[Closed] UCI Cyclocross world championships

Can’t see Pidcock on the podium tbh. Men’s looks a bit of a forgone conclusion WvA for a sneaky podium place? Women’s should be a good race. Cant has got to be a good each way bet.
Mrs kilo and I going over to watch so no rain please!

Can’t see Pidcock on the podium tbh. Men’s looks a bit of a forgone conclusion WvA for a sneaky podium place?

Who are the dead certs? MvdP obviously, Eli Eiserbyt in second, probably. But third has been more of a lottery in the races I've watched this season, and WvA has been way off the pace other than at Zondeweg on Saturday. Maybe he's peaking at the right time? (I haven't watched Hoogerheide from Sunday yet because the feed I found was so poor.)

I'd love to see WvA up there. I thought he looked technically superior to MVDP at various parts of the race last saturday. I reckon 2nd and trid probably pretty wide open.

@kilo Have a good time over there, woudl love to go and watch a world cup / world champs at some point

Thought red bull would show all races that’s annoying. Looks very flat.

Lots of British interest in men’s u23s too. Thomas mein in with a shout.

Men’s elite Piddock has no chance in 3 from MVDP, wva, iiserbyt and toon.

Dutch 1-3 in women’s elite with maybe Richards as a curve ball. In u23 Anna looks to be struggling to hold form at the end of the season. A podium would be good now whereas a month ago top step was a possibility.

My tenner:
MVdP
WvA
Aerts
(perm any two from about 8 for the next couple - Iserbyt, Pidcock, Hermans, Swiek, Van T, ...)

In u23 Anna looks to be struggling to hold form at the end of the season

I was hoping she'd just been putting in a big training block with the aim of peaking for worlds but probably you are right

and WvA has been way off the pace other than at Zondeweg on Saturday. Maybe he’s peaking at the right time?

Still coming back from injury remember. Would be nice to see him podium though

Still coming back from injury remember. Would be nice to see him podium though

I didn't realise he'd been out for so long!

WvA is a master at peaking for the Worlds but I can only see MVdP as the winner by some margin. Pidcock does better on courses with more elevation where his slight build gives an advantage on the climbs but AFAIK the Worlds course is faily flat which suits the bigger more powerful riders. I think Aerts and Iserbyt the other two on the podium.

Who are the dead certs?

Idlejohn, I meant the winner of the men’s.

here his slight build gives an advantage on the climbs but AFAIK the Worlds course is faily flat which suits the bigger more powerful riders. I think Aerts and Iserbyt the other two on the podium.

Iserbyt is tiny as well, isn't he? (just looked it up - 1.65m compared to MvdP's 1.83.) Pidcock is 5ft 2" (1.57m apparently!)

Idlejohn, I meant the winner of the men’s.

Yeah, you'd guess so.

I'll be cheering on the NE's finest Anna and Thomo. Big crowd heading over but not me 🙁 Both in with a shot of medals. Anna has the form just not the luck recently. I think she suffered under the pressure of being the favourite at the nationals.

Hard to see beyond MvdP in the men's. Women's a bit more open and should be a cracking race.

You'd think that the mens at least would be a foregone conclusion, but anything can happen - just look at Alverado last week.

Women's Elite will be awesome - love watching Evie Richards tearing it up!

Not sure about the juniors, was a bit surprised to see Backstedt who did so well in the helen100 races not being selected for the women juniors

@Ferrals Backstedt is a youth not Junior

Women’s Elite will be awesome – love watching Evie Richards tearing it up!´
Was there a reason Evie Richards wasn't at the British Championships?

Iserbyt is tiny as well, isn’t he?
True but he is also a couple of years older than Pidcock which at that age makes a big difference.

@Jase - didnt realise that!

@Rotor_Stern - according to a podcast I listened too, the reason was to focus on training because she wants to qualify to go to the olympics MTB, and also to beter train pre-worlds.

Would love to see Anna Kay win U23, her last 3 seasons have been a great progression, last couple of weeks have been tough but she will want to end the season well.
Also she's a Gateshead lass therefore I always see her name above mine on strava segments round here.

