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CX World Champs: Junior race... LIVE


Goodmorning! Welcome to the first of four world champs races in the next two days. This morning, it's time for the juniors.

Where will they be racing? On sand!

Who will be racing? Startlist

Where can I watch? Sportz-livez or Cyclingfans

When does it start? At 11am CET.

Who will win? Well, my money's on Holland's Mathieu van der Poel

0 recs  |  231 comments

Comments

Why is Mathieu the favourite?

He’s won 21/24 races this season. Bam!

morning
Als er niemand anders wakker is kunnen we ook gewoon Nederlands klappen :)
klappen is netzomin nederlands als plaudern? ;)
Vloamsch joeng :)
wie gehoan vadduh ient dranhts
Eh. What now?

:)

true saxon is beyond you?

/terribly FAKE saxon
//totally made up as well…

We don’t like fondue, we don’t really like gourmet…
Us, here in Drenthe, like stonegrilling on the Hunebed!!!

Dranths threw me for a loop :)
regrettably

I have phonetic inclinations ;)

Good morning!
I have no idea who any of the juniors are

But it’ll be nice to get a look at the parcours. Plus we might see Albertina, Pigeons et al!

Well, Mathieu van der Poel is like the Marianne Vos of junior races

He wins everything. He’s in the orange kit with number 23.

Apart from that, the Frenchies are always good at the worlds.

Good morning.
It's early where you are, isn't it?
I'm here partly

so that I can say “good morning” without fear of correction by a snarky Belgian

You're way tougher than me
The kids, they don't race for a full hour

It’ll be 40 to 45 minutes more like

Insomniac checking in. Hi, everybody.
USAian crashes
Blimey

Didn’t take long for a crash!

crash

american gorey

Wow, you were right about the sand, holy cow.
Hard, right?
And lengthy.
Three long stretches like that
I love Koksijde

The round of the World Cup they had here back in November was the best race I saw in 2011.

It's back in 2012

UCI released the programme yesterday. Igorre and Liévin are out, Rome (?!) and Roubaix are in.

“If you’ve ever tried to ride a bike in sand, you’ll know difficult it is. Shift your weight too much over the front wheel and it digs in, then you fall of. Too much weight over the rear wheel and digs in, sucking the strength right out of legs as you pedal harder to overcome the sucking effect, then more often than not you fall off. Get the balance just right and the sand still sucks the strength out of your legs. Try to go round a corner and everything’s fine – just kidding! You fall off. Well, that’s what happens in dry sand, at any rate; it’s much worse when it’s wet. Which it usually is on the very westernmost tip of Belgium.”

Hehe. Sounds good :D
Rome

Bad choice in my opinion: fisrt for the weather (this year on 6th of january average 9°! max 11°!) and for the circuit… too easy without any important obstacles. :-(

Aren't there at least 7 hills?

;)

lol

sure! and a lot of stairs (Coliseum’s)…

:)

And wolves?
Just one wolf I think

but maybe some gladiators?

right

one wolf and two kids :-)

"Too easy"

seems to be the hallmark for non-Belgian world cups

hope they work for prepare something decent

VDPoel trying to ride

Only do that if you can last, kid

Is he the lad in the light blue (didn't see his number)?
light blue

= Belgium

...and may not always be helpful

to differentiate riders this weekend!

Right, those are our kits

Holland is all orange

But why?

Why does pale blue=Belgium? Just because?

It's old school

the kits we had way back in the day, but we’ve been using them again for the past, eh, 10 years or so?

from twitter

podiuminsight Lyne @podiuminsight
Holy cow. All tickets sold out for the weekend. 53,000 fans!

They're expecting problems

with more people turning up and trying to get in, apparently. It’s like the Glastonbury Festival of CX!

Yep, no more tickets at the gate tomorrow

Good thing I bought a B-dagtrip!

The Belgian in first position is Wout Van Aert
That'll be the one I meant.
This is good

Wout is solo, and Mathieu is stuck with three Belgians who won’t be helping him. Whiiii

Belgian one-two

Wout van Aert & Daan Soete

Chased by a Frenchie and yet another Belgian

Yorben van Tichelt (Bel) and Quentin Jauregui (Fr)

Hmm. I don't suppose there's any chance of a stream with English commentary?

I’m up, so why the hell not, but where these two Dutch guys were kinda ok during the world’s road race (i.e. b/c I could fill in the blanks myself) right now I’m just watching and hearing something I don’t particularly understand.

Or...whatever nationality they are

They’re speaking Dutch, was my point.

Nope, don't think so

Sorry

Nope

I’ve searched – but TGSGirl doues an excellent job of translating. :-)

…whereas I do a rubbish job of typing.

