Race Thread

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Outside of MvdP & Pidcock, I thought Hermans & Vermeersch both rode good races first time out; I'm more convinced than ever that being on a WT team is a massive benefit; a far bigger training base, and better training camps in sunnier climes.


As for tomorrow, Namur, the closest CX comes to XC MTB; after today, I think Brand can maintain her winning run there, Alvarado may push her - and maybe Puck will find her MTB legs at last.

As for the men's, if Pidcock has recovered, then it's a course that should suit him, but Lars, and MVTH may challenge; Eli has never really gone well there - and Cam's starts are becoming a problem.

Yeah...front row to 20something back to 5th. Way too much energy wasted by getting waxed in the 1st 1/4 lap. That has to change.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

MVDP looks fully healthy. Been a long while since you could say that. In CX, when MVDP is healthy it's really the Big 1.5, then Piddy, then everyone else. Too explosive and too much of handle for Wout to deal with on anything other than an extremely heavy course. Wout is smooth in his own way, but MVDP is on a whole different level in terms of carrying speed in an out of corners, over the barriers, etc., etc. It all adds up...The dude looks like Secretariat on bike when he's on form.

Yeah, today everything he did looked effortless. It's beautiful to watch, but from a racing standpoint, it makes it less exciting. I though the coverage today was pretty good, as they did concentrate on the 2-5 race, because it was a great race back there.

 

[Bolder]

There's always a "yeah, but..." when MvdP and/or Wout aren't racing. I don't think that's good for the sport.

 

[theyoungest]

I felt that way last year, but feel the opposite this year. It's more interesting racing when they're not there. I don't think Wout will challenge MVdP this year. It's going to be more like FvE in the women's field, though with her being a bit sick, Brand put on a great show. I'd rather watch a competitive race than what happened today.

It's sport, sometimes you have an athlete who is just stronger. In the women's races it was Van Empel until now, in the men's races it's probably going to be Van der Poel. As we've seen from yesterday's women's race, not much has to happen, and what seemed so easy suddenly isn't that easy anymore. Which only goes to show how special it is that they can dominate races like that.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

On to today, and more excellent junior racing, and the French seem to have a load of talented youngsters.......Yet most will be lost to CX....

Celia Gery wins again - and I'll ask the question - is she attracting the attention of the WT/CX teams? She's beaten Cat Ferguson again.....yet the latter seems to be talked up all the time....

And another good race by Chladanova......like Zemanova she's also overlooked.....

We talk about making the sport more international; it doesn't help when the mainly Belgian teams don't sign youngsters from non Benelux countries.......

 

[stonerider]

I also enjoy the return of MvdP, Wout and Tom to the CX fields. Only then do I know how good the full-time CX racers are going. Without the big 2 + Pidcock in the race I always wonder if anyone has closed the gap. The answer to that question was answered yesterday for me...nope, not this year.

 

[theyoungest]

On to today, and more excellent junior racing, and the French seem to have a load of talented youngsters.......Yet most will be lost to CX....

Celia Gery wins again - and I'll ask the question - is she attracting the attention of the WT/CX teams? She's beaten Cat Ferguson again.....yet the latter seems to be talked up all the time....

And another good race by Chladanova......like Zemanova she's also overlooked.....

We talk about making the sport more international; it doesn't help when the mainly Belgian teams don't sign youngsters from non Benelux countries.......

There's a Viktoria Chladonova on Instagram who has 15 followers. Two of them are Rutger Tijssen (Van Empel's trainer) and Dieter Vanthourenhout. I don't even know if it's the Chladonova, but clearly some are trying to contact her

 

[theyoungest]

Backburners blocking the way on the off camber... ridiculous.

 

[pmcg76]

Fantastic by Alvarado today, thought she was a bit off her best in Dublin and last week Bakker was just better technically.
Fem is still the best, but I think right now Alvardo is next in line. Pieterse and Van Anrooij are not at the same level as last year, but improving, pity Shirin crashed as she was up to 4th at the time I think. Brand there or thereabouts, the Christmas period will be interesting, but hard to see Fem being beaten if on form.

 

[Tim Cahill]

PIdcock wins

Rip GCN+

 

[jono]

On to today, and more excellent junior racing, and the French seem to have a load of talented youngsters.......Yet most will be lost to CX....

It's always interesting to see how the North Americans stack up in the sub-elite categories. Decent finish from Rafaelle Carrier in 8th. She's younger than most of her competitors and dominated the junior women's category in the US races this season. Some work to do to challenge for the podium.

 

[Bolder]

PIdcock wins

Rip GCN+

His xc skills were apparent today. And he won despite starting in 35th spot, dropping a chain and flatting.

