Mike Eubank, project manager of Boulder’s Valmont Bike Park, which includes the country’s only permanent cyclocross course purpose-built from its inception to adhere to UCI standards, led the local delegation. He was joined by Pete Webber – the reigning 40-45 World Cyclocross Champion, two-time National Cyclocross Champion, 20-year ’cross racer, Mountain Bike Hall of Fame member, and former membership and communications director of IMBA.

Webber led the tour of the Valmont Bike Park, pointing out many unique characteristics making it ideal to host such an event. Local top cyclocross stars, including Nicole Duke and Meredith Miller, were in attendance along with an array of leaders of Boulder’s large cycling community. Among the group’s promises is a virtually guaranteed enormous jump in both the number of spectators and the number of racers at nationals, were it to be held in Boulder, thanks to a very active local and regional cyclocross culture.

Boulder city government leaders and city parks managers and employees laid out for the USA Cycling contingent how the city’s infrastructure would support the event as well, including parking for up to 2,000 cars within 500 yards of the bike park. Kirk Kincannon, Boulder’s director of Parks and Recreation, clarified not only his department’s commitment to creating a foundation for the event but also its ability to handle any occurrence that could come up. Parks and Recreation’s main maintenance shed with enormous amounts of equipment of all sorts is located in Valmont Park, just across the street from the cyclocross course, and its grounds crews work on the park every day. And Boulder’s Channel 8 television station pointed out how its capacities would facilitate live streaming of the events.

Boulder’s Valmont Bike Park is truly an amazing facility, particularly for those into cyclocross, BMX, dirt jumping, or dirt riding with children, or who are mountain-bike singletrack newbies wanting to try riding high-speed berms, skinny logs and other stunts. The northern section of the park is built on a hillside and is separated by a streambed from its lower southern section, which used to be flat. After fully 10,000 dumptruckloads of dirt were deposited and sculpted throughout the park with a intricate network of hardened dirt trails throughout, that is no longer the case.

There is nobody better to extol the park’s virtues than Webber, its course designer and one of its early visionaries. Webber’s two books, Trail Solutions: Managing Mountain Biking: IMBA’s Guide to Providing Great Riding (2007) and IMBA’s Guide to Building Sweet Singletrack (2004), have sold 30,000 copies in 60 countries and are the world’s go-to mountain bike trail building guides.

Sustainable bicycle trail building is Webber’s middle name, and cyclocross is not only in his veins, it fills his every capillary. He designed the cyclocross course as well as all of the singletrack trails, pump tracks, and stunt features in the park, and his familiarity with it left none of the USA Cycling delegation’s questions unanswered during a walk around the cyclocross course.

Webber often uses the Boulder “Wednesday Worlds” morning cyclocross training race/ride, which regularly draws over 100 riders all fall and winter, to try out his course designs at Valmont, fully flagging out a course the day before. Two races with over 500 participants each (almost 800 in the second one) were held here in September and October, and the course is universally loved. Spectators and racers alike loved the UCI Boulder Cup cyclocross race held at Valmont Park this year on Halloween weekend, in part because of separate announcers at the finish and atop the 5280’ Run-Up staircase jam-packed with fans. The winners of the elite men’s and women’s Boulder Cup, Belgian Ben Berden and near-local Katie Compton (from Colorado Springs), both gushed about the quality of the Valmont course and its massive and enthusiastic crowds. There will be a number of other races at the venue to further iron out kinks in anticipation of holding national championship races here.

After racing cyclocross in Belgium, Webber has some Euro ideas not only for course design but also for infrastructure that are gradually being implemented at Valmont Park. These include getting riders away from their cars for pre-race preparation by utilizing the 30,000-square-foot metal barn at the park as an athlete’s base camp. “Americans dress and warm up at their cars, but in Belgium, riders sit on chairs in a heated building with a box for all of their gear,” says Webber.

The vast, one-story barn’s build-out plan includes areas for riders to have individual equipment boxes or lockers, a neutral trainer warm-up area, secure storage depot, vendor area, and indoor bike wash in a lowered concrete bay. Bike washes in the building and at the pit area adjacent the pond on the opposite end of the park would be supplied by high-pressure water splitting out into multiple hoses, rather than noisy, smelly power washers prone to breakdown and long waiting lines.

Boulder’s bike racing legacy is long, through much hard work and negotiation it recently landed a stage finish for the USA Pro Cycling Challenge and its eagerness to have the 2014-2015 cyclocross nationals at Valmont Park is palpable. Asheville, NC and Austin, TX are competing with Boulder in the bid for the events.

Cyclocross worlds video: The word from the men’s podium

Albert untouched in world championship race

Cyclocross worlds video: They defined women’s racing

Vos dominant at cyclocross worlds

Cyclocross worlds video: The word from the women’s podium

The result was hardly unexpected — but neither was it assured. Vos has won all except one of her races this season, but the second place came on this very course and came at the hands of van den Brand. So when the two went clear early in the race it briefly looked like the drama would be in the race for first. But by the end of the first lap, Vos had a ten-second gap that was growing with every turn of the pedals.

“I knew that if I didn’t do anything stupid — I could make some small mistakes — but if I didn’t have any big mistakes or a flat tire that it would be enough,” said Vos about her early lead in an interview after the race. “But I did have to keep my concentration after that first lap. It’s such a hard course, that after one lap I was already suffering. And that’s the difference in the sand here, it’s just hard. I had some confidence, but I knew it was going to be a really hard 40 minutes.”

While Vos was churning through the sand on her way to a record fifth world title, van den Brand was trying desperately to hang on to a rapidly shrinking lead over a chance group that included Czech Katerina Nash, Dutchwomen Sanne van Paassen and Sophie de Boer, and crowd favorite Cant.

And behind the chase group, the great American hope, Katie Compton was storming back from a disastrous early lap. Compton missed her pedal on the first lap and then crashed into a course barrier a few turns into the race. Though in the middle of the first lap she was mired close to 20th place, Compton posted two blazing laps — the fastest of the day by any woman — and connected with the race for the podium during the third of the race’s five laps.

This made it a four-way race for the two remaining medals. Nash had faded as Compton rebounded, leaving van den Brand, Cant, and van Paassen in the chase group. As the group shifted and shuffled through the next several laps, Compton — apparently unable to recover from the effort it took to get back in the race — began to lose ground again, and, as the group started the second lap, Cant and van den Brand began to pull away.

With the prospect of a native daughter on the podium — especially one so young and unexpected — the crowds along the course went crazy, reacting with alternating gasps and cheers with every change of the lead. But even as the Cant and van den Brand made the final trip through the Herygers dune, side by side in the sand, it still wasn’t clear that either could win the race for silver, because Compton and van Paassen were both drawing near again.

Then, on the final stretch of sand, Cant made a neat little move to go ahead of van den Brand, and as the pair descended just ahead of the two pursuers, Compton bobbled badly and fell. Cant and van den Brand tore down the final grassy stretches of the race, Cant sitting just ahead.

It was not quite enough; the pair rounded the final corner and launched the final sprint and van den Brand, bent over and deep in the drops, came around Cant on the right, leaving the Belgian to gesture in resignation to her defeat, her expression simultaneously frustrated and thrilled, having exceeded even her own expectations to claim her first every world championships medal.

Behind them van Paassen rolled comfortably over the line in fourth ahead of Compton, who was clearly heartbroken to have missed yet another chance for a world title.

Vos, of course, had had time to comfortably celebrate another year in the rainbow stripes, nearly 40 seconds up the road from the race for second.
Gallery: 2012 women’s cyclocross world championships

The race started under a heavy sky, threatening rain or snow that never fell, and by the time the field made the 90 degree turn off the road, van der Haar was in control. When the race backed up on the first big sand section, the defending champion attacked and immediately racked up a huge lead. As he turned on the power that propelled him to so many wins this season, pulling further and further away, the crowd’s despair was audible — but also premature. Behind him Bosmans was crawling back, and he reconnected with the orange-clad van der Haar when the Dutch rider bobbled a difficult sandy section and was forced to run. Bosmans, who excels in sandy terrain like the dunes here, stayed on the bike, and in a handful of pedal strokes it was a two-man race.

