Just watched the replay (winter cross is simply too early in the morning here), was surprised to see such a runaway from the outset. Was Inge VDH already known for her sand-riding skills? Also interesting to see some 2nd-group syndrome with Casasola and Brand in the early laps. Haven't seen that too often in cross races.
Something I don't want to see in off-road racing - leave that for Road races.......Just ride for yourself as is meant, despite the jersey.
agreed. I didn't mean that I liked it, but found it humorous since I hadn't noticed it often in cross races before.
I maybe wrong but it looked to me that as soon as Van der Heijden took the lead she double benefited from Brand not chasing her national teammate and Cassasola not being prepared to chase her trade teammate.
Said, slightly with tongue in cheek; have British Cycling actually sent a team? 3 races, and not one Top 10......I think Zoe Roche was prominent early in the Juniors, but soon went backwards. There is talent in UK cycling, not enough is seen in Cyclocross/ XC MTB at the moment.
This is why you really need to practice your hard starts for CX, especially if you're a Dutch woman.
True, but four races in as I write and two bronzes for Belgium is not great, unlikely to win a medal in U23 women. All down to senior men this afternoon.
With the best will in the world, both of the women are making up the numbers, and are nowhere near getting a Top 10 result. Take Zoe away, and it's not great. Cam may do quite well, and is in good form but I'm not sure it's a course that suits him.
That's the same in nearly every championship, and we know why: Belgium is the only nation that takes cyclocross seriously as a profession. For the other nations it's mainly a talent development tool, so all the biggest talents disappear from cross... apart from the Belgians.
For the women it's a bit more complicated, since there you have the added problem that for a long time Belgian cycling was really unemancipated, so the Dutch still have an advantage.
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Huh? I didn't know Van Der Haar apparently has a bit of a "Thing" with re-setting a dislocated shoulder...
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Exciting finish, Aerts beating the youngsters.
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The EC CX championship delivered some nice racing. Middelkerke is a type of course I like to watch and race myself. Only slight note (complaint) is that the best elite men are so skilled that very few mistakes (despite not being an easy course) are made and hence it's more or less down to sustainable power which makes the race more predictable and 'linear'. I guess I like better courses where unpredictable things happens like Namur and alike.
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I thought the opposite - there were a lot of mistakes made by the elite men, which is why the race situation changed & shifted so much. None of the errors were Casasola-esque and race ending for anyone, but rather small and subtle errors that cost riders 3-5 seconds, but which meant they went from the front of the group to the back, or from group 1 to group 2 (and equally some super skilled riding, like Aerts riding the sandy uphill, that took them from group 2 to group 1)…it made for a brilliant race - who would’ve put money on Aerts after 30-40mins of the race!?
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The only prior Elite mens race on this course was the Belgian Nationals 3 years ago where Van Aert rolled off the front before the half way point and finished about one and a half minutes before Sweek. This race was a lot more exciting and I'm a Van Aert fan.
If a bad race on Saturday wasn't bad enough, Cyclism'Actu reports that Marion Norbert Riberolle was struck by a motor vehicle while riding on Sunday. Fortunately she suffered no serious consequences.
- May 5, 2010
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Van der Haar has hypermobility. In his case this means dislocating his shoulder is a fairly common thing. It has happened to him multiple times during races, and he always sets it himself.
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Okay, I have a bit of a silly confession to make.
I didn't actually notice at first that you were replying to that earlier post of mine, and not the one about the guy with the ironing board, so I was actually wondering if VdH had figured that using an ironing board to set his shoulder worked, so he'd asked a mate to hang around with one... just in case.
(I obviously also hadn't studied the startlist closely.)
As you say, no serious injuries, but having a cut on your arse stapled does not sound fun.
I'm beginning to wonder if the Holmgrens have plans to race 'cross at all this year. They haven't dropped into any North American races yet this season, nor are they in the registrant list for this weekend's national championships. Still time to sign up, but if they miss out it would the first time since the double cancellations in 2020 and 2021.
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