I cancelled my reservations 2 days ago. :/

The person I was going to help opted out of the race. Still came to the United States though. Pauline and I are attempting to buy a home here again.

Good to see McNulty open UAE's 2022 account with a W. Let's hope there are more in store for him.

Some positive news about Bernal. Has neurologic function intact.

Some scary news about Amy Pieters. Unconscious for a month now. Not totally clear from the article, but it sounds like the still-unconscious part is no longer because of induced coma.

Almost two days without a post? Lads, you are slipping

Quite a duel today! I was a little surprised Brand didn't try more "things" given bringing Vos onto the tarmac has predictable results. But Vos was pretty imperious - didn't look "crackable" on the climb, stairs, or anywhere else.

A little disappointing for the 'Muricans given that dry, fast course was pretty close to an American crit. Not suited to Honsinger though. Plucky Italian made the podium in the sea or orange near the front.

The relay on Friday was sort of interesting, but undermined by most countries not giving a crap.


Edit: And I'm not sure what's up with GCN. I watched the replay after my ride, and zero English commentary. Just crowd noise. Technical glitch, I guess. But I figured that a UK-based producer covering a WC in the U.S. would have English language dialed.

CX Worlds: I think this is made for Van der Haar. I'm sure Tom P will do well but not much there, apart from the hill, that will play to his skills. Belgian and Dutch teams will be firing off attacks and blocking. SHould see plenty of elbows and shoulders thrown.

1) Lars, 2) Eli, 3) Tom, is my best guess.

I like it. For some reason L. Sweeck enters my mind. He's been lurking quietly. Course doesn't quite suit Toon Aerts.

I agree...this looks like a great course for Van der Haar.

Vos is the G.O.A.T. There is nothing else Brand could do with a fit Vos today. Great race from both ladies.

yep - a decade and a half after her first title, she can still turn it on when she has to. great to see.

for my part i'm finding women's cycling (or cross, anyway) more exciting than men's at the moment. the u-23 promises to be a corker too - i'm picking pieterse for the win.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Amazing ride by Zoe Backstedt for England. And Persico? Who would have bet against an all-Dutch podium? I hope a whole generation of young Italians just set their sights on cyclocross.

The crowd here in Fayetteville has been pretty good. Not European sized, but loud and supportive and a stark contrasts to Euro races without crowds at all.

Go Lars!

Let's go PUCK!

If you think she's the GOAT of women's cycling (I'd concur), shouldn't you at least spell her last name correctly?

It's Vos, which is Dutch for fox, appropriate as she has a history of pouncing and trouncing rivals who aren't as wily.

Personally, I found her name easier to remember after I've had dozens of these over the years

Correction made...thank you.

puck effin' pieterse.

damn!

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Brilliant ride by Pidcock. They are so lucky with the weather for this event though. On Thursday the high is going to be 24 in Fayetteville with close to a foot of snow on the ground.

WvA must be ruing his decision to sit this out

Oh well, brilliant ride by Pidcock. Now we get to see him competing in the classics (only a month away!)

I don't know... Wout's already got plenty of CX rainbow stripes. De Ronde, though... eyes on the prize. Sure, racing CX worlds has worked out well for his road season in the past, but this is also a good time for a reset ahead of the spring classics campaign.

Was really hoping for Rochette to be in contention for bronze there, but alas...

I would suggest that was bad luck rather than good luck. While the races have been exciting, I can't help but feel that this was not a proper World Championships cross course. Snow and cold temps could have only made it better.

Both Vos and Pidcock rode with bottles cages! (the horror)

That said, the winner was legit in every race category, as far as I can tell. It was pretty much a list of pre-race favorites.

The women's elite race was far more entertaining than the men's, which has been the pattern all year. Years?

No doubt, definitely legitimate winners all around, and entertaining races. It may be my own preferences as well, but I prefer a course where technical abilities play a bigger role. This one seemed like it came down to power entirely. Although I do probably prefer it to the tractor pull course like the last time Wout won the rainbow stripes.

I'm going to disagree here. Sure, Pidcock put his stamp on the race and motored away; some might consider that boring (I didn't). And there was still a fight for the silver, with one rider sitting on the other, kind of like the women's race. I found the men's plenty entertaining, partially for the sheer speed of the first few laps. Interest in the women's tailed off rapidly (for me) after Vos and Brand, and frankly the results of that sprint were predictable.

The women's U23 race was the best race of the weekend IMO.

And listen, all kudos to Fayetteville for building that awesome park and course, and I hope it serves as an incubator for North American cross for the next few years. But if they get to hold another World Cup race, they need to either drench it with water, cut in an off-camber section, or hold a motorcross event to dig in some ruts to make it a bit tougher.

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Top 3 elite men are probably the 3 smallest guys in the cx peloton. They're all tiny.

Not all about power. W/kg of course was very important, just as important was high speed handling and repeated accelerations.

interestingly, i'm not sure how different the results would have been on a more technical course.

for the women, vos handles better than brand, i think. at u23 women, puck's got the best skills in the peloton i think. and pidcock comes from MTB; the form he had on the weekend would've been pretty dominating even if things had been more muddy i think.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Kudos to Pidcock, happy for him, seems like a nice bloke. I really enjoyed the U23 mens race and the tactics applied by the Belgians and the in-fighting with the Dutch riders.

Too bad there wasnt some mud or sand to slow it down. Otherwise, it was a grass road race with one semi-technical hill/turn and some nice steps. Seems like with all that land they could have cut some trails into the woods to add some technical stuff. Similar comments with the USAC Nationals course this past year - other than it being slippery in some corners it was boring. You would have hoped that the course designers get on YouTube once in a while and watch some the European races.