For the next several laps a veritable parade of riders attempted to reach the two leaders; Switzerland’s Arnaud Grand made contact briefly, but faltered in the sand and couldn’t close the gap that opened as a result. Dutch racer Mike Teunissen and Belgian Michael Vanthourenhout, who had clawed his way from to the top five by mid-race, both took turns as well. But only van der Haar’s Dutch teammate, Michiel van der Heijden, managed to bridge the gap, connecting with the leaders during the fifth of the race’s seven laps.

Now the three rode together and, despite the occasional bobble or brilliant move, until the final lap the race remained a stalemate. As the leaders played their high-speed tactical games, France’s Arnaud Jouffroy was closing in from behind. After a problem with his chain left him dangling in 26th place after his first lap, the French rider uncorked a series of blazing laps — including the day’s fastest — and simply blasted his way into reach of the leaders just as things were heating up on the final lap of the day.

And the heat Jouffroy was riding towards was blazing, brilliant, white hot race action, perhaps the most exciting Europe has seen this season.

With a relatively short finishing stretch and little room to maneuver late in the race, each of the three leaders sought desperately for opportunities to create the gap that would win them the race. Twice van der Heijden came around Bosmans and twice the Belgian rider made him pay, putting him hard into the barriers on the second big sand section of the lap. Twice van der Haar made major mistakes in the sand and recovered, retaking the lead and forcing Bosmans to redouble his efforts not to be dropped — and all this with Jouffroy closing fast from behind.

Finally, on the steep descent from the final section of sand, called X-Dune by the race organizers, van der Haar fell. For a second it appeared all was lost for the defending champion, and the crowds that lined the course went crazy with cries of, “Witse!”

But, almost miraculously, van der Haar landed on his feet, running at full speed, and almost instantly was back on his bike. Still, Bosmans now had control of the race, with van der Haar gapped and van der Heijden in ever increasing danger of being picked off by Jouffroy. But, inexplicably, Bosmans chose not to exploit his advantage. With just a few hundred meters to go, he looked back over his left and right shoulder, apparently unable to locate van der Haar, who was deep in a tuck, clinging to the Belgian’s wheel.

And van der Haar, who showed off his prowess for the lightning-quick come-from-behind win with a similar move at CrossVegas in September, flashed past Bosmans. By the time the two rounded the corner onto the pavement, all Bosman’s could muster was a frustrated swing of a fist, fully aware of how much had just slipped away from him as he watched van der Haar celebrate a few meters down the road.

“I know I missed an opportunity,” a rather philosophical Bosmans would tell reporters later. “I’m conscious of the mistake I made, and of how few opportunities you have to be in front of the race with 200 meters to go. But with Lars behind you, you just never know (the best strategy). All you can be sure of is that he’s going to race to win.”

Van der Haar, however, said it was not simply cleverness that allowed him to beat the popular Belgian rider. “Look,” he said in the post race press conference, “I was the fastest. Bosmans was strong in the sand, but I was faster everywhere else. I know my effort on the first lap cost me a lot, but it’s the combination of skills and speed and good judgement that makes the win.”

Bosmans countered that, whether or not the two were working together, the arrival of a teammate in the lead late in the race was a huge boost for van der Haar.

“It was crucial to the race that van der Heijden arrived at the end,” he told reporters. “Otherwise, some of those moves in the sand may have gone differently, and we may have had a different result or even a different group of three in the finale.”

Van der Heijden, meanwhile, said he was just looking for the best possible result.

“Catching Lars and Witse was pretty easy because I could follow their good tracks in the sand,” he said after holding off Jouffroy by a single second to take bronze. “You never know how the race is going to end, and maybe I could have had silver or gold on another day. But in the moment you can only look at each other and try for the best you can. So I’m satisfied.”

Behind the leaders, U23 national champion Zach McDonald was the top American finisher. McDonald bounced back from a botched start that left him stranded in 35th place to finish 12th on the day, picking up places nearly every lap.

Though disappointed not to crack the top ten, the University of Washington student said he was satisfied to show he can be a factor no matter where he starts the race.

“I thought I could either quit or keep going, so I decided to see who I could pick off on the first lap,” he said afterwards. “Then I just kept going from there, catching groups, and just never rested anywhere. I was alone for a bit in the second half and could ride all the sand sections, and picked up a lot of time there. I know I was riding well. A top ten would have been nice, but given where I started, it’s ok.”

Cody Kaiser, the only other American in the race, also managed to move up from a start that left him near 50th at one point to finish 38th.

The world championships continue tomorrow in Koksijde with both elite men’s and women’s races.

After a week of relatively warm, pleasant weather for riders training for the world championships in the dunes here on the North Sea coast, fog rolled in early Saturday morning. Juniors, who kicked off a weekend of championship contests, rolled off the line just as the sun began to break through the low clouds that hung over the polders in this normally quiet corner of Belgium.

Overnight temperatures just above freezing kept the track itself, already lined by fans more than a dozen deep along its most challenging sections, a mix of damp and tacky topsoil and loose, deeply tracked sand. Right away, as expected, the sand was a factor, as a traffic jam, due to a deep hole on the first significant sand passage sprung Van Aert while a group of about eight riders scrambled to catch up.

“The support from the crowds there might even have been a little too motivating,” said the Belgian, who received huge cheers from the partisan fans who lined the course. “I may have overreached a little, but later the cheers helped.”

Indeed, Van Aert proceeded to uncork the fastest lap of the day by nearly 15 seconds, but slowed badly in the second lap of the race, fading to third overall behind France’s Quentin Jauregui and Belgian teammate Daan Soete.

Meanwhile, Van Der Poel was steadily moving up after a slow start. When the leaders briefly sat up on the road at the end of the second lap, Van Der Poel’s chase group connected with the front of the race. Then the Dutch rider simply bided his time until a clever move on a particularly tricky corner in the sand put him in control of the race.

Back on top, the Dutchman showed exactly why he has so dominated the Junior scene this year, methodically eliminating challengers until, after dropping Soete during the fourth of six laps, he was all alone.

“I was thinking back to the World Cup,” Van Der Pole said later, referring to a race he won on the same course in November. “Just like today, I didn’t have a great start there, but then raced my own race. That helped today.”

While Van Der Poel cruised to victory, the Belgians — who eventually would land their entire five-man team in the top eight — battled for second, while Jauregui worked his way around through the bunch, identifiable by his a single red, white, and blue jersey among the crowd of sky-blue Belgians.

Only Van Aert could make any progress towards the leader, pulling clear again with one lap to go, leaving his teammates to sprint, unsuccessfully, for third, which went to Jauregui. But Van Aert’s surge was just a little too late, and by the time he began to gain any ground, Van Der Poel was already on the road, celebrating the first of what could prove to be several world championships.

While TV cameras showed the elder Van Der Poel running to the finish to see his son, the younger buried his face in his hands, overcome by the emotion of the moment.

“Being world champion is an amazing feeling,” the younger Van Der Poel would say in the post-race press conference. “You know,” he told reporters, eyes shining, “my dad had to wait a lot longer than me for his first world championship.”

For the American contingent, results were mixed. Cypress Gorry’s race was over almost before it started. Gorry found himself hung up in a crash just over the start line, and was forced to run for the pit. Though he battled valiantly to recover, the accident cost him nearly three minutes in the first lap.

Top hope for an American podium, Junior national champion Logan Owen, also had a disappointing race. Owen spent most of the day stuck in 14th place, his efforts to move up hampered by collisions out on course. With two laps to go, he found himself side-by-side with teammate Drew Dillman, who was working his way up from behind. The pair worked together to connect with a small group in front of them, but on the final section of sand, Dillman was able to go clear just as another rider fell into Owen.

Dillman rode alone across the line in 14th place, protected from behind by Owen, who took 17th.

“I was doing a lot of the pace making, and Drew would do a lot in the sand,” explained Owen. “Drew got a good gap when I fell, but I was glad I could help him get a good placing. I wish things would have gone better, but I just didn’t have the best of luck today. I’ll be looking for a world championship next year.”