There’s an Anna Kay watch party at pedalling squares cafe in Gateshead on Sunday if anyone wants to soak up the atmosphere and can’t stretch to Switzerland. Oh yeah and the men’s will be on too.

My five english pounds 6 shillings and 4 pence will be on :

MvdP

Iserbyt

Aerts

Can't see Wout being in the top 10 due to injury, but he does always perform very well in the Worlds. Pidcock for top 20.

BBC coverage:
Coverage: BBC Red Button, Sport website, app and connected TV Saturday 1 Feb: Men's U-23 race 11:50-13:15 Elite Women's race: 13:50-15:05, replay 17:25-18:40 (not Red Button) Sunday 2 Feb: Elite Men's race: 13:20-15:00 (not Red Button)

Haven't seen a course preview yet, but Dubendorf is pan-flat so expect it's going to be a high-speed dirt-grit with sharp corners, a few banks and longish straights which will suit power riders like MVdP, Toon Aerts and WvA and not the likes of Iserbyt and Pidcock in the men's and Kay in the women's.

entry info https://www.uci.org/cyclo-cross/events/uci-cyclo-cross-world-championships
Don't forget there are less riders at the worlds as there is a limit of riders per Nation.

Been on a airport it going to be flat with a few bank that normally used and wind and noise breaks at airports.
Not really seeing it be a total mud bath, as I reckon it be a bit of top soil over hard pack ground been man made area, maybe more risk of flats maybe?

Should be a good weekend of racing, with few GB riders in with a chance.
can't see past MvDP for the win, Pidock top 5, 3rd if luck goes his way.
Same with Evie, top 5, even top 3, I also think Compton might get a medal.
Also hope Beth Crumpton has a good race, and it was great to watch/help her at the Nat champs, she been chipping away all season and based herself out there

I Think HAttie H and Anna K are in with a real good chance of a medal, be great to see both get one, but like above it been a long season for Anna, so hope she had a very good tapper! Plus been a flat course not to her strength. I did hear she got a good contract for next year, (good wage, start money, win bonuses) which be maga if true.
Hattie should do well, she is a power house and watching her in the mud at Nat champs was impressive, I hope it is a bit muddy!

Just found this about the course,

There is also a Computer generated course preview on cycling news. Lots of people bemoaning how boring it looks. Lots of long straights by the looks of it. I’d say MVdP to win by a lap and a half! 😀

It’s true MvdP looks hot favourite but he also looked like a cert. for the road champs in Yorkshire,and look what happened there!I just hope for an exciting race,would love Wout to win after all he’s been through.Evie Ritchards could well win the women’s race,she has a great ability of rising to the big occasion as her win in the under 23 race last year shows,according to my TV listing the races are on the BBC red button as well,really looking forward to this.

Treating the family to a trip. Not sure how they'll vibe a wet, windswept airfield.

Will be interesting to see how the course holds up given the forecast. Everyone has been talking about fast and frozen.

Agree with all of the above. Course appears to suit Brand. Maybe A M Sausage in a sprint. Loved watching Alvarado step up this season but not sure if the track suits her. Evie put in a few digs at Hoogerheide, good at peaking off the back of little racing, she could be a good bet.

Barring illness (or getting his shoe stuck in a wheel) MvdP obvs. Wouldn't read too much into last Sat. He was looking SHARP come Sun. Anybody's guess thereafter. Toon starting to look good. Maybe Sweeck given his power. Would love to see Pidcock beat Eli the poisoned dwarf 🙂

Nice one Kilo for the beeb info.
Junior J & I will be cheering on Cameron & Tom . 🙂

Pidcock is 5ft 2″ (1.57m apparently!)

Unless he was stood on a box when I met him, he's certainly a lot taller than that, and at 5'2" 700c wheels would look huge next to him.