Pidcock is such an interesting rider. He’s very much like Wout in he’s both a diesel and a sprinter, too. He was pushing a bigger gear today than most of the cx specialists.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

In 2023, Pidcock has won a World Tour road race, XCC & XCC World Cups, XCO World championship, and now a CX World Cup. Impressive versatility - and some people still criticise him.
And the second British XCO World champion to win a CX World Cup in Namur....

 

[Barkintheeye]

His xc skills were apparent today. And he won despite starting in 35th spot, dropping a chain and flatting.

Pidcock is such an interesting rider. He’s very much like Wout in he’s both a diesel and a sprinter, too. He was pushing a bigger gear today than most of the cx specialists.

He has an impressive sustainable power just like Wout (but less of course) so similar rider characteristics. Yet he cannot really match either Wout or Mathieu. He is in that gap between those two and the rest of the best.

Great two rides by PP. Not at par with Van Empel yet but a lot better. Alvarado shows class. Maybe the most skillful female rider. Brand compensates her massive power with almost amateurish technical ability. She looks more like a master rider than a pro.

 

[Wyndbrook]

'Tom Pied D'Coq' according to the cardboard sign today.

 

[Hugh Januss]

'Tom Pied D'Coq' according to the cardboard sign today.

I saw that. Couldn't make out if they were fans or hecklers.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

I saw that. Couldn't make out if they were fans or hecklers.

I thought it said "Tom PED D'Coq" and was wondering why someone would be that disrespectful.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

It took me almost the whole of both races, but I was finally able work out the new graphic they had was the time between each end of the straight. Although I don't know what it meant by things such as 48 stops? While it was good once or twice showing the difference in pitting or not, as it was quite a fast pit, I think it would have been better to present it live for somewhere such as the long camber or the final runup.

 

[Ricco']

It took me almost the whole of both races, but I was finally able work out the new graphic they had was the time between each end of the straight. Although I don't know what it meant by things such as 48 stops? While it was good once or twice showing the difference in pitting or not, as it was quite a fast pit, I think it would have been better to present it live for somewhere such as the long camber or the final runup.

Maybe the number of riders who have stopped there during the race?

I don't get why they removed the last feature you talk about. A couple of years ago I remember them having on screen in the Namur race, at least, with some timing informations in specific sectors of the track.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

It was interesting to see the time penalty in taking a pit stop. Unfortunately the commentator decided to talk about one rider losing 3 or 4 seconds in the pits at exactly the same moment as the screen showed the time cost to be 0.9s

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Maybe the number of riders who have stopped there during the race?

I don't get why they removed the last feature you talk about. A couple of years ago I remember them having on screen in the Namur race, at least, with some timing informations in specific sectors of the track.

Yes exactly. While Velofacts does a good job of presenting this after the race, seeing it live or delayed with an overall graphic each lap like in the past would be good.
Maybe my memory is that bad that I already can't remember yesterday, but they also don't show an image of the track before anymore. Having this back in general would be good, and maybe adding dots of where the split points are could also be useful.

 

[theyoungest]

The pit stop information was a nice gimmick but ultimately rather pointless. Especially the total number of stops, completely irrelevant. It would be more interesting to see the times for a particular climb, or for the off camber. Indeed like Velofacts already does (so apparently these numbers are available somewhere).

 

[jono]

The pit stop information was a nice gimmick but ultimately rather pointless. Especially the total number of stops, completely irrelevant. It would be more interesting to see the times for a particular climb, or for the off camber. Indeed like Velofacts already does (so apparently these numbers are available somewhere).

I do recall that the broadcast for the World Champs at Ostend included a couple of time splits (sand section, flyover climb) at various points throughout the course. Check it out on GCN+ if you like (until tomorrow!) Much more useful than the pit lane splits.

 

[theyoungest]

I do recall that the broadcast for the World Champs at Ostend included a couple of time splits (sand section, flyover climb) at various points throughout the course. Check it out on GCN+ if you like (until tomorrow!) Much more useful than the pit lane splits.

Yeah, I remember that. There was this bridge they had to climb where one rider rode it in 7 seconds and the other in 6.8. That's the kind of information I'm looking for

 

[Barkintheeye]

I do recall that the broadcast for the World Champs at Ostend included a couple of time splits (sand section, flyover climb) at various points throughout the course. Check it out on GCN+ if you like (until tomorrow!) Much more useful than the pit lane splits.

I did manual clocking of each section for each lap at the Ostende WC (one of the absolute best races that season). The GCN numbers were more or less completely accurate. Wout lost the race in the sand on lap 5 (and due to a puncture arguably).