Dillman, meanwhile, was very happy with 14th place. “The last couple of weeks I’ve just been having a hard time like at nationals,” said Dillman on the finish line. “I just wasn’t feeling good. I was shooting for a top ten, top fifteen and to get 14th, I’m really happy with that. I was really proud to hit my goal.”

Americans Curtis White and Tobin Ortenblad finished 34th and 48th, respectively.

Read part I of the women’s cyclocross world championship preview

Also, check out The calm before the storm: Cyclocross worlds are back in Belgium

BRUSSELS, Belgium (VN) — This much is sure: no one headed for worlds is under pressure like Belgian champion Sanne Cant. While Belgium has more or less owned the podium in men’s cyclocross since the mid-1990s, since the first women’s world championships in 2000, not a single Belgian woman has ever won a world championship medal.

So Belgium pins its hopes to end the long drought on the 21-year-old, who herself has never cracked the top five in a world championships. The question Cant must answer, however, is whether a relatively young and inexperienced racer can hold off three of the most accomplished women’s cyclists in history and claim her country’s first world championship victory ever, and do it on home soil.

The favorites

Though the question of how the top three are likely to shake out on Sunday may not be easy to answer, it is clear that four-time and defending world champion Marianne Vos will head to Koksijde as the heavy favorite. Vos returned to cyclocross just in time to finish second in the November World Cup in Koksijde has not failed to win a race since. As skilled a bike handler as there is when it comes to ’cross, she also has won Olympic gold on the track and worn rainbow stripes in both track and road. Despite a hard fall two weeks ago in the Lievin, France, World Cup she quickly recovered and won easily. Last week in Hoogerheide, in her home country of the Netherlands, she won her fourth straight World Cup race by nearly a minute and a half.

Nonetheless, Vos has said repeatedly that she takes nothing for granted going into the world championships.

“We know how strong Katie and Daphny are,” she said in Lievin. “But in Koksijde it will be a different race. It’s the worlds, and it’s always different at the worlds. So we’re all focused and of course we may be the three big favorites, but we have to do it on that day. The sand is technical, it’s different from everything else we ride, so we’ll see.”

Vos has won before in Koksijde, but so have both of the women she acknowledged are her top rivals.

In a 2010 World Cup race, American Katie Compton, stormed to a two-and-a-half minute win over Daphny van den Brand. But in this season’s trip to the dunes, it was van den Brand who rode away with victory.

Van Den Brand will retire at the end of the season, and has said more than once that she would like to cap her career with a second world championship. Although she beat Vos in Koksijde, she has finished second or worse to Vos ten times this season. After claiming the World Cup title on Sunday she was optimistic about her chances in Koksijde, but said she too, considered the race to be wide open.

“The Worlds are always a different, difficult race,” said van den Brand. “You can make plans, but at Worlds, plans don’t always work out.”

Compton, meanwhile, the most successful American in the history of the sport, with two silver medals and one bronze at worlds, has apparently overcome chronic problems with leg cramps that hampered her in two other worlds appearances. But the American has been dogged by other problems this year. A dropped chain cost her any chance for a win in a December World Cup race in Namur, Belgium, and a combination of mistakes and slow starts hurt her in World Cups in Koksijde and Lievin.

“The race starts at the start line,” said Compton in an interview a few weeks ago, “so it’s my own fault for not getting up to the front in these races. Hopefully for Worlds I’ll have that part figured out so I can be in the race at the end.”

Though she comes into Koksijde in a bit of a slump, she indeed did appear to have worked out many of the problems with her bike and her starts in time for last weekend’s race in Hoogerheide. Though she finished fourth there, she has said that she has her sights set only on a world championship, so look for her to be on top form this weekend.

The wildcard for for the podium this weekend is the US-based Czech rider Katerina Nash. A former Olympic cross country skier, she finished third last Sunday and third in last year’s world championships. But Nash has never raced on the sandy Koksijde course, and her success will hinge on how quickly she can adapt to the highly technical track in training this week.

Gallery: Women’s cyclocross season recap

]]> http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/which-women-to-watch-at-the-cyclocross-world-championships_204652/feed 0 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/which-men-to-watch-at-the-cyclocross-world-championships_204633 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/which-men-to-watch-at-the-cyclocross-world-championships_204633#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:30:56 +0000 VeloNews.com http://velonews.competitor.com/?p=204633 Editor’s note: This is part II of the world championship preview, including the favorites for the win. Italics indicate sections from part I.

First read part I of the men’s race preview and the women’s race preview

The Belgian favorites

BRUSSELS, Belgium (VN) — The world championships of cyclocross, which kick off on Saturday, will return to Belgium for the first time since 2007.

With veteran and former two-time champion Bart Wellens sidelined for the rest of the season following a major health scare just ahead of the national championship race earlier this month, the Belgians will field a relatively young team on Sunday; only national champion Sven Nys is over 30. And on a sandy and very technical course in Koksijde, his experience may make all the difference.

In the absence of Wellens, only four men with wins in the major European series races — Superprestige, GVA Trofee, and World Cup — will start Sunday’s race.

Top on the list is newly crowned Belgian champion Sven Nys, who has notched 12 wins this season, the most of any Europe-based racer. Nys, at 35, has perhaps lost some of the pure speed that helped make him the most consistently dominant rider of the 2000’s, but makes up for it with his skillful technique on the bike. Nys is undisputedly the best bike handler among the four favorites for Sunday, and he showed those skills off when he won the November World Cup in Koksijde.

Though his results in the last two weeks have been subpar, Nys always seems to dig deep for the championships. With only a few more chances to pull on a rainbow jersey, look for a motivated Nys to take risks and try to distance his rivals as quickly as possible.

With 10 wins and the World Cup title for the season already wrapped up, the soft-spoken, world number one ranked Kevin Pauwels figures to be Nys’ top rival. Pauwels is still smarting from the sprint with Nys in Koksijde in November, and with a real shot at his first major championship since becoming an elite rider, he will also be highly motivated on Sunday.

Pauwels has been circumspect about his chances however, telling Belgian TV that he doesn’t not consider himself a favorite for the rainbow jersey. “I’ve never really performed that well in Koksijde, and I lost the sprint against Sven Nys there in November,” he said on Sunday, giving reigning champion Zdenek Stybar his nod for race favorite.

Stybar, who won a World Cup race in Koksijde in 2009, and former world champion Niels Albert, who did the same in 2010, both have six wins on the season. Together, the pair may be the most successful duo in cyclocross of the past three years, but neither has looked quite at the top of their game this year. Stybar finished fourth in Koksijde in November, while Albert, recovering from a wrist injury following a training accident, skipped the race entirely.

Stybar, however, has looked sharper recently, with a win two weeks ago in Lievin and second in last Sunday’s race in Hoogerheide. The Czech says he believes he can claim a third world title on Sunday despite the pressure that comes with being a two-time defending champion.

“Yeah, I feel some pressure, but it’s not like I am pissing in my pants,” he joked in a post-race interview on Sunday. “In November and December I couldn’t rest, but in the past few weeks I’ve been much more rested after training. I’m really taking time for it, and that’s important. I still have a week to go and my condition can really improve a lot in a week.”

Albert, who took a win in Loenhout early this month despite being hampered by a respiratory infection, often carefully targets his priority races, and said a few weeks ago that he is staking his season on a result in Koksijde.

“It’s a little bit of a problem (this time of year), because the condition may be good, but when you get sick your body needs a little more recuperation,” he told VeloNews.com earlier this month. “So I’m trying to go very deep with the rest. But I said before the season that Koksijde is my first goal, and I really hope I’m going to win there. I’ll do everything to win, but obviously we will have to see.”

The calm before the storm: Worlds are back in Belgium

]]> http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/which-men-to-watch-at-the-cyclocross-world-championships_204633/feed 6 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/the-calm-before-the-storm-2_204588 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/the-calm-before-the-storm-2_204588#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:13:22 +0000 VeloNews.com http://velonews.competitor.com/?p=204588 KOKSIJDE, Belgium (VN) – A day ahead of what is likely to be the the biggest and best-attended weekend of cyclocross in perhaps decades, racers and fans alike are descending on this village of 20,000 people on the southwest corner of Belgium’s North Sea coast. When all is said and done, Sunday’s elite world championship race might briefly triple the population of Koksijde; as perhaps as many 60,000 people will turn out for a race that organizers discovered today was actually beyond sold out days ago.