View this post on Instagram

Will be interesting to see how the course holds up given the forecast. Everyone has been talking about fast and frozen

Yes, 11degrees and heavy rain according to whatever the first online weather forecast came up when I googled it; area looking pretty waterlogged in this photo already:

Guess we'll see more photoes coming out this evening.

Bit of video from Sporza here: https://sporza.be/nl/2020/01/30/parcours-wk-veldrijden-beelden/

Good Find Ferrals,
Hope that cuts in, long grass, but the tufts of grass/bumps on the banks look awful!
looks like it end up with mainly one line when they get the riders on and smooth it out a bit,
going to be hard/lot of effort to get past people if that happens.

Looks a lot like some of the cow fields I've raced in on local league races!! excluding the multi storey bridges of course...

From the vid it kind of looked like the commisarie had an objection to the tussocks so maybe they'll take a strimmer to it. Looks drier than in the previous pictures too

Pidcock is 5ft 2″ (1.57m apparently!)
Unless he was stood on a box when I met him, he’s certainly a lot taller than that, and at 5’2″ 700c wheels would look huge next to him.

I just took that off The Internet! He doesn't look that small on the TV, although at Hoogerheide MvdP and WvA were striding over the hurdles while Pidcock had to actually heft his bike and jump. 😀

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCliNmKIxM3T2c4pU8ffv1Vg/videos

Well, after looking at the course previews ferrals links to up there, I suddenly feel spoilt - all of the National Trophy races we've had this year have been head a shoulders above that!

Still, the racing will be good, whatever the course. MVDP will walk it unless he punctures a thousand times (again...). I have hope for Pidcock to podium but I'm not 100% sure about it, as he tends to have starts as bad as mine and I can't see anyone as far back as he often ends up getting back on terms in this one off race.

It'll be weird watching WvA as an underdog!

Plenty of Brit podium possibilities all over the place, so it'll be a full weekend of cheering everyone on 🙂

Actual course preview from Kerry Werner:

Looks like bogense's flat cousin. Still the racing was good there even if not the most technically exciting. Think they could have made made more of that one bank they just ride along the crest of for 100m.

Ground conditions reported as heavy in the vid

Hopefully the racing will be good. Last years course looked pretty flat but the bank features were really decisive. Not sure the couple of banks shown in the vid will be big or bad enough to make a difference. Apart from that it’s a course that tests one ability; how much seated power a rider can put out. TT’s do that! A cx course should test a full range of power and handling skills. My opinion is that this was a really poor choice for a world champs and probably chosen for its ability to handle parking and spectators. Probably quite easy to televise too.

Looks like bogense’s flat cousin. Still the racing was good there even if not the most technically exciting

Bogense not technical? The off cambers there were so steep that you couldn't walk on them (I tried, always walk the course once the racing has finished), with large boulders to stop you if you got it wrong. On day one it was all polished snow and day two thick mud. It was far more tricky than any course you'd see in this country.

@LS - I was talking about from a TV viewing perspective obviously (though now I consider, I think I was thinking about the world cup the year before), as many people were running up and down the banking rather than riding down, which is less exciting to watch than riding the descents.. e.g I can still clearly see in my head that overtake by LVDH taking a tight line down that sandy drop to corner at Heusden-zolder in the 2016 world champs, where there is little clarity in my memory of watching bogense.

Still the proof will be in the viewing, very mixed views coming out on the social media I follow

Bogense has only ever had the Worlds on it so I think you might be remembering a different course! Valkenburg perhaps?

There was a world cup in Bogense the year before the world champs, and they tweaked the course after criticism.

Valkenburg was a cracking world championships was't it, with that savage rut going round the left hand corner, and I think Evie Richards won u23 and Ben Tullet junior?

If only I could remember as much useful stuff as I can trivia 🙂

Report on the course from Sven Nys here: https://sporza.be/nl/2020/01/31/sven-nys-treft-een-loodzwaar-wk-parcours-dit-had-niemand-verwa/

Worth looking at the state of his mech after a lap or two half way through the third video.
And because I'm a saddo I've google translated the text on the Sporza page...

