Nutty early weather. Just west of me here in VA it was -30 in Davis WVA with the wind and -30 at the top in JHole recently. Not wind chill. Just temp.

I'm headed to Big Sky in Feb and I hope it's hospitable.

60 here for new years.

Enjoy The Holy Land!

Which CX race? Loenhout? GP Sven Nys?

Great race at Gravere today. MvDP and WvA are just on another level from everyone else. Total treat to watch those dudes battle it out, but would have loved to see a finish without the pedal slip.

Big Sky has long been on my to-do list, hope the weather treats you well.

It’s actually warm enough to ride outdoors here but the wind and rain and pretty good de-motivators. Hope to get out and turn the planks tomorrow along with a couple uphill laps.

Thanks. When it's good, it's great. I'll cue up another thread for 2023 in a day or two.

Not targeted at you necessarily, but more in general the talk of the "big three" here and during the commentary. I think it really should be the "Big Two/Two Amigos", "Honorable Mention" and "The Rest". Piddles is a heck of a bike racer, but not consistently on the same planet as the Big Two in CX. He's a cut above the rest of the early season CX hero's, but isn't yet keeping up with MvDP and WVA. No disrespect to the rainbow stripes or even his potential, but he's not there yet.

ETA: I realize he'll go on a run and win everything moving forward including the Rainbow stripes again now that I said this.

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"It's good enough for who it's for" - Grandpa Wayne

I hear you, but I'm still giving him Honorary Amigo status based on this last race. Let's call it Amigo Pequeño. Pidcock was a monster into lap 5 (of 6). He was able to close down MdVP's first attack. He cracked badly halfway through lap 5, but it was still a monster effort. It's never good to race MdVP when he's got a chip on his shoulder, and I wonder if he was a little miffed at being called soft by some at Val di Sole. Because he was taking every risk on the mud descents, even if it was the power climb where he finally dropped the other two. Piddles is arguably the best there is at those technical descents, and he couldn't do them any faster than MdVP.

MdVP earned the big beer, with the other two at the kiddie table.

Thanks. It certainly has a feel of an homage.


The race is question is Loenhout. Had I known about how much the UK shuts down for Christmas and Boxing day, we'd have flown into Belgium first and caught Gavere, before crossing the channel.

Loenhout is closer to Antwerp, and is a tad difficult to reach from Gent. Hoping to walk around a bit and find the location of where Het Nieuwsblad used to end.

MvdP 115
Wout 50
Pidcock 3

First lap of Diegem looked like the 405 on a rainy day at rush hour in LA. That was nuts, and another phenomenal battle from the Three Amigos…

That was a riveting race. MvdP really blew up, but a hell of a performance from all 3 of them. Tom must have thought he had that one, but Wout is just too strong.

One thing you can say about Wout is he knows himself as a rider. It’s remarkable how the race can appear over yet he comes back to lay some wood.

Yes Wout is resilient! He took a little breather mid race to recover and then charged back for the win.

I almost think Piddles owes me after I slighted his status as the third amigo - it pretty much guaranteed he'd prove me wrong almost immediately. Which he arguably did, although I'll still wait for a larger sample size.

Great race - Wout is just unbelievable! He might as well grab a MTN bike and keep the Three Amigo battles going across that discipline as well.

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"It's good enough for who it's for" - Grandpa Wayne

He must be an avid reader of ST.

He may not have the power of the other two guys but dude’s got legs and mad bike handling skills, maybe the best of the three.

He did great, but I think he could learn a bit of wheel-following from the likes of Vos, and been a little less eager to help Wout chase down MdVP, particularly on the road sections. Though to be fair for a second there it looked like Wout was cracked and MdVP was going to ride away. Wout is really good at taking 4-5 minutes to recover without losing a ton of time, then relaunching.

I wonder if both the whippets are finally showing their age a bit. Years ago Wout never needed to recover.

Well, Wout is almost 28.5 years old now!

Tom doesn't have the raw power of the other two, but his bike handling, line choice, reading of the race and pacing are better. He's also fantastic at peaking for a target race - Tokyo, Fayetteville, Alpe. Kilo for kilo the best CXer around - but raw power wins on most courses.

Agree on bike handling, and at Diagem we saw Pidock consistently riding the faster off camber high line better than the other two guys. Though Wout was also doing pretty well at it. I disagree on reading of the race, though. He seems to want to race like he's just as strong as MdVP and Wout when I think he could be a touch more patient and crafty. The past 3 days I give Wout the edge on race-reading. Very patient, letting the other two guys burn through their matches until the diesel is ready to motor on through.

I give MdVP the edge in raw will to win in the most important races (World Cup). His top level of focus is unreal.

I see this more as no pain threshold or incredible ability to recover. He has the unreal ability to unleash repeated 1000+W sprints out of every corner and recover in about 30s. Pounds every other rider down who can do that maybe twice per lap, whereas he can do it 10 times. He's also an incredible acrobat - takes crazy and risky lines knowing that he can extricate himself safely, anyone who copies him will come a cropper very soon. I know he had serious knee problems a few years ago and am very surprised that they haven't reoccurred, with his riding style.

All I know is, these 3 guys are not exactly street legal.

Yesterday was such an interesting race with MvdP putting time into the other two on sand section but then Wout and Piddles adjusted course and put it on him late. MvdP clearly saw the line early or had the cajoles and/or power to crush it, but the other two ultimately capitalized and made him pay.

I’d posit Piddles is the best bike handler (by a small margin), MvdP most explosive (although not best sprint) and superior at riding with emotion (or chip on his shoulder), while Wout is perhaps the most well-rounded, pure racer.

pidcock is puck pieterse of jens voigts

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Well done. Though poor Piddles who is clearly reading this thread now has a chip on his shoulder from the Jens comparison.