Race Thread

[TourOfSardinia]

Oh Tibault!

 

[jmdirt]

Solid start to the CX season for TN!

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Oh Tibault!

Yeah, it was like the gods kept flicking him today. It was kind of amusing, even though I cheer for him, normally.

But Joris winning is always my preference.

 

[logeardaddy]

CX in Switzerland seems to be for XC rejects

And XC is for those who can't make the ski team.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

A lot of bad news on the injury front this weekend that hasn't been discussed yet:
- Iserbyt is experiencing the same symptoms as he had before his iliac artery surgery again. He was supposed to return in eight days from now in Niel, instead there are rumours about him not racing at all this season and Mettepenningen refused to rule out it being a career-ender
- Alvarado was supposed to start her season in Tabor, that has been postponed indefinitely
- Also no timeframe for Worst's return

 

[stonerider]

Yeah, it was like the gods kept flicking him today. It was kind of amusing, even though I cheer for him, normally.

But Joris winning is always my preference.

I feel like Nys' problems are totally mental. He does lose focus too easily.

 

[Davesta]

I feel like Nys' problems are totally mental. He does lose focus too easily.

I suspect yesterday was due to fatigue from Saturday’s race - he was making uncharacteristically sloppy errors and was clearly easily irritated by them & whatever bike issues he had.
It was noticeable that Mason also had a lacklustre day - despite a decent start, he quickly went backwards and never featured, finishing 3mins down.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Alicia Franck out until January with mononucleosis. Feels like a pretty bad season in terms of major health issues so far.

 

[Hugh Januss]

A lot of bad news on the injury front this weekend that hasn't been discussed yet:
- Iserbyt is experiencing the same symptoms as he had before his iliac artery surgery again. He was supposed to return in eight days from now in Niel, instead there are rumours about him not racing at all this season and Mettepenningen refused to rule out it being a career-ender
- Alvarado was supposed to start her season in Tabor, that has been postponed indefinitely
- Also no timeframe for Worst's return

Does anyone know what's ailing Van Empel? After dropping out on Saturday at the first time passing the pit she was a DNS on Sunday. I didn't hear any mention regarding her absence on the Sunday coverage.

 

[RedheadDane]

Guess that answers that question:

Spirende stjerne skifter nationalitet: - Danmark er mit andet hjem

Har Danmark fået sig en ny cross-stjerne?

www.feltet.dk

(Love how they try to make it seem impressive that he finished just behind Nys... leaving out that Nys had an absolutely horrible day...)

 

[CXXC]

Does anyone know what's ailing Van Empel? After dropping out on Saturday at the first time passing the pit she was a DNS on Sunday. I didn't hear any mention regarding her absence on the Sunday coverage.

It has been mentioned upthread , I don't think she is in a good place mentally .
I have seen recent races where van Empel appears to be going well, pits then just fades away?

 

[Sciatic]

It has been mentioned upthread , I don't think she is in a good place mentally .
I have seen recent races where van Empel appears to be going well, pits then just fades away?

Yeah, she lost places so quickly on Sat I assumed it had to be a flat or a gearing problem . . . until she got off and shook her head in the pits.

 

[jono]

Guess that answers that question:

Spirende stjerne skifter nationalitet: - Danmark er mit andet hjem

Har Danmark fået sig en ny cross-stjerne?

www.feltet.dk

(Love how they try to make it seem impressive that he finished just behind Nys... leaving out that Nys had an absolutely horrible day...)

Don't we all do these same sort of rationalizations with our own race results?

 

[Wyndbrook]

Don't we all do these same sort of rationalizations with our own race results?

Absolutely I used to.

But actually it was a very good result for Groenendaal, some very decent riders just behind him. Horny, Kamp, Orts, Ferdinande and Tom Meeusen.

 

[RedheadDane]

Don't we all do these same sort of rationalizations with our own race results?

I've never raced...

(Racing against myself/the wind to not get late for work doesn't count.)

 

[harrybo]

When,s Puck back?
We heading to Benidom in January, hopefully she,ll be there
I know where she,ll not be.. Dublin.... we had great days out there past 2 years, not best pleased with that omission

 

[Axel Hangleck]

Puck shouldn't be back for a while; her form dropped off a cliff after the Tour - and she was miles away from top form.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

Euros at Middelkerke - only the Elites get coverage (similar to the XC Euro champs).

Already two races, and a win for Czechia & Italy......Bukovska & Agostinacchio. Don't think the former is on any major team (3rd in the XCO Worlds) but the latter is now with EF-Easypost.

 

[theyoungest]

Women's elite race decided by which Dutch woman gets a gap first. Van Empel, Pieterse, Van Anrooij, Alvarado aren't there? No problem, still a fully Dutch podium.

 

[CXXC]

Great to see national colours out however field appeared rather small? Tricky course saw various errors with van der Heijden holding it together best after taking early lead.

 

[RedheadDane]

So, random question:

On a route like this weekend (Euros, specifically), do they schedule the races as to not get into "conflict" with the tide?
Or do they just make sure there's space for the riders?

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Women's races are really suffering from not having Fem, Shirin, Puck, and Ceylin racing. Today was slightly interesting, but not overly so. Lucinda kept doing the "I'll help close in the sand, but you're going to need to catch her on the faster parts" with Casasola, but past that, it was a snoozefest.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

The races have been really good, but I wish Alvarado were racing, because she'd make them ever better.

And yes, I know I wrote this just a week ago. The earlier races were good, but without some of the other stars starting to show up, I think it will be the Lucinda Brand show for the most part, with a sprinkling of other riders winning. It would be nice to see some nuclear racing.

 

[CXXC]

So, random question:

On a route like this weekend (Euros, specifically), do they schedule the races as to not get into "conflict" with the tide?
Or do they just make sure there's space for the riders?

My guess is that the course would require to have the min course width of 3m at high tide , then tide times would not be an issue.

 

[theyoungest]

Women's races are really suffering from not having Fem, Shirin, Puck, and Ceylin racing. Today was slightly interesting, but not overly so. Lucinda kept doing the "I'll help close in the sand, but you're going to need to catch her on the faster parts" with Casasola, but past that, it was a snoozefest.

I'd just like to see Aniek van Alphen win a race. She's long overdue. If everyone can win, as seems to be the case this season, surely Aniek can as well.