Last night a guest at Extra Time Cross, this morning already on the World Championship course in Switzerland. Sven Nys set out to explore with his team in Dübendorf and finds that the great powers are allowed to rub their hands. Nys sees 3 reasons why it becomes a very difficult cross.

1. The steep verges: "Dangerous to hit the ground below"

Few altitude meters in Switzerland, but there are still a few roadside verges on the trail that are quite spicy. Sven Nys: "They are just verges, but they are very steep. In total there are five scattered throughout the course."

"Both the ascent and the descent are always very steep. And that makes it difficult. You can hardly stay straight here, keeping a grip is very difficult. Most of them hold onto the wood of the fence. But if you are here with 4 consecutively, you are down in a traffic jam. "

"In the descent it is essential to immediately click in your pedals. If you don't, it is very dangerous to hit the ground below. Certainly if some mud clicks under your pedals, you must have faith in the movement that you make. "

2. Steep bridges: "They will start hurting, for sure"

In the run-up to the World Cup, there was some laughter about the large number of bridges in the otherwise mountainous Switzerland.

"They are not just bridges, they are really difficult", the double world champion states. "That has mainly to do with the ground just before the bridges, something that will only get worse due to the rainfall that is still expected."

"You can't make a lot of speed right in front of the bridges. That's why some women are already choosing another gear at the front just to get on it. Those bridges are going to start hurting, for sure."

"By the way, the bridge at the finish is crucial, because after the descent there is only 1 left turn and you have to start for the final sprint."

3. The background: "Certainly change your bike every round"

The route is already quite difficult during the exploration on Friday. With the expected rainfall, the World Cup promises not to be a flight meeting.

"If you push a half a circle here, you are immediately physically at your limit. So it is advisable to drive with slack tires so that you have a lot of grip. And then try to make speed anyway, otherwise it will become a walking passage on every bridge "I think most people did not expect this."

"The bike will also give up. Even if it hasn't rained today, you will get into trouble with your derailleur. It is a question of changing your bike every lap and maybe even twice per lap."

Bogense

Yep, me getting my 'B' venues mixed up, ignore me - I was talking about Bieles!

Haha!

Another course preview from Cameron Mason, and to be fair bits are cutting up nicely

Looking at the vids, it going to busy in the Pits!
And it might be who ever makes the fewer mistakes is going to do well.

Another mainly flat & featureless course for a major championship - I hope this is not a trend. I want to see riders tested by the course; technical sections, climbing, descending, etc not just who has the horse power - we have TT/Track for that.
I know they expect some rain - but if a course needs rain for it to be a test, then it's not very good.

Of all the places in Switzerland, and they choose an airport........dumb!!

Yeah mixed reviews about the course, does seem to be chosen/designed for close racing due to lack of tech sections.

I text a rider who is over there about the course, who racing tomorrow and the reply was,
"course is heavy going, slow with tacky mud, lots of bridges and yep very bumpy! Its a bit in the middle because the tyres are clogging quite quickly, im going for baby limus front and grifo on the back"
Think a few people hope it rain to make the mud less heavy and more sloppy.

Anyway should be 2 days of good racing.

Cam Masons vid makes things look more promising! Those banks will cause bobbles which will split up groups. Sven’s opinion that the bridges will be tough because there’s no fast run in looks spot on.
It’s going to be brutal for the riders, 9min lap from Cam on his reccy. Not a fun course for riding but will probably produce some good racing.
I’m especially going to be cheering on Hattie Harnden because she’s awesome, Ben Tullet because he’s a local lad and also awesome and of course Tom Pidcock because he’s a joy to watch.
Love world champs weekend!

Live stream

Main womans event on Redbull later

Well the mud didn't materialise! This u23 race could be exciting though!

What happened to Ben T? He was 7 seconds off 5th then disappeared. I stopped watching at that point.

Dunno, they just said mechanical

Has anyone got the women's race working on iPlayer or Red Bull?

Both just giving me a 'coming up' screen, grr...