+1 And what will we do tomorrow, when she's at the race? :-)
You will wail and despair

Nah, Ted and Broerie will be here for translations, harass them :) And maybe Geert too.

Have fun, and have a beer for me!
Holy shit, look at those people

I’m going to be swamped tomorrow

Course looks like it is faster (easier)

than it was in November?
Or am I imagining things?
Is the sand firmer because of the amount of rain?

It's packed down

which makes it somewhat easier to run on, but not necessarily easier to ride through

van der poel

10 sec

Five laps in total

So three more when we next hit the finish line

Vd Poel's engine has switched on?
Looks like it

Eeek!

Big group together now

Jauregui
Vd Poel
Soete
Hoeyberghs
Van Aert
Van Tichelt

Funny, Herklotz and Van der Poel returning.

The two strongest guys on paper not on great form.

"But we're not racing on paper, we're racing on sand"

One of the kid Belgians in the prerace interviews :D

frenchie blown up?
Is the stream unusually stable?

I’m more just curious for the future, since (sorry!) this race doesn’t mean much to me, but my WiFi is down so I’m doing a wired connection right now. The stream hasn’t bobbled once. Normally, even when I have a pretty good stream, it freezes for a second or two at least once every minute. Or the picture will freeze and the audio will continue.

Stream this morning is perfect. It’s like TV. Is it my connection, the fact that this race may be in less demand than the others I’ve relied on streams for, or is this particular stream just stronger?

Which are you watching?

Mine (Sports-Livez) is not too great.

http://sports-livez.com/channel/ch-3.php

It’s like TV, it’s pristeen.

Sports-livez

has been excellent for CX all season for me (U.S. East Coast)

I'm on the left coast, if it matters

I guess I’ll try wired connection for the next big road event to be streamed. Which will probably be…Omloop Het Nieuwsblad?

ToQ starts 2/5. I, too, have the same problem with the S-L streams (midwest US.)

It all depends. If I can get the stream going before the race start, I have better luck.

"The eye of the tiger" - Huh?
dudududududududu - du!

Du du du! Du du duuuuu!

But why did the commentator say that?
I have no idea

That was the first I heard when I opened the feed

Don't remember him saying it, sorry
Vd Poel by far the best in this sand section.

Far and away.

Alone against 4 Belgians... if he wins this it's amazing.

Certainly for a 1st year junior.

Nothing amazing about it if he wins

strongest guy this season, by far

So? He's only human.

And clearly not on his best day.

Whoa, one guy pedaled up the sand hill while the others pushed their bikes

Does that happen a lot?

Yep. If you're strongest AND you're in front

you can often ride up where others walk. It’ll let you gain some time, especially if the guys behind you aren’t great runners.

I also noticed he was holding onto the barricades

I’m guessing that’s allowed?

Sure

They just have to be careful they don’t pull them down :)

Is sand a common surface?

I know mud and gravel and various artificial surfaces are often used

Pretty much unique to Koksijde, I think.

A few years ago

the UCI decided that sand is only allowed if it’s natural to the circuit – ie, they’re not allowed to add sandpatches.
Koksijde has the most sand, Scheldecross in Antwerpen (remember John, the one with the the octopus) has lots of sand too, Zonhoven has sand AND crazy hills.

Zonhoven pictures

Oh, of course

I’d completely forgotten Scheldecross. Not seen a race at Zonhoven yet.

Sorry, it's six laps, not five

So we’re halfway now.

Can't criticize Belgian tactics here

they’ve done all they possibly could I think

yep

good race

Van depoel

just better this year

yes, seems unbeatable

but they several times made him chase their guy up the road
with 4 Belgians on his wheel
Frenchie helped him a bit I guess

No stopping the Dutchie

It’ll be like this for the next two races (U23 and women) too, sigh

Not too sure about Van der Haar... last time in Koksijde, he got 4th.

But you can’t be in dominating form all season.

Yeah, but he's SO good
If young Mr Boom had not defected to the tarmac

there might have been serious Belgian wailing and gnashing of teeth this year…?
may still happen if Styby is on a good day tomorrow

Lars was awesome when he had his day

but he wasn’t quite as dominant all season, all the time. He never won the world cup, for instance (indicating a season long top performance)

Whose chances do people fancy for tomorrow, then?
Vos might sneak one....

the men seems really open, hoping for a nailbiter

Totally expecting a Vos victory

But Daphny vdB’ll give her a run for her money – the Cup and Championship would be a lovely way to end her career. I reckon Nys will be in with a good chance.

That's a name even I know :o)
Everyone knows Vos!
Think she'll ever win the road WC?
Yep.

Vos wins everything sooner or later, and as Jens says she’s done it once.

