What is up with Cant spitting the dummy about Ferrand-Prevot being fresher than her and winning the world champs? Her interview on cyclingnews pretty much tells me “CX is about strong legs, not skill”. If she hasn’t ridden her CX bike as much as you, outclass her with your hyper-honed CX skills! If you can’t do that, be prepared to get beat in the sprint. I doubt PFP would have a whinge about these girls who race CX all season having an unfair bike familiarity/skills advantage compared to poor old her and her buddies who kickass on road, MTB and cross all year long. Whats her answer, keep CX for all the B graders and the superstars arent allowed to play?
PS, I want to see Caro Buchanan and PFP face off at XC eliminator world champs to see who is the best all round bike rider in the world today. Peta Mullens must also be on the cusp of taking em all out…
PPSS I want to see Dan McConnell ride CX. Was he top 30 at TDU? I think he was.
PS - I saw Dan McConnell out at Stromlo yesterday - I rode past him… he was stationery though, so technically I overtook him.
PPS - I later saw Andy Blair and rode blood rock and black snake gully with him. Was a heap of fun chasing him and watching someone with so much skill navigate those trails. He got me to do a rock chute that I would have never would have attempted.
Happy you’re still logged on to appreciate it this late in the day
Bloody great work for dropping those two blokes, even if one was not moving and the other rode infront of you the whole time.
I am going to email you about road trip mtb sessions on the weekends. Needed to announce that right now.
Haven’t seen the interview, but did watch the full replay on Sunday. Had been a fan of Cant’s racing, but she did look the sooky baby at the medal presentation…
Cant has actually apologised now… i can imagine after that last lap combined with with one of the very few chances she is going to have to race at worlds with a less than 100% Vos she might be emotional…
While i will in no way question the fact that PFP, Vos, Stybar etc are very skilled athletes (Vos gives PFP a huge wrap at the end of this piece) the underlying issue is that of being able come into the champs after taking a long break, as opposed to being required to race all season.
being able to pick and choose your races (thanks to having a big road/mtb contract) vs a full-time cx contract (and racing pretty much every week from october) means coming into worlds in a different condition. in womens racing the $$ are a lot less so there isnt the funds to being able to dip out of races, but even in the mens races contracts are tied to race attendances so racing most weekends is required.
the comment about the junior champ andreussen (who to be fair won the junior mtb xc WC by over a minute apparently) was that he had probably 3-4 cx races in his legs this season vs iserbyt who apart from running the wrong tyres has been at it almost every weekend.
its complex and no-one complained about vos, or stybar beating nys or andreussen winning, or nash/pendrel//wells running very reduced US schedules in the past… so overall id put it down to the belgians getting beat at what they consider their ‘own sport’ (again).
IMO the best riders won in all the races… and the belgians won the pouting championships (cue ‘pout van aert’ jokes).
Helen Wyman’s piece on equal pay was making my blood boil… so strange that the sport is run to make it hard for women to make a living out of it.
And yeah, van Aert… the face of cyclocross that the world has been waiting for.
Pauline just needs the MTB title this year and she’ll be right up there. I read an interview where she says she doesn’t want to ditch any of the three disciplines, because she’s having too much fun. Way to go!
That’s a very interesting read, I was quite surprised to see the pay chart.
On the topic of people changing disciplines for WC events, I really think any championship should always be a series. Local / Semi pro motorsport is the same. I was racing hill climbs in a series for the qld championship, the Aus title was a single event.
