Which men to watch at the cyclocross world championships

By Dan Seaton
Published Jan. 27, 2012
Updated Jan. 31, 2012 at 3:56 PM EDT

American chances

Not since 2005, when Americans Jonathan Page and Ryan Trebon went 7th and 9th respectively, has an American man cracked the top ten in Koksijde. And in the years since, as Koksijde has become a World Cup race, only Page has managed to come anywhere close to the top twenty, finishing 21st there last year.

But Page has been victim of a series of hard falls, one last week in Lievin where he cracked a rib, and one in Sunday’s World Cup where he seriously injured his hand. Still, Page’s results have been improving lately. He posted a top ten in a GVA Trofee race at the beginning of the month and he has consistently been able to peak just in time for the world championships throughout his career. Page finished second the last time the championships visited Belgium in 2007 and owns nearly all of the best-ever American results at the worlds by elite men.

After Sunday’s race, a disappointed Page said he would give it his best shot, but didn’t know how well he could do. “I don’t have any predictions anymore,” he said. “If I have some good luck, it could be really good, but I’m hurting right now.”

If Page is hampered by injuries, America’s best hope probably lies with new national champion Jeremy Powers. Powers raced to a disappointing 32nd pace in Koksijde in November, but said last week in Lievin that he still would do everything he could to represent the US this weekend.

“If you wear the national champion’s jersey you have to say, ‘I want to be the best guy,’” he told VeloNews.com last week. “At worlds I just hope I can ride in the sand, that I took enough away from my last ass-kicking there to improve some. It’s just such a difficult course, and I’m not naturally gifted in it, (sand riding) doesn’t come easy to me. If I don’t do well then I’m not going to cry, I’m just going to try to do my best.”

Besides Page and Powers, there is also Tim Johnson, the three-time elite national champion who gave up a successful career racing on the road to devote himself to ‘cross essentially full time. But Johnson said he is heading into Koksijde with scaled down expectations.

“I’m pretty much scraping at the bottom now,” said Johnson after a disappointing race in Hoogerheide on Sunday. “I think the kind of course in Koksijde, it’s really, really tough, and I’m just not sure that it’s for me. So I’m going to try to do the very best I can.”

“When I say scraping at the bottom, I mean, like it’s the end of the speculoos jar, and the shit still tastes good, but there’s just not that much left,” he added, referring to a wildly popular spread manufactured out of traditional Belgian spice cookies.

Johnson has had plenty of success in Europe, including a third place in the 1999 world championship race as an under-23 racer, but said he goes into Koksijde focused more on next year, when the world championships will come to the United States, than this year.

“This year some of the things I did worked and some didn’t, so I need to make some adjustments,” said Johnson. “I just have to make sure I can get everything out of my potential that I can, because I have been able to do this, I believe I’m a talented rider, but right now I’m not riding at the pace I should be, and that’s frustrating. But I hope that I can pull something out to make this trip worthwhile. I’d love to do a top twenty, but, honestly, I’d be shocked.”

Ryan Trebon, another three-time national champion, has produced good results in Europe as well, including that ninth place finish in Koksijde in 2005 and a top ten result in the highly competitive Superprestige series. Trebon faded badly — from racing for the top twenty to a 43rd place finish — in Sunday’s World Cup race, and heads to Koksijde looking to end his season on a higher note.

Rounding out the American men’s contingent are Chris Jones and Jamey Driscoll. Jones, a relative newcomer to the international scene has produced solid, if not spectacular, results in two World Cups this year. Driscoll, however, has raced in Europe for years, and claimed a top 20 result at the worlds in 2010. Look for both to aim for more top twenty results this year.