While it took seven Belgians to dominate the Men’s Cyclocross World Championship race on Sunday, it only took a single Dutchwoman to dominate the women’s race. That’s seven times more dominanter, if my math is correct – which it always is.
Cyclocross fascinates me, mostly because it is completely insane. But I admit: I like the idea of combining Cycling and miniature golf. Put some canti’s on your road bike, take to the mud and woods, add some water hazards, sand traps, man-made climbs and jumps, and now you’ve got a sport for people who hate the way their faces look.
Marianne Vos took her fifth World ‘Cross Championship (a record) to further crowd here palmares with rainbow bands. She’s been World Champion in every discipline involving drop bars, many of them multiple times. She’s also won La Fleche Wallone more times than I can count (I can only count to three), National road and time trial championships, and the Giro d’Italia Femminile. She was even World Champion in Mountain Biking as a Junior. One could easily argue that “V”os is the best active cyclist in the world, bar none.
To that point, we don’t pay close enough attention to Women’s cycling. I’m as guilty as anyone; if I was going to pick the winner of a Women’s race, I’d likely pick Vos or Cooke (if she’s not broken, which she often is) or Teutenberg if the race is likely to end in a sprint, which I wouldn’t be able to tell you without first doing some research. And that pretty much exhausts my knowledge in terms of naming riders, which is disgraceful. After all, if one is to understand the great mystery, one should study all its aspects. (Yes, I just quoted Darth Sidious.)
With the ‘Cross season coming to a close, we’re ramping up to start the 2012 Velominati Super Prestige and with it, we are dragging ourselves into paying attention to Women’s Cycling: the 2012 competition will include women’s races with the points amassed counting towards the overall title.
We are also making some coding changes to the backend system in order to fix some problems which means we’re probably only introducing new problems without necessarily fixing the things that needed fixing in the first place.
We’re also adding more races like the Strada Bianca, changing the scoring model, and eliminating certain things such as free DNF swaps. Stand by for further updates and keep a weather eye on the VSP Page for the updated schedule and rules.
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@brianc
Exactly. Just insane. G'rilla had a right mind to race this past season, as did Ron. Like I said:
@frank
I think Ron and I are actually in the same neck of the woods. Likely did a few of the same races.
@Dan O
I love that your son is so into. Having watched the process of you getting him into cycling over on your site, it's insanely cool to see him really get into it. You rule as a dad.
Yup, there's nothing against any of those things. We just don't get around to writing about it as much, not sure why. When I'm racing, I guarantee there will be more articles on the subject. And on recovering from injury, I'm guessing.
@Brett isn't even a roadie by nature; he's a MTB guy at heart. As said, to understand the mystery, we must study all its aspects. And riding off-road always gives us better bike-handling skills.
The Women's 2011 WC race does a great job of showing off why Vos is so amazing. Lap after lap, she struggles with the off-camber first climb off the track, even falling on her face the first time. But she kept studying it and getting better at it, lap after lap, until she mastered it and dropped everyone like a bad habit.
She was pushing 6,63Watts/kg at a test with the Rabobank team. That is more than most men, this is a Gilbert like wattage. Her coach Jeroen Blijlevens asked the cycling union if she can start in men's racing a few times, to still have something challenging.
@frank
I assume we'll be seeing a pic in "The Bikes" then? Love my Kona.
The other great thing about CX is that, despite what Gianni maintains, black-on-black is the tits: http://www.velominati.com/general/rule-28-dissenting-opinion/#comment-54261
As for Ride like a Girl, how's this for inspiration?
This is swedish pro and olympic medalist Emma Johansson five days after surgery, back on the rollers!
She was hit, head on, by a car while training and broke both collarbones, cracked her helmet in half and was generally beat up.
She's committed to race the Tour of Flanders april first...
The girls are tough!
@Paco
That was for real, though, wasn't it, her racing with the men? Whatever became of that? It would be cool to see b/c she is a killer and amazing rider. Bet she could hold her own.
@frank
Just KILLS me everytime! Love it.
I've been enjoying the Behind the Barriers series, while "J-Pow" can come off as a douche sometimes in general it's enjoyable, and I wish more riders allowed a camera to follow them everywhere for a season.
Around here there are a few cross series, and I've been encouraged to participate. I really wanted to try a road race or two first however before I got down and dirty.