They come, partly for a chance to see one of their favorites claim a rainbow jersey on home soil, but even more for the spectacle of a World Championships on one of the most technically challenging cyclocross courses in the world.

The difficultly of this course, which has a history stretching back to 1969 and a laundry list of cyclocross greats — both De Vlaeminck brothers, Liboton, Vervecken, and Belgian champion Sven Nys to name a few — on its roster of past winners, rests on a foundation of sand. The town of Koksijde is crisscrossed by swaths of sand dunes, and the track for this weekend’s races threads its way through a series of sandy ups and downs on the edge of a Belgian Air Force base.

The course traverses large areas of sand three times and crosses several smaller sections as well. The three hardest sand sections are each a couple of hundred meters long, and all feature relatively technical turns that very few riders were able to negotiate without trouble in training on Friday. The shorter sections of sand present their own challenges: each features steep and almost certainly unrideable climbs and loose, technical descents.

For racers in the hunt for a podium place, the biggest obstacle may be a narrow, sandy climb and descent just a few hundred meters after the race leaves the pavement. With little time for the group to string out before hitting the short section, there is a good possibility it will become a major bottleneck early in the race. If a rider should fall there, anyone caught behind them may see their chances evaporate less than a minute into the race.

During training on Friday the weather was relatively pleasant, a mix of sun and brief showers with temperatures in the mid-40s. However, a cold front expected over the weekend could spread snow showers for Saturday’s junior and under-23 categories. Sunday is expected to be sunny and cold, with temperatures topping out only a few degrees above freezing.

However, with no significant rainfall on the way, it is likely the sand conditions will not change much. Turns were loose and treacherous today, but the longer, straight sections were becoming packed this afternoon. Riding, at least in the narrow, packed grooves that were forming today, should be no problem for skilled bike handlers. However, with few good lines to follow, traffic will be a major factor. Making smart decisions about where to stay on the bike and where to run will be key.

Koksijde is a track that rewards skilled riders; in recent years the World Cups and other races held here have gone to renowned bike handlers like Belgians Nys and Erwin Vervecken, who both have five wins in Koksijde. The only time Koksijde hosted a world championships, in 1994, Paul Herygers—another Belgian—claimed victory. In fact, race history is dominated by Belgians, many of whom came up through the junior and under-23 ranks in races on nearly the same, sandy track that the weekend’s races will use, giving locals a major advantage.

But familiar or not, Belgians and other racers alike were out training in the sand this afternoon. Belgian elites Rob Peeters, Klaas Vantornout, and Tom Meeusen all rode multiple laps — during which Peeters had perhaps the most success navigating the tricky sand sections of anyone on the day. Many racers, including Belgian team leaders Nys and Niels Albert as well as Europe-based American Jonathan Page have been making periodic training trips to the site for weeks, but stayed away today to rest and avoid the growing media circus here.

American men’s champion Jeremy Powers, who was disappointed with his performance in the World Cup here in November, took laps today as well and said he was much more confident after a few days of training. Powers was one of a handful of riders to successfully clean the two longest sections of sand on what organizers have named Herygers Dune.

Among women who tested the course today were Czechs Katerina Nash and Pavla Havlikova, British champion Helen Wyman and countrywoman Annie Last. But all eyes were on women’s hopeful Sanne Cant. Cant’s strategy, at least in training, appeared to be to minimize risk and run as much of the sand as possible. Her rival from the north, Dutchwoman Sanne van Paassen, also took laps, taking time to joke with reporters as she evaluated the chances of a successful comeback on Sunday after weeks away from the bike due to illness.

Fans, already packing the sides of the course, found themselves restrained by a complex network of reinforced — and, in many places, double-layered — barriers. The organization apparently took seriously complaints of fan interference in the sand sections by several racers, including world champion Zdenek Stybar, following the 2010 World Cup here.

But with less than 24 hours to go before racing kicks off, Koksijde seemed to be experiencing the calm before the storm. In town, locals bought flowers from a street market, and walked lazily down the the beach on a comparatively warm, sunny January afternoon. Organizers made last minute adjustments to the venue, trimming back underbrush, deploying Porta Potties, and arranging a temporary bus terminal to shuttle fans from the railroad station a few kilometers from the course. In places, out of sight of the barriers and banners, it was still possible to imagine one was taking a quiet walk through the dunes, only interrupted by the distant hum of chainsaws in the brush and occasional thump of sledge hammers, pounding in a final few posts for course fencing. The sun sunk slowly down under the sandy hillsides, birds sung, and a few early revelers, clad in beer barrel costumes, stumbled down the steep-sided dunes.

But the quiet won’t last — not for long, not when the World Championships are coming home to Belgium in the morning.

Gallery: Cyclocross world championships course pre-ride Friday

]]> http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/the-calm-before-the-storm-2_204588/feed 1 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/cyclocross-world-championship-preview-women_204423 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/cyclocross-world-championship-preview-women_204423#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:17:48 +0000 VeloNews.com http://velonews.competitor.com/?p=204423 Editor’s Note: Check back for more previews of the women’s race and the favorites for the win

BRUSSELS, Belgium (VN) — Women’s cyclocross took a huge leap forward this year when the UCI amended its Rule 5.1.004, which now requires organizers of C1 international events to include a women’s race. Though North American promoters have featured women’s races essentially forever, some European organizers — most notably the Superprestige series, but several independent promoters as well — continued to exclude women from their events.

The new rule means that women now race alongside men in all major events, but says nothing about when they race. So, adhering to the letter of the law but perhaps not its spirit, some promoters have added women’s races to their lineup only to bury them at undesirable times, often early in the morning before most fans arrive and hours before the Elite men race.

As a result, participation in women’s races has been scattershot compared to men’s events. Some of the sport’s top stars have bypassed events they see as still hostile to women’s cycling, so there have been only a few opportunities to see how favorites for the world championships really stack up against one another in competition.

World Cup winner Daphny Van Den Brand opted out of major races in Ruddervoorde, Gavere, and Overijse, while countrywoman Sanne Van Paassen bypassed nearly half the calendar. Marianne Vos, meanwhile, skipped most of the early season in order to focus on preparation for a bid for Olympic gold on the road in 2012.

So while the new rules represent a step in the right direction for cyclocross as a whole, they have simultaneously rendered the picture of the favorites going into worlds as murky as it has ever been.

Nonetheless, this much is sure: no one headed for worlds is under pressure like Belgian champion Sanne Cant. While Belgium has more or less owned the podium in men’s cyclocross since the mid-1990s, since the first women’s world championships in 2000, not a single Belgian woman has ever won a world championship medal.

So Belgium pins its hopes to end the long drought on the 21-year-old, who herself has never cracked the top five in a world championships. The question Cant must answer, however, is whether a relatively young and inexperienced racer can hold off three of the most accomplished women’s cyclists in history and claim her country’s first world championship victory ever, and do it on home soil.

Check back for the second half of our preview highlighting the favorites for the win Sunday

Cyclocross world championships preview: Men

Gallery: Women’s cyclocross season recap

]]> http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/cyclocross-world-championship-preview-women_204423/feed 5 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/cyclocross-world-championships-preview_204251 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/cyclocross-world-championships-preview_204251#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:45:16 +0000 VeloNews.com http://velonews.competitor.com/?p=204251 Editor’s note: Check back in for the women’s preview as well as international and domestic favorites

BRUSSELS, Belgium (VN) – The world championships of cyclocross, which kick off on Saturday, will return to Belgium for the first time since 2007. And with reports of some 40,000 tickets to the two-day event in the coastal town of Koksijde already sold, the country seems to be living up to its reputation for rabid cyclocross fandom.