Edit: ignore, button bashing eventually got results!

What a finish! Alverado really wanted that! Great to see after last weekend's disappointment.

A lot of emotion in that podium display...the contrast between winning and losing a world champs on show there

Ferrals,Thanks for the heads up about it being covered on Red Bull TV.
I enjoyed that race,exciting last lap!
I'm glad Alverado won it after what happened last week.
Hope the men's race is as competitive tomorrow

I think it was BenT that snapped his seatpost on a descent, then had to ride some way out of the saddle to get a bike change. He was going really well. Happened in front of me.

Pouring now, so will be a different course tomorrow

Real shame about Tullett, he was motoring on! Sounds sketchy too, visions of thigh on a skewer!

The women's race was great to watch, shame Evie Richards had a bad start as she looked rapid, but nonetheless a real thriller.

Thanks for the weather update @martinb I was wondering about that. Fingers crossed it rains all night!

Cameron Mason did himself proud imo.

Yeah agreed, cracking ride. Great ride from Josie Nelson to come 4th in the juniors too, though the gaps between the top few in that made it less exciting to watch.

Also from today, cheesy proud dad moment: I'd put Frozen (Disney film) on to occupy my three year old so I could watch the women's which I had on a laptop on silent- after 10 minutes she made me turn frozen off so we could watch the cycling 😁

What about Katie Compton? Best of the rest at 41 years old. I'd say that was a result.

Great ride from Josie Nelson to come 4th in the juniors too,

Millie Couzens. Josie Nelson was 7th, Anna Flynn 15th and Maddie Wadsworth 24th.

Looking forward to seeing how the course races today, strong winds overnight but rain this morning apparently.

Raining again, proper cross conditions now. Will be some sketchy tarmac corners and comedy run ups

rumours on dutch websites via twitter that mens' elite might be cancelled (!) due to impending storm.

mvdp is off like a scolded cat !!!!!

VdP is on another planet - clearly saw that with the deep ruts / only one racing line that any following rider is at a disadvantage so has pressed home his advantage. Aerts looks to have gone too deep and the start and is now suffering. Concession might be that Pidders can grab a podium spot?

come on tom! chase him down ! lol

come on tom! chase him down !

👍👍👍

this is brutal !

Great job there!

What an attack! Brilliant ride.

What a ride son. Take a bow Tom Pidcock

Awesome! Well done Tom!

There were a few corners where it looked like Tom p would be caught.
Made it exciting. Bravo.

Excellent result for Pidcock,I was wondering if he could keep up the pace for the full distance,he did,well done!

U23 and men’s great races today.

Classy rides from Tom and Anna to pick folk off after slow starts with good racing and pacing it well.

But 2-4 in the men’s: someone who hasn’t looked close to doing that all year And had been ill, a man who’s had broken ribs for a month and a man who tore has leg off 6 months ago. Funny old game.

Another day of great racing!
Great rides from Anna and Tom, total change of course from overnight rain.

It was great to see Great Britain flags in the top 10 of every category.
Great rides from the athletes, really shows hard work/training is paying off for them.

IIRC VdP said that was his hardest race ever (RedbullTV), he's in a league of his own.

Tom Pidcock 🥈 such an entertaining race, a race changing break from him resulted in a well deserved second place, well done!

What by all reports what was an easy flat course, turned the pain up to 10 for the men's elite, I enjoyed it.

Managed to avoid social media spoilers and watch the womens u23 and mens elite last night. The mens elite was super exciting, pleased the cameras focused on the race behind a lot and not just MVDP. That TP acceleration was blistering! Bet he's pleased he cracekd Iserbyt, given the reported rivalery betweeen them. One of the best races I've watched in a long time. Pleased WvA came in well too. Some of those ruts looked savage.

Very composed ride by Anna Kay in the WU23, I watched the Mens elite first and Helen Wyman hinted that a brit had had a good result but given the mud-plugging I was expecting it to be Hattie Harnden, who also did have a really good ride.

Will have to try and watch the mens juniors tonight