Koksijde...Did we kill international cyclocross?
Day 1,531, 10:18
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Published in Belgium 
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by
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by Cooke4444
The top 7 in the world championships cyclocross were all Belgians. Niels Albert has the honour to wear the shirt a whole year.
A clash was expected between 4 big names: Albert, Nys, Pauwels and the Czech Stybar. But the race actually ended after one lap: Albert flew over the sand and left everybody behind. Pauwels and Nys felt the tiredness from a heavy season and Zdenek Stybar didn't even finish in the top-10. Behind Albert, the Belgians regrouped and in the last lap, Rob Peeters was the best in the sand. Pauwels could use a fall of Tom Meeusen to take third place. Ironically, Nys was the last Belgian on the 7th place.
The win of Albert was impressive, but the top-7 was more impressive: only Belgians! Ofcourse, Belgium has the longest tradition in sand races and were encouraged by the huge crowd, but only the Frenchman Steve Chainel could show him in the first lap, for the rest it was all Belgium in front of the race.
Zdenek Stybar showed a demotivating sight for the result of the race during the warming-up: a pink hat and pink underwear over his cycling shirt gave the impression he wasn't interested in the win. In an interview afterwards he admitted that he's more interested in road cycling.
But who's going to challenge the Belgians then? No direct opposition, and the popularity only increases in Belgium, more specific in Flanders. Even the UCI can't change it: they announced a new race in Rome to increase cyclocross interest in Italy, but instead of cancelling a race in Belgium, they cancel the popular race of Igorre in Spain. My opinion is that Namur and Koksijde are a very popular track, but Heusden-Zolder has, apart from one world championship cyclocross, no real tradition. Yes, the climb of the Sacramentsberg is beautiful, but Zolder is in the first place a car racetrack.
In other categories, like the juniors and U23, Holland and France are challenging the Belgians, but it is a fact that most of these cyclists chose for road cycling or mountainbike in the end, while the Belgians keep on working on their cyclocross technique.
Luckily, the womens race has more countries on the top: USA, France and Czech Republic increase the worldwide interest, but only for second place, as the Dutch Marianne Vos is outstanding.
It's still a long way to increase worldwide popularity, but by increasing the values of an international race (like Igorre, Las Vegas, Roubaix,...), lots of small Belgian races will be reduced. That's a sad solution, but necessary for developing cyclocross. It will depend on the UCI and the Belgian crowd, if they are ready to welcome more international riders and to decrease the national pride we got in cyclocross tradition. We don't need every week a Belgian winner in the winter, do we? Look at the road cycling: more enthousiasm comes from a long period of waiting, and then the relieve of winning again (like Liège-Bastogne-Liège).
A clash was expected between 4 big names: Albert, Nys, Pauwels and the Czech Stybar. But the race actually ended after one lap: Albert flew over the sand and left everybody behind. Pauwels and Nys felt the tiredness from a heavy season and Zdenek Stybar didn't even finish in the top-10. Behind Albert, the Belgians regrouped and in the last lap, Rob Peeters was the best in the sand. Pauwels could use a fall of Tom Meeusen to take third place. Ironically, Nys was the last Belgian on the 7th place.
The win of Albert was impressive, but the top-7 was more impressive: only Belgians! Ofcourse, Belgium has the longest tradition in sand races and were encouraged by the huge crowd, but only the Frenchman Steve Chainel could show him in the first lap, for the rest it was all Belgium in front of the race.
Zdenek Stybar showed a demotivating sight for the result of the race during the warming-up: a pink hat and pink underwear over his cycling shirt gave the impression he wasn't interested in the win. In an interview afterwards he admitted that he's more interested in road cycling.
But who's going to challenge the Belgians then? No direct opposition, and the popularity only increases in Belgium, more specific in Flanders. Even the UCI can't change it: they announced a new race in Rome to increase cyclocross interest in Italy, but instead of cancelling a race in Belgium, they cancel the popular race of Igorre in Spain. My opinion is that Namur and Koksijde are a very popular track, but Heusden-Zolder has, apart from one world championship cyclocross, no real tradition. Yes, the climb of the Sacramentsberg is beautiful, but Zolder is in the first place a car racetrack.
In other categories, like the juniors and U23, Holland and France are challenging the Belgians, but it is a fact that most of these cyclists chose for road cycling or mountainbike in the end, while the Belgians keep on working on their cyclocross technique.
Luckily, the womens race has more countries on the top: USA, France and Czech Republic increase the worldwide interest, but only for second place, as the Dutch Marianne Vos is outstanding.
It's still a long way to increase worldwide popularity, but by increasing the values of an international race (like Igorre, Las Vegas, Roubaix,...), lots of small Belgian races will be reduced. That's a sad solution, but necessary for developing cyclocross. It will depend on the UCI and the Belgian crowd, if they are ready to welcome more international riders and to decrease the national pride we got in cyclocross tradition. We don't need every week a Belgian winner in the winter, do we? Look at the road cycling: more enthousiasm comes from a long period of waiting, and then the relieve of winning again (like Liège-Bastogne-Liège).
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http://i.imgur.com/shYZ2.jpg
i love your articles
i have a suggestion, you should organize some bettings for great sportevents!
voted 🙂