In Flanders, Belgium’s Dutch-speaking northern region, cyclocross’s populist appeal means that ‘cross fans probably have more in common with NASCAR fans than their skinsuit-clad, cowbell-ringing cousins on the sidelines at American cyclocross races. Millions tune in to TV coverage, and tens of thousands turn out to cheer on their favorites in person, braving miserable weather and shoe-sucking mud for just a brief glimpse of stars like Sven Nys and Bart Wellens.

And like American NASCAR fans, Belgian ‘cross fans are zealously devoted to their favorite renners (racers). Fans frequently arrive at races fully bedecked in gear emblazoned with the logos of their favorite racer’s supporters club, and argue — not always politely — about just which Belgian racer is the greatest.

Lines of partisanship are often drawn geographically, with those from northern towns dividing support between Kevin Pauwels, Bart Aernouts, Tom Meeusen, and Czech Zdenek Stybar, who lives in Essen, Belgium, and has earned adopted Belgian status in the eyes of many cyclocross fans. Fans a few kilometers south might support Bart Wellens, who lives not far from Antwerp, while those in West Flanders line up behind local Klaas Vantornout. And Sven Nys and Niels Albert, whose homes in neighboring villages, Baal and Tremelo, are barely separated by a kilometer, have divided households in the central Belgian province of Flemish Brabant against their own.

So it is little surprise that the buildup to the first world championships in Belgium in half a decade has been relentless. Huge numbers have been tuning into De Flandriens van het veld, a documentary series chronicling Flemish exploits in cyclocross since Eric De Vlaeminck’s first of seven world titles in 1966 that airs on Flanders’ regional TV network Canvas. Meanwhile, disputes between riders vying for one of seven highly coveted slots on the Belgium’s Worlds team have been increasingly loud and increasingly public.

Drama reached a fever pitch when superstar Sven Nys called out worlds team coach Rudy De Bie for not naming his teammate Sven Vanthourenhout to one of the slots, saying De Bie had compromised Belgium’s chances at a title by passing up a loyal domestique in favor of riders with better results but no real chance for victory.

Cyclocross world championships preview: Women

]]> http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/cyclocross-world-championships-preview_204251/feed 9 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/vos-in-charge-at-world-cup-cx-in-hoogerheide_204113 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/vos-in-charge-at-world-cup-cx-in-hoogerheide_204113#comments Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:32:25 +0000 Kurt Hoy http://velonews.competitor.com/?p=204113 Updated: 5:05 pm (PST), January 22, 2012.

HOOGERHEIDE, Netherlands (VN) – For the second time in as many weeks Dutch riders nearly swept the UCI World Cup, claiming both race victories and overall titles in the Junior, Under-23, and Women’s categories.

On a blustery — but not particularly cold day — in this town just a few kilometers north of the Belgian border, Junior Mathieu Van Der Poel, U23 Lars Van Der Haar, and women’s World Champion Marianne Vos powered their way around a heavy course to three wins. For Van Der Poel and Van Der Haar, the wins meant securing the overall World Cup title on home soil — or, given the course conditions today, mud. Dutchwoman Daphny Van Den Brand (AA Drink), claimed second behind Vos, far ahead of the fifteenth place finish she needed to lock up the women’s title.

Only among the men was the pattern broken, as Belgian Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Revor) held off both teammate Klaas Vantornout and World Champion Zdenek Stybar (Omega-Pharma-Lotto) to secure the first World Cup title of his career.

Vos Looks Invincible Again

On a course that started with a long straightway on the road and then a quick left hand turn into a steep, nervy plunge down a heavily rutted embankment, gusty crosswinds caused havoc throughout the day. Trouble started only seconds into the women’s race, as Sophie De Boer (Telenet-Fidea) and Caroline Mani crashed hard on the road, setting off a chain-reaction accident that tied up a number of riders including American Dombroski (Crank Bros.).

But the race soon settled down and a group led by British riders Nikki Harris and Helen Wyman set the pace through the middle of the first lap. But the group stayed together only long enough for Marianne Vos (Rabobank) to decide it would be safer to strike out alone than risk a fall because of a mistake by another rider on the crowded course. By the end of the first lap the rest were racing for second; the unstoppable Vos was already on her way to a nearly 90-second solo victory.

Instead, a race broke out for second place, as Van Den Brand, Katerina Nash (Luna), Lucie Chainel-Lefevre, and American National Champion Katie Compton all took a turn at the front. But Chainel-Lefevre came off the pace and Compton started making mistakes, yo-yoing off the back of the two remaining leaders for several laps before finally conceding the race for the podium in the final lap.

]]> http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/vos-in-charge-at-world-cup-cx-in-hoogerheide_204113/feed 0 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/stybar-and-vos-victorious-in-lievin_203510 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/stybar-and-vos-victorious-in-lievin_203510#comments Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:40:20 +0000 Kurt Hoy http://velonews.competitor.com/?p=203510 Updated: 7:49 pm (MST), Sunday, January 15, 2012

Two world champions, two world cup wins

LIÉVIN, France (VN) – After spending the holidays in Belgium — with races in Namur and Zolder — the UCI World Cup packed its bags and headed about an hour south to this old industrial village in northern France for its penultimate round. The unrelenting clouds and rain, which for weeks have kept pit crews busy and riders caked in mud, fled the area as well, bringing sun and cold to this part of Western Europe, and leaving the rolling course here semi-frozen, fast and very slick.

Photo Gallery: Stybar and Vos win World Cup cyclocross in Liévin, France

The change in conditions dictated a change in race strategy, meaning the combination of power and handling that has decided so many cyclocross races in recent weeks gave way to pure speed. And the change resulted in a treat for the fans; four races packed with both tactical battles and dramatic breakaways.

Dutchmen Van Der Poel & Van Der Haar Claim Early Races

The day’s early races — the third round of the World Cup for both Juniors and Under-23 racers — were frosty, high speed affairs. In the Junior’s race, World Cup leader Mathieu Van Der Poel (Boxx Veldritacademie) wasted little time in showing off his form, opening a substantial gap on the first lap from which he never looked back. He stretched his lead to nearly 45 seconds before sitting up late in the race, turning his final tour of the course into an early victory lap.

In the U23 race, World Champion Lars Van Der Haar (Rabobank) overcame a disastrous first lap — one that saw him in nearly 30th place at one point — to take a convincing 13 second victory over Julian Alaphilippe. The Dutch and World Champion Van Der Haar made his way through traffic by the end of the second lap and broke free of the other leaders about midway through the nine lap race.

Newly crowned U23 American champion Zach McDonald (Rapha-Focus), the only American in the race, found himself caught in the crowd field nearly straight off the line, but managed to claw his way up to a 18th place finish by the end of his day.

More Dutch Domination in the Women’s Race

When World Champion Marianne Vos (Nederland-Bloeit) and World Cup Leader Daphny Van Den Brand (AA Drink/Leontien.nl) powered away from the rest of the field in the first couple of minutes of the women’s race, it looked like it might be more of the same. But the sun-warmed course was melting, leaving a slick film of mud on top of the otherwise firm ground, and the changing conditions meant one thing: crashes.

American Katie Compton (Rabobank) was the first of the favorites to hit the deck, falling hard in a right hand turn just as she connected with the lead chase group after a very slow start. In the time it took her to collect herself, the newly re-crowned American champion lost perhaps 15 places and 30 seconds. She would be forced to restart the same chase she had nearly completed only moments before.

But a lap later — just as Vos and Van Den Brand’s lead began to look insurmountable — both went down in the same corner that caught Compton just minutes earlier. Van Den Brand was rolling again quickly, but Vos at first appeared hurt. She limped visibly and groaned with pain as she pushed her bike up the first big climb of the third lap.

For a moment it looked like she might be forced to abandon, leaving Van Den Brand free to take her second World Cup win of the season and secure the overall lead. But by half way through the lap Vos had regained her rhythm and by the end of the lap the two were together again.

Meanwhile, behind them, Compton was slowly making her way back in to the race as well, first catching her protégé — and new American U23 champion — Kaitie Antonneau (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com), then finally reconnecting with the lead chasers, Helen Wyman (Kona) and Caroline Mani. But the American remained with them for only a lap before striking out on her own with two to go, securing third place just as Vos was surging off the front again to lock in her third straight World Cup win and the Netherlands’ third victory of the day.

