axel Hangleck
Do we believe Wout's comments in the past few days about how another CX rainbow jersey would not be such an important addition to his palmarès, downplaying the significance of today's outcome? Or did he know he was already on the down side of his form curve and trying to soften the blow for himself.

His reactions post facto suggest that this result did hurt - the one season when he consistently had the upper hand over MVDP he was unable to deliver the blow. Which is good, of course. Champions should not take losses lightly.
 
I could happily have watched that battle for another half hour, but I don't understand why it lasted as long as it did. They finished lap 2 on 13:20; 9 x 6:40 is exactly one hour, so by what warped version of Maths did they work out that the number of laps to get nearest to the hour would be 10? Although it obviously didn't work out that way, I would suspect that Van Aert would benefit more from greater duration, so it didn't seem like a decision to advantage the home rider. Probably made no difference, and extended the entertainment, but seemed odd.

Would have enjoyed it even more with the course in yesterday's condition, but a great battle. Who was it recently described it as human powered Formula 1?

I think World Championships have special durations and are supposed to last more than 1 hour and not close to 1 hour. Being the most important race of the season, I think it's important that it runs closer to 1h10.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Axel Hangleck
Yes, yesterday's races, though not as close, were far better due to the rain. Very dull course when it's dry, and there's too many of them being introduced to the world Cup recently.

And next year's Worlds is in Tabor - another fairly bland course; there must be other venues in Czechia they could use.

Anyway, another World title for Alpecin, who now has CX, XCC, XCM & Gravel World champions.......probably cycling's best multi discipline team.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Pantani_lives
A moment that I had totally forgotten about, but was confirmed in my memory just now on Instagram, is Michael van den Ham crashing, seeing his finger on his left hand dislocated at an absurd angle, and then popping it back into place.

View: https://www.instagram.com/p/CoSyiyZjpQF/
I saw that and wondered “did he really just do that?”
He didn’t seem to give it a moments thought or grit his teeth—more akin (to a viewer) to his chain falling off and him slipping it back on :eek:
 
The drone footage was pretty useless, it was blocky quality and really only had a weird angle that didn't really show much.
When I'm thinking drone cycling shots this is something I have in mind:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8Pm5Cxe5cs
In some ways it’s not really needed for pro cross racing since cameras are placed to cover virtually every inch of the course.

They should use them for bad- weather road racing when the fixed wing & helps can’t fly and we lose coverage.
 
I agree with the critics of this course. It wasn't selective in the slightest, though had the weather turned, we'd likely have a much different discussion. Chapeau to MvdP. I would have liked to see LvdH in 3rd over Iserbyt, though. Felt as though he pulled Eli a few laps. Of course, I also wanted Sweeck on the podium but realized there was scant chance of that on this course.
 
Well, we've had a splendid cross weekend. In most categories there was one clear favorite who went solo. The climax was a close duel between two giants. It was one of the best world championships ever.

The organisation and the transmission were flawless. An innovation was the use of drones with camera. It looked like a 3D video game, but it was live. I hope they'll do this more often.
 

TRENDING THREADS