Race Thread

[Hugh Januss]

My annual 'issue' with CX....power overcomes skills/ technique more often than not......too many courses favour power. (Saying that, Brand's skills have improved massively over the years).

I have that same problem with Grand Tours.

 

[jono]

Top North Americans were Tyler Clark (Canada, 37th) and Rafaelle Carrier (Canada, 25th). Carrier was also the youngest rider in the top 30.

 

[Barkintheeye]

My annual 'issue' with CX....power overcomes skills/ technique more often than not......too many courses favour power. (Saying that, Brand's skills have improved massively over the years).

I was amazed to see how good Brand actually look on the bike. A couple of years ago she looked like the average master rider but now she sits well, passes the technical sections with determination and makes only few mistakes. She really must have put amounts of time and effort into becoming a real cross rider. She has earned her victories.

MVDP not convincing as previous years but still a solid performance winning an eighth time in Antwerpen. Happy to see a strong comeback by Ronhaar and not a bad performance by Wout.

Antwerpen is one of my favorite courses to watch. Very nice racing!

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

MvdP!

WvA not quite sharp (yet?).

Nys?!

Solid races by top 7.

He looked like he was on a training ride.

Wout seemed totally fine with his form at this point, so he'll be 2nd step pretty soon. That MvdP however, will not be beaten at P-R, at least by Wout, barring some mechanical or crash by Mathieu...Pog...well, any race he's in is winnable for him.

Tip o' the hat to del Grosso. Great ride!

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Top North Americans were Tyler Clark (Canada, 37th) and Rafaelle Carrier (Canada, 25th). Carrier was also the youngest rider in the top 30.

Man, Strohmeyer went from promising to WTF? in the span of 3 weeks. He did finish as last person on the lead lap, which is admirable considering Mathieu was lapping people by the 4th lap.

 

[jono]

He looked like he was on a training ride.

Wout seemed totally fine with his form at this point, so he'll be 2nd step pretty soon. That MvdP however, will not be beaten at P-R, at least by Wout, barring some mechanical or crash by Mathieu...Pog...well, any race he's in is winnable for him.

If I'm Wout van Aert, I'm not happy about getting passed in the last lap by Ronhaar, Vandeputte, and del Grosso. The flat was 3 laps earlier and Wout had had two laps to sit in before that point. Perhaps he was saving his bullets knowing the podium was likely out of reach.

 

[jono]

MVDP not convincing as previous years but still a solid performance winning an eighth time in Antwerpen. Happy to see a strong comeback by Ronhaar and not a bad performance by Wout.

I thought that was pretty convincing. He shipped about 20-25 seconds on the 7th lap with his flat, but was in control the entire time without having to extend himself.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

You would need to have some awfully big gaps in skill to overcome the power differences. It's not like Brand rides like a donkey skill-wise, but she has a reserve of power from her years on the road that is not matched by anyone in the current field. Power will always be decisive in a cycling discipline.

In my opinion, off-road racing shouldn't just be who has the most power........

I know the Pinkbike community (yes I know) often moan about superior fitness beating skills in XCO - even Jenny has commented about XCO courses not being technical enough.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

I was amazed to see how good Brand actually look on the bike. A couple of years ago she looked like the average master rider but now she sits well, passes the technical sections with determination and makes only few mistakes. She really must have put amounts of time and effort into becoming a real cross rider. She has earned her victories.

As she hinted pre-race Brand trained this year to face up to a race-fit Van Empel
and when that didn't happen - she was streets a head.

 

[Hugh Januss]

If I'm Wout van Aert, I'm not happy about getting passed in the last lap by Ronhaar, Vandeputte, and del Grosso. The flat was 3 laps earlier and Wout had had two laps to sit in before that point. Perhaps he was saving his bullets knowing the podium was likely out of reach.

I didn't see much sitting in? Wout came out of the pit in 9th place and by the beginning of the last lap he was 4th and towing the others in pursuit of Sweek and Verstrynge. Seemed to me like he just kind of shut off the power when he saw he wasn't going to make the podium.

 

[jono]

I didn't see much sitting in? Wout came out of the pit in 9th place and by the beginning of the last lap he was 4th and towing the others in pursuit of Sweek and Verstrynge. Seemed to me like he just kind of shut off the power when he saw he wasn't going to make the podium.

Looking at the lap times it seems your view of events is closer to the truth. I was just struck by how long it took him to go from sitting in the wheel of Mees Hendrickx to gaining a handful of seconds by the end of the lap.

Can Wout put out an MVDP-type effort for more than two laps in a row? This remains to be seen.