Antonneau, who found herself somewhat isolated for much of the day, nonetheless powered her way to a 16th place finish, while countrywoman Christine Vardaros (Baboco Cycling) finished 26th.

“I can’t blame my race on the bike. I just didn’t get off the line fast enough — well, I went fast, but backwards instead of forwards,” joked Compton in a post-race press conference. “And then I crashed at the start of the second lap. I just hit that line too fast and then slid out, and then I had to get into the right gear and straighten the bars, and run up the hill, and by that time, everybody had passed me. At least it was a good training day. I went as hard as I could and tried to be smooth after the crash and the bad start. I did what I could but it was really hard today. I’m actually pretty happy with today considering all that.”

Vos meanwhile, said that though her crash may have looked more serious than it turned out to be, the pain immediately after the fall almost cost her a chance at the lead.

“I crashed in a corner in a descent, and took Daphny with me, so we were both down,” Vos told reporters. “I had some trouble getting on my bike again, so Daphny got into the lead and the chase group caught me. I was in pain, so it took some time to get into my rhythm again, but after half a lap it was ok.”

Duels between Vos and Van Den Brand at the head of the race have been more or less the story of the past month, since Vos returned to cyclocross after an extended training block earlier in the season. And, together with Compton, they form a group of clear favorites for the World Championships in two weeks. But the American has been hampered by bad luck and bad form, so the three have had very few opportunities to really test one another ahead of the the big race.

Nonetheless, they were fully confident, and wouldn’t worry about where the other two were racing for the moment. Compton, for her part, said she was focusing on her own racing and technique right now.

“The race starts at the start line,” said Compton, “so it’s my own fault for not getting up to the other two. But hopefully by Worlds I’ll have that part figured out. I don’t know, I have to figure out the first part of the race to have a shot at the end of it.”

Vos, meanwhile, said she was confident, but will certainly watch out for both Van Den Brand and Compton in the coming weeks.

“We all know how strong Katie is, but in two weeks it will be a different race. It’s sandy, it’s the Worlds, and it’s always really special. Of course we are the three big favorites, but we all have to do it on that day. We saw last year how good Katie is in the sand, and that’s really different than today’s race, so we’ll just see.”

Meanwhile, the twenty year old Antonneau, whose European results this season have  said she was happy just to continue to progress in tough international competition after her second place finish at American nationals one week ago.

“I’m finishing consistently in the top twenty (in World Cups) now, and I’m happy with that,” she said. “Last year I was in the thirties, so I’m improving. But that was a really hard course with no room to rest at all.”

Pauwels’ Late Fall Helps Stybar Snap a Streak

By the time the men hit the course the thaw had progressed even further, leaving the course coated in mud that was alternately slick and tacky. And again a fast, tactical race would be punctuated by decisive crashes. And again the race would come down to a battle between World Cup Leader and World Champion — Belgian Kevin Pauwels (Sunweb-Revor) and Czech Zdenek Stybar (Omega-Pharma-Quickstep).

The pair emerged at the front of the race during the third lap, blasting out of a group of more than a dozen riders with the help of Stybar’s countryman Radomir Simunek (BKCP-Powerplus). The three worked together to stretch a lead of nearly a minute until Simunek began to come off the pace with four to go, leaving the two men brilliant white skinsuits of the World Cup and World Champion to battle between themselves.

Meanwhile, tactics seemed to derail any hope of a successful chase behind in the group them, where the responsibility for leading the attack fell largely on Sven Nys (Landbouwkrediet), who himself had just powered his way back from a very slow start just to reach the group. A mishap on the stairs between American Jonathan Page (Planet Bike) and another rider dropped both of them out of the case group. Others simply couldn’t maintain the fast pace. Niels  Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) lost contact with four to go; his teammate Dieter Vanthourenhout faded in the final lap.

In front, Pauwels and Stybar continued together, frequently riding side-by-side ahead of the bigger battles behind them. But as the two approached the stairs on the final lap, something went wrong for the Belgian, carrying too much speed he failed to dismount cleanly, stumbled and fell hard. He was only down for a moment, but the mistake cost him dearly. With a glance back to see he was well clear of his fallen rival, Stybar had time to roll across the line, step off his bike — painted a dramatic shade of pink — and mug for the cameras briefly, reveling in his first win in international competition in two months. Simunek rolled across the line in third, while Nys managed to fend off Frenchman Francis Mourey (FDJ-Big Mat) to claim fourth.

While the two man duel unfolded in the front, American fans were treated to something of a replay of last week’s championship race. After Page’s encounter on the stairs knocked him from the lead group, he managed reconnect with a group that included last week’s winner, Jeremy Powers (Rapha-Focus); and the pair were soon joined by a hard charging Ryan Trebon (LTS/Felt), rebounding from a horrible start. Racing, this time, for thirteenth place, the three again traded pulls and attacks — albeit interspersed with a more diverse cast of characters including Belgium’s Bart Aernouts, Poland’s Mariusz Gil, and close to ten others.

Trebon, already tired from his efforts to reconnect with the race, and faded from the group with a couple of laps to go after taking perhaps one too many turns on the front. He would finish 22nd. Powers, meanwhile, managed to grab hold of a last-minute attack  by Gil and connect with a fading Niels Albert just ahead of the finish line, winding up 14th. Page, who was trapped in the group when Powers went clear, rolled across the line 17th.

American Jamey Driscoll (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld.com)finished 30th, while his teammate Tim Johnson abandoned after a hard fall early on. Canadian Craig Richey (Renner, the only other North American to finish the race, was 51st.

Afterwards, Stybar — whose antics on the finish line betrayed just how happy he was to finally win a race — was circumspect in his comments to reporters.

“I really came down here to France for the training,” said Stybar, whose two months without a win had clearly started to worry him. “I wasn’t totally focused today, and I even got to the start line a little late. But I won anyway. Now the important thing is to just keep getting better and better. My national title gave me some confidence; I have two weeks to try to peak for the World Championships.”

Instead, it was Simunek, who has rarely seen the podium in recent years, who seemed to be the most excited.

“I am really happy to be on the podium,” he told reporters. “It’s been a really long time since I did that in such a big race, and I’ve never been in the front like that. Stybar and Pauwels were just a little too strong for me. Stybar seemed the strongest of the two; when he was on the front I was really suffering.”

The top American finisher, Powers, said a week celebrating his first national championship left him with some doubts about today’s race, but he was nonetheless satisfied.

“It’s not a bad result after a week of celebrating,” he told VeloNews.com. “Sunday night I didn’t get any sleep, Monday no sleep, Tuesday I flew here. So Wednesday and Thursday I had a sore throat and felt kind of like crap. I wasn’t even sure if I could race. But yesterday and today I probably focused as much as I’ve ever focused, because I really want to do the jersey proud and do the best I can. So I did as much as I could yesterday trying to get ready, and get a good result today. If you wear the jersey, when you come here, you want to try to be the best you can be.”

Page, who spent much of the day in the same group as Powers after falling out of contention for a top ten after another rider tangled with him on the stairs, said he too felt like he was finding his best form just in time for Worlds.

“It seemed like I had made the lead split. I was just hanging on, but eventually it would slow down for a minute and I could catch my breath,” he said, “and then all I’d have to do is follow through, but of course something had to happen. But I did get back, and I didn’t really feel that great today either, I had some heavy legs, so I know I can still be better.”

Fellow New Englander Jamey Driscoll, who also made the trip to Europe from Madison last weekend, said he was still feeling the effects of the travel, but the course was so hard that it didn’t matter so much.

“These uphills are brutal,” he said. “Just out of the saddle, gutwrenching, every single time. And I think there are probably five of those kind of efforts each lap, and you have to be full gas, every single time. We did more than ten laps, so that’s fifty all out efforts in the race. So I’m ok with my result. We had some trouble coming over here, getting our equipment here, getting here Friday and just having two nights over here before, it was a tough call. But it’s not like when you flew over here was going to matter that much; the course was just so hard.”

