Harris has gone close before. She’s had a few podiums iirc but this year she has been knocking on the door even more. Still not the best in mud.
Really curious to see how Cants ribs heal up. This is almost the worst time to get a lingering injury like that. Lot of important racing in the coming fortnight. Also waiting to see if Comptons slow burn of a season pays off. If it goes well I’m thinking she will start to peak in early-mid Jan but should get a couple of podiums over xmas. She is close to falling off the front row for WCs!
GV has proper form for it though according to the cross illuminati. Trebon called him out on his CXHairs podcast episode too. Kerstperiode always has a lot of posts (from visitors) about how full on euro racing is vs everywhere else. A whole lotta elbows being thrown and bikes being put in paces they arguably shouldnt go to make passes. But really, coming at the king and expecting to walk away… pfft.
A few people showed hints of form to come, and it was good to see Meussen get a W (albeit arguably ‘gifted’ from WvA and MvdP as they save their legs, and retain series positioning). There were a lot of ‘lessons learnt’ in prep for the worlds at zolder. Wonder how many people are increasing their run and power work in the coming weeks?
Next weekend are the ‘jersey races’ which will be quite interesting in a few countries. Curious to see who wins France (Ventourini is having a blinder of a season and Chainel and Mourey have not really been sighted). Plus the always interesting battles in NED and BEL. From what i heard Hyde isnt going back to the US so Powers has to be the unbackable favourite (but its a pretty interesting course and there’s been a bunch of rain… sooooo).
Meeusen Has definitely been knocking on the door when it comes to a win this season. Having the Van’s take a rest day (or not want to push themselves that hard) probably helped.
I’m wondering about Lars van der Haar this season. Is it that Wout and Matthieu have developed during the off season and are now that little bit better than him, or is he pushing it by going from cross season to road season to cross season with no real rest period?
Meeusen is always knocking at the door. But he is just that level below and needs a good day with everything going right or some luck to win (see Klaas V, Rob Peeters and Wellens in his final years). He’s won world cups (normandy) and SP and BPosts before. If it wasn’t for Wout and Matthieu coming up early he might have the chance for ‘good’ year after Sven retired. He also has the best male pain face going.
Lars is racing good! You can’t call winning a WC, the Euro champs, and some very consistent series podiums bad. He did have a break between cross and road to my understanding, but he deliberately did more road stuff late in the season to come in hot for Vegas. Has this meant his mid-season was a bit weaker? Maybe… but you cant fly all season nowadays. Last year was the first year in elites for the other Vans and i think it was a bit of a learning experience. this year they are used to it and its showing.
On a related note: Myerson was talking about how while he acknowledges the new Vans are very good they have benefited from arriving at a bit of a weaker time in elite mens racing with Boom and Styby racing road and Nys retiring and Albert retired. His (and a couple of others) thoughts are that that very pointy end of the field is missing a few people as compared to a few years ago. There’s no doubt that Styby and Albert would make for some good racing against those two (as well as Nys in his prime or Boom focusing on cx). There’s doesnt seem to be any more super hitters coming up soon either. If Iserbyt is smart he will wait to age up.
Of course MvdP is only a solid contract away from the World Tour
the rules around pit equipment/access are not to be trifled with. and the fact that said friend was the same fit dimensions and hadn’t changed a thing in terms of parts… uh huh.
the excuses are all variations of the standard drug doping ones. the sad part is the likely collateral damage to her trade team mates.
Plus the belgians were super pissed… cant imagine she will find selection in the national team easy for quite a long time. or possibly life in general there…
OTOH: so many great races and stories over the weekend. it was going to take a lot to get past the motor story and i think it got pretty close.
a youth womens race where an outsdier went all in and it paid off, and where she was so overcome she didnt know what to do post-race (plus riding a 2nd hand, last season bike). a crazy womens race that had so many leader changes and a lot of emotion. a mens U23 race where team tactics saw it come back together, a moment which had my whole twitter TL going ‘WTF’, an explosive last lap and another emotional deserved winner getting redemption. then the men’s race that had me on the edge of my seat for the full hour. so much drama, racecraft, chaos and then after a daring, but tactical pass - that moment that decides the race. plus sven… at his best, and looking dignified in 4th.
I don’t know what mechanical issue she had causing her to retire from the race, I did notice she walked off the course then rode along a pathway. Sort of feels like she was notified that the bike was discovered and decided to retire to minimise the damage.
There was awesome racing all weekend. It’s awesome to see the younger classes riding at speeds very similar to the elite. Also, seeing different strategies play out through all of the races was very entertaining. My neighbours would have heard us cheering for Toupalik on the actual last lap.
I’m watching the elite men’s race tonight because I couldn’t stay awake.
