Dutch White Men Can't Jump

Watched both yesterday as well. My basement Cx races don't have ruts. :)

Lars jumped them early in his career, then stopped. Maybe related to one of his injuries or something.

This race was the first I've seen Fem van Empel bunny hop a barrier. Looks like maybe Puck is in her head (though Puck hasn't beat her yet this year)

A week is safe.

Are you suggesting a spoiler delay? I’ve been conditioning with beer and frites for breakfast for weeks. You need to re-examine your commitment—there’s no off-season!

If you can't/don't get caught up within a week, that's on you

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Interesting point re: Van der Haar. I think Jeremy Powers remarked how he himself also did less hopping after an injury.

I think van Empel was jumping them earlier (iirc, going back to Fayetteville, where her "teammate" Betsma got into her way and prevented a clear run)



Just wondering if there is a spoiler delay and what the protocols should be if there is one. @trail was very courteous in providing a delay.

Speaking of beer and frites? Are you in Belgium right now?

Sh*t no, I wish. It has been freezing-ass cold here in PNW for a couple weeks. Zwift season came very early, unfortunately.

Bummer, sorry to hear that

I guess it makes for quite the contrast vis-à-vis NorCal

I'll try organize a few Zwift watch parties for the CX races, though it may be awfully early in the day for you.

Quite a few of us live in climates really not suitable for winter cycling (it's flurrying outside my window right now)

Van Empel has hopped barriers in the past, as has Aniek Van Alphen, and a few others. But none of the other women have hopped as consistently as Puck.


Van der Harr struggled with hopping the barriers years ago, crashed several times in the process, and now seems to take it on a day to day basis. In many circumstances it doesn't seem any slower for him to run them.

Definitely true. Right now it’s 20 degrees with freezing fog, conditions even the most hardened Belgian would hate. There have been 2 suitable days to ride outside in past week (for my tolerance), but at least the Zwift miles are balancing out the slow gravel miles. My goal is 40k on Zwift / day until ski season arrives.

Funny that you mentioned Flanders. I might have to be back east in April, and Roubaix falls on my birthday. It’s tempting to keep going further east to ride the sportive and watch race the next day. Happy birthday to me: eat cobbles instead of cake (or in addition to).

Gotcha. And good call on van Alphen.


Better yet, ride the cobbles and have a cake with a cobblestone design icing/ fondant.

We are actually traveling to Flanders right before new year and are thinking of renting a car to go to Westvleteren. The logistics might be too much, but i’m hoping to at least grab a bottle of the Trappist ale.

Would love to actually ride my bike there, but it’s probably too cold for it. Also will unfortunately miss out on any CX racing.

Again, I love this kid's brain.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/...j-pogacar-interview/

Non-spoiler Merksplas report.

Most exciting part of both the men's and women's races was the startlist. We had a ton of World Champions starting for the women, with Cant, Vos, Brand, Alvarado and Jr. WC Backstedt.

And on the men's side, the Return of Piddles.

The racing itself had some good technical masterpieces, but relatively uninteresting race dynamics.

Thanks for the report

I watched the men’s race whilst suffering through another Zwift ride. Pretty mundane affair.

Pidcock is going to need some time to get his CX engine started. He starts slow at the beginning of each season. I guess he's not a natural like Wout or Mathieu, who are able to show up and put the hurt on the rest of the competitors at the beginning of their seasons.

Well, today is proper. Good race, attrition, and some drama (slip up).

This time the men's race was drankenspecialist approved. Tons of drama . Though the women's race still worth watching.

Looks like Tom's engine is getting close to being fully tuned based on today's performance (granted I just read a summary and didn't watch the race).

Was too early to catch live, but doubled back. Yes, it definitely was!

I watched it, that was some performance.

Nice story of the weekend, I almost finished Wout and Toon Aerts' CX seasons before they even started..

I was doing a recon of a course of one of the hardest off road duathlons in Europe (Hel van Kasterlee in Belgium) which has 5 loops of 25km on the mtb.
For this year's 20th edition, they added an extra part to the course which apparently is a renowned CX track in Lichtaart.

I was following allong on my Garmin, did not pay enough attention to the arrows marking a course direction so I missed one (and I assumed the duathlon course would follow the marked permanent course in the correct direction). I was hammering along on a short steep climb which included 3 tight turns and when I came out of the last corner I could barely dodge a yellow and black bike and someone with a Redbull helmet, followed by another guy who came down the hill full speed. There were less than 10cm/4" between us or we would have had a head on collision. At the top I saw Wout's dad and someone of the JV team so I immediately apologized and explained, Wout and Toon stopped 1' later, I apologized to them as well and Wout also apologized for yelling (we both yelled because we were startled quite a bit). We talked a bit and I let them continue their training and continued mine as well.

I'm going to remember this one for a while haha. He named his activity for the day 'Man in black', "coincedentally" I was completely dressed in black..

That said, Wout looked to be very much in shape but Toon had the slimmest/most toned down face I have seen from him ever. If and when he comes back this season, he's going to be a contender right away.

There’s a story for the grandkids :)

Toon Aerts? Is he still racing? Does he have a team?

No, and no. The Baloise-Trek Lions let him go.

He could technically race if he wanted to, but is not while his case works through the system. Which is taking a damn long time, which suggests he's fighting it somehow.

Both him and his brother Thijs have signed for the Thormans-Wanty team for from 01/01/23 onwards. I can confirm he was riding a Cube 😉