]]> http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/stybar-and-vos-victorious-in-lievin_203510/feed 3 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/cyclocross/gallery-uci-masters-cx-world-championships_203458 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/cyclocross/gallery-uci-masters-cx-world-championships_203458#comments Sun, 15 Jan 2012 05:32:57 +0000 Kurt Hoy http://velonews.competitor.com/?p=203458 ]]> http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/cyclocross/gallery-uci-masters-cx-world-championships_203458/feed 15 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/how-to-win-nationals-with-jeremy-powers_203415 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/how-to-win-nationals-with-jeremy-powers_203415#comments Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:36:45 +0000 VeloNews.com http://velonews.competitor.com/?p=203415
Jeremy Powers may not have been the man to ask how to win nationals last week. He was nervous, and with good precedent.

The Rapha-Focus rider had won the Exergy U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross series for the second year in a row and was the most dominant cyclocross racer in America, but the national title had always eluded him.

Since racing in the junior categories more than ten years ago, Powers had gone to the USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships every year – frequently as a favorite. And every year he had lost.

“Everybody has beat me at this race,” Powers said after his victory in Madison.

As a junior, Powers was beat several times by the younger Jesse Anthony. The year Powers had his best chance he caught mono.

His last year as a U23 in 2004, Powers came home from a full season in Belgium, certain of his form. But the skies opened up in Portland, flooding the course, and making much of the lap impossible to ride. Powers played second fiddle to Anthony, a much better runner, again.

Powers started racing the elites in 2005, and held his own against top dogs like Jonathan Page, Tim Johnson, Ryan Trebon, and Barry Wicks.

He was a contender in 2007, but crashed out of the lead. He crashed out of the lead again in 2009. He crashed out of the lead in 2010.

“I’m thinking: ‘am I gonna be the Dan Marino of cyclocross?’” Powers said, recalling the legendary Miami Dolphins quarterback who never won the Super Bowl.

But that all changed last Sunday in Madison when Powers sat in with a select group of Page (Planet Bike), Trebon (LTS-Felt), Johnson (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld), and Zach McDonald (Rapha-Focus), letting them play their cards first. When Powers laid down his hand on the penultimate lap, nobody could match him.

How did Powers do it?

]]> http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/how-to-win-nationals-with-jeremy-powers_203415/feed 3 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/u-s-team-roster-for-cyclocross-worlds_203363 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/u-s-team-roster-for-cyclocross-worlds_203363#comments Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:43:19 +0000 VeloNews.com http://velonews.competitor.com/?p=203363 Elite men

The U.S. will send six American men to the cyclocross world championships. The nation had two riders who met the autonatic qualification criteria, 2012 national champion Jeremy Powers (Easthampton, Mass./Team Rapha-Focus) who is currently ranked 11th internationally, and Tim Johnson (Topsfield, Mass./ Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com), who, at 17th, was the second highest internationally-ranked American rider.

Ryan Trebon (Bend, Ore./LTS-Felt), Jamey Driscoll (Winooski, Vt./Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com), Jonathan Page (Northfield, N.H./Planet Bike) and Christopher Jones (Auburn, Calif./Team Rapha-Focus) will also be in attendance as discretionary nominees.

Elite women

All five of the American women who qualified for the world championships met the automatic qualification criteria. Eight-time national champion Katie Compton (Colorado Springs, Colo./Rabobank-Giant) placed second in the 2011 cyclocross world championships and has placed in the top five at three UCI World Cup events.

Amy Dombroski (Boulder, Colo./Crankbrothers Race Club), qualified automatically for placing in the top 15 at two World Cups. Kaitlin Antonneau (Racine, Wisc./Cyclocrossworld-Cannondale Cyclocrossworld) earned a spot for finishing 10th at the UCI World Cup race in Namur, Belgium.

Based on their top-15 results at UCI World Cup events, Meredith Miller (Boulder, Colo./California Giant Berry Farms-Specialized) and Nicole Duke (Boulder, Colo./Cyclocrossworld-Cannondale Cyclocrossworld) automatically qualified for worlds.

Complete U.S. team roster:

Elite Men
Tim Johnson* (Topsfield, Mass./ Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com)
Jeremy Powers* (Easthampton, Mass./Team Rapha-Focus)
Jamey Driscoll (Winooski, Vt./Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com)
Christopher Jones(Auburn, Calif./Team Rapha-Focus)
Jonathan Page (Northfield, N.H./Planet Bike)
Ryan Trebon (Bend, Ore./LTS-Felt)

Elite Women
Kaitlin Antonneau* (Racine, Wisc./Cyclocrossworld-Cannondale Cyclocrossworld)
Katie Compton* (Colorado Springs, Colo./Rabobank-Giant)
Amy Dombroski* (Boulder, Colo./Crankbrothers Race Club)
Nicole Duke* (Boulder, Colo./Cyclocrossworld-Cannondale Cyclocrossworld)
Meredith Miller* (Boulder, Colo./California Giant Berry Farms-Specialized)

U23 Men
Zach McDonald* (Bainbridge Island, Wash./Team Rapha-Focus)
Cody Kaiser (El Dorado Hills, Calif./California Giant Berry Farms-Specialized)

Junior Men
Andrew Dillman* (Fairdale, Ky./Bob’s Red Mill)
Logan Owen* (Bremerton, Wash./Team Redline)
Richard Cypress Gorry (Payson, Ariz./Whole Athlete-Specialized)
Tobin Ortenblad (Santa Cruz, Calif./California Giant Berry Farms-Specialized)
Curtis White (Delanson, N.Y./Clif Bar Development Cyclo Cross Team)

* Met automatic qualification criteria

]]> http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/u-s-team-roster-for-cyclocross-worlds_203363/feed 2 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/masters-worlds-courtesy-of-the-red-white-and-blue_203324 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/masters-worlds-courtesy-of-the-red-white-and-blue_203324#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:12:18 +0000 VeloNews.com http://velonews.competitor.com/?p=203324 Some of the best masters cyclocross racers from eleven countries head to Louisville, Kentucky’s Eva Bandman Park as the UCI Masters Cyclocross World Championships start Thursday.

The 2012 masters worlds marks the first time in history that a cyclocross world championship will take place outside of Europe.

18 rainbow jerseys will be awarded this weekend. And if the American-heavy start lists are any indication, a lot of those jerseys will be staying stateside.

Eva Bandman Park has a permanent cyclocross course overlooking the Ohio River and downtown Louisville. The course was built in anticipation on the 2013 UCI Cyclocross World Championships, and has already been used for two Exergy Energy US Grand Prix of Cyclocross races. But masters worlds is the first time the course has been used for a race in January.

“It’s our first muddy race,” event director Joan Hanscom said after Thursday’s seeding heats to determine call-ups in larger fields.

“The weather was truly epic today,” Hanscom said after a morning of rain and snow showers turned the course’s short climbs and drops into a two-minute muddy run.

Hanscom said over 500 racers are registered, with walk-up registration still open, making 2012 worlds already the best-attended masters world championships ever.

“International turnout is not terribly heavy,” Hanscom said. “But we’re not surprised. These are masters racers for whom this is an expensive trip.”

Hanscom insisted that low international turnout at masters worlds has no bearing whatsoever on turnout next year at the elite cyclocross world championships. “Apples to oranges,” he said.

Masters worlds gives the organizers and the UCI a very good opportunity to work out the kinks before next year.

“This is a really good chance for the UCI to get their eyeballs on the course from an operational standpoint and also from a technical standpoint,” Hanscom said.

Next year, the masters world championships will be run the three days before the elite cyclocross world championships, giving the masters a chance to race their championship, then stay for the elites.

The good news for Americans at this year’s masters worlds is, of course, that many of them have a good shot at a world title.

“I’ve been excited about this race ever since they announced it,” Pete Webber (Boulder Cycle Sport), a 40-44 title favorite, said. “Who can’t be excited?”

Here is a rundown of some of the categories:

Men 30-34, Friday

Dylan McNicholas (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld) won the 30-34 race at nationals, but cannot race worlds because he holds UCI points. Runner-up Matt Pacocha (BikeRadar) is on the start list. Pacocha is a perennial force in the 30-34 age group, but said in Madison that he’s less than happy with his current form.

Pacocha will have to deal with 2009 world champion and 2010 runner-up Sven Van Eyndt from Belgium, who is on the start list.

Men 35-39, Saturday

Last week’s silver and bronze medalists Christopher Case (Feedback Sports) and Scott Frederick (Inland-Back to Dirt) charged late in Madison to almost catch new champion Brian Wilickoski (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld). Wilichowski isn’t racing worlds, saying in Madison he could only race one or the other. But expect Case and Fredrick to pick up the slack for the U.S..

2010 Spanish masters 30-39 champion Marco Antonio Prieto is registered to race in Louisville.

Men 40-44, Saturday

Boulder Cycle Sport teammates Pete Webber and Brandon Dwight have dominated the Masters divisions at Nationals for years. Webber, a former professional mountain biker, won in 2009 and 2010. Dwight won the 35-39 race twice, and won the 40-44 race last weekend in Madison, riding away from Adam Myerson (Smart Stop-Mock Orange) with his teammate.

Weber and Dwight traveled to Europe last year and raced the masters world championships in Mol, Belgium, with Webber taking fourth and Dwight placing sixth. But with none of the rest of the top-five on the start list, one of these men has a very good shot at the rainbow jersey.

“I guaranteed you one of us will be in the rainbows if everything goes right,” Webber promised in Madison.

Former elite U.S. champion Mark McCormack (Clif Bar-Pactimo) is also registered.

Men 45-49, Saturday

Former elite U.S. National Champion Don Myrah was twelfth last year at worlds. But he’s fresh off of winning this year’s 45-49 national championship by almost a minute over Jon Cariveau (who isn’t racing worlds).

Myrah will have his work cut out for him, as Belgium’s Erik Teck who rode to second-place at last year’s worlds is on the start list. Teck is a four-time masters world champion and has ridden to podium finishes year after year in cyclocross masters worlds.

Men 50-54, Saturday

After racking up another title in Madison, American cyclocross legend Steve Tilford heads into the worlds 50-54 race as a favorite.

It’s difficult for the average American cyclocross fan to imagine Steve Tilford ever being beaten by someone his age, but it happened at last year’s masters worlds. Tilford placed third after at last year’s masters worlds in Belgium, after starting in the last row and fighting through traffic.

“I think I’d normally beat them anyway, so I really wish they were here,” Tilford said. “I’m planning on winning, but you know how that goes … my form seems to be there, but you never know until it’s over. That’s why they run the race.”

We’ll hold back on declaring you the winner until afterward, Steve.

Kevin Hines (Corner Cycle Cycling Club) was very close to Tilford in Madison, finishing 11 seconds back. The two will have a chance for a rematch on Sunday.

Men 55-59, Sunday

25-time national champion Paul Curly (Mid-State Cycling Club) won another one in Madison, but isn’t on the start list for Louisville.

Ned Overend (Specialized), however, is. The mountain bike world champion won handily when he raced the 2010 55+ masters national championships in Bend and stands a very good chance of padding his extensive palmares in Louisville.

Norman Kreiss, silver medalist at the last two national championships, is also confirmed.

Women 35-39, Saturday

Sally Annis won in Madison, but can’t race worlds because she holds UCI points. Nicole Borem (Bob’s Red Mill) and Kristal Boni (Rapid Racing) might get a chance to repeat their close battle in Madison that Boni won for silver.

But the Americans will have their work cut out for them with Canadian Olympian (and Tim Johnson’s wife) Lyne Bessette (Independent Fabrications) there.

Kristin Weber (Boulder Cycle Sport) also comes to Louisville after riding to fifth at nationals.

Women 40-44, Sunday

Kimberly Flynn (Scenic City Velo), Katrina Dowidchuk (TBB-Deep Blue), and Margell Abel (Tough Girl Cycling) went two, three, four at nationals and stand a very good chance of winning the 40-44 world title. But they’ll have to get through Amélie Vantomme of France who rode to tenth place, 1:36 behind the winner at last year’s worlds.

Women 50-54, Sunday

Defending 50-54 world champion Marilyn Ruseckas from the United States isn’t on the start list. But last year’s runner-up, Lucia Pizzolotto, is registered. Pizzolotto is a two-time Italian national road champion.

Kris Walker (Contender) and Catherine Walberg (Kenda-Gear Grinder) rode minutes ahead of the rest of the field for first and second last weekend in Madison. Both are registered for Louisville.

The winners of the seeding heats today were:

Men 40- 44 Heat 1: Pete Webber (USA)
Men 40-44 Heat 2: Brandon Dwight (USA)
Men 45-49 Heat 1: Donald Myrah
Men 45-49 Heat 2: Erik Teck (Belgium)
Men 50- 54 Heat 1: Kevin Hines (USA)
Men 50-54 Heat 2: Stephen Tilford (USA

]]> http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/masters-worlds-courtesy-of-the-red-white-and-blue_203324/feed 6 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/video/video-cyclocross-nationals-elite-women_203048 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/video/video-cyclocross-nationals-elite-women_203048#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:16:48 +0000 VeloNews.com http://velonews.competitor.com/?p=203048 Even though she won by a massive margin, Katie Compton (Rabobank) was not lacking in graciousness after her win at the 2012 USA Cycling cyclocross national championship, in Madison, Wisconsin. One of the highlights for her, though, was seeing her protégé, Kaitlin Antonneau (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld), ride into second.

]]> http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/video/video-cyclocross-nationals-elite-women_203048/feed 3 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/powers-vindicated-wins-cyclocross-nationals_202882 http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/01/news/powers-vindicated-wins-cyclocross-nationals_202882#comments Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:40:15 +0000 Kurt Hoy http://velonews.competitor.com/?p=202882 Updated—Sunday, January 8, 11:00 pm CST

Jeremy Powers finally put the torment of coming up short at nationals to rest today, winning the elite cyclocross national championship over Ryan Trebon (LTS-Felt) and Jonathan Page (Planet Bike).

Powers (Rapha-Focus), the most successful U.S. rider this season, broke a four-man stranglehold on a crown that has been traded for 11 years between Page, Trebon, Tim Johnson (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld), and Todd Wells (Specialized).

Powers crashed last year in front of Wells and the two tangled, sending Powers’ brake into his rim and his hopes of a national title once more into the mud. But he was vindicated on Sunday in Wisconsin.

Complete Results: 2012 CX nationals, elite men

It was a thrilling race, with the pre-race favorites exchanging blows for five laps, only to be caught by the previous day’s U23 champion Zach McDonald (Rapha), before Powers sprung from the group for victory on the penultimate lap.

The USA Cycling cyclocross national championships course at Badger Prairie park outside Verona, Wisconsin underwent a daily freeze-thaw cycle all week. The course was pummeled into a muddy, rutted mess all day as mild winter highs melted the frosty ground, then frozen back in place overnight, leaving the morning racers to contend with icy ruts that sent their tires veering in unintended trajectories.

By the time the elite men raced on Sunday afternoon, the course had been beaten into a slippery batter by the elite women as it softened, then kneaded into a slimy dough during the men’s warmup.

McDonald’s Unlikely Holeshot

The race started with an unexpected holeshot by Saturday’s U23 champion Zach McDonald. Then Zach surprised again by over-cooking the first corner into the grass and piling into a line of spectators and photographers.

“You’d almost call it the rookie move,” McDonald admitted afterward. “I grabbed the brakes and there was just nothing there.”

McDonald was up and running shortly, but dozens of spots back.

Meanwhile Trebon, fresh off a six-week break from racing after a knee injury sustained during a crash in Louisville followed by two wins in as many days in Chicago, took over. Dylan McNicholas (Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld) sat on the tall man’s wheel coming into the course’s long first climb—the first of two significant climbs with a very steep ramp midway.

Trebon got out of his saddle and stampeded up the long climb like a runaway elephant, gapping everyone off his wheel, but he was tailed by a group of McNicholas, Johnson, Page, and Powers when he came back down the hill two minutes later.

Amateur McNicholas rode with “the big four” for the next lap and up the long climb the second time around, but was absent when the favorites emerged from the course’s backside.

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