Oh

I didn’t know that

The girl is two years younger than me

And she has an Olympic medal, two elite world champ titles on the track, a world champ title on the road (and five! second places) and four (FOUR) world champ titles on in the field

I knew she'd won everything else

But I thought the worlds RR was still missing from her palmares (hence the 5 straight silver medals being such a heartbreak).

She’s younger than me, too…..

Vos and SVEN

I don’t think Marianne likes the sand much, but Marianne running at 75% is still a force to be reckoned with.

Marianne is Marianne

She could win if they were racing on lava

…and she was riding a rickshaw.

You don't want to lose momentum in the lava pit...

…running is not recommeneded

These kids are 16?

crazy strong

Insane, right

they’re babies!

Ugh!

Could have done without Shane Warne’s being all over the casino ad when i opened the stream #targetedadvertsingfail

(Morning all btw)

Did I just spot Albertina's pink hat?
I've seen a couple of possible Albertinas so far

But it seems a lot of Styby fans are doing the pink hat thing.

as per his request
are you going tomorrow?
Yep

3,5 hours by train one-way. And I really really hope I make it back before the national strike starts at 22h :o

So, in 'cross, this ten-ish second gap the three Belgians have over the chasing Frenchman and Belgian

is considered a substantial gap, isn’t it?

Way less than 10" now
It's substantial

but not impossible to make up for.
That is, if it weren’t the best junior by far who was in the lead

Looks like the Frenchman has just about caught up
One dutchie rides over

three belgians come to a stop on the hill and have to get off. Oh my, that’s gotta hurt.

So, this guy in the lead

is the son of Adri van der Poel. And also related to Raymond Poulidor. That explains a thing or two.

Yes, Poulidor's grandson.

He also has something Vos-like about him, the same drive.

The one time a macho cross rider

won’t mind being told that he rides like a girl

His suit even looks similar
Yep, Adrie vdP married Raymond Poulidor's daughter

There’s an older son David vdP who rides in the U23 race today.

Interesting... I wondered, but

just figured van der Poel was a common name

Isn't Poulidor's granddaughter married to a nephew of the Planckaerts...

…or some dynastic link along those lines?

yes, grab that rail: PULL!!

(let’s do it like they do on the Discovery channel…)

Are Belgium, France, and Netherlands the only nations in this race?

Or are they just the only nations with riders worth anything resembling a shit?

The second one

American fell over on the starting straight, right?

One of 'em did

I saw another one about to get lapped

Nope!

There are Brits, Italians, Canadians, Americans and several others!

Haven't seen any other jerseys yet

‘course, I haven’t been watching every second.

Yes, but in Alexandra's gentle terms

they aren’t worth anything resembling a shit
in this race…

Hehehe

Colorful lingo, no?

Sixteen nationalities in total

by my reckoning.

There's a German who should be doing better than he is doing
FINISH

World Champ Mathieu Van der Poel. Congrats lad.

2. Wout Van Aert. Good job.
3. Jauregui. Damn.

did the frenchie celebrate too soon though?
Looked like he had it to me

but it was close

official

just looked like he stopped a bit soon and the belg came back

Is that a big deal for the Belgian team and their supporters, losing a bronze medal in a sprint like that?
Nah

Well, it would’ve been better had he won it, but if it isn’t gold…

Thank you for indulging my total n00bness :)
No problem

Keep asking, I’ll answer all I can

I only started to follow CX this season

You couldn’t wish for a better place to learn about it than here.

Oh, I know PdC loves them some 'cross

…hell, it’s kind of impossible not to know that ;)

Oh

I thought the three Belgians were the front of the race.

Unfortunately, no

A damn Dutchie beat us all :)

Don't worry, he'll switch to the road ;)
Inevitably

scared he can’t hack it with the big boys ;)

Of course ;)

But embrace him, for all intents and purposes, he’s a Belgian. No one in Holland will believe he’s Dutch, if they hear him talk ;)

Strong Flemish accent indeed

but our accents seem to catch on quick. If you’ve ever heard one of the Belgies in Eredivisie talk…

But he lives in Belgium.

I guess he goes to school there too.

Yeah, I know

Just saying, Dutchies that live in Belgium seem to speak with a Flemish accent in no time; and same goes for Flemish people who live in Holland. We both lose our native accent quite quickly, it seems.

Yes.

If I speak to a Belgian for an hour I have a Flemish accent as well ;) But that’s because I like accents.

hey now ;)

blatant lie:

“we didn’t mean to”

Five Belgians in the top 10
Van Aert looked 7 yo

but rode like a beast

He looks at least 10 years younger than VdPoel

total babyface

Dillman the first American in 13th place

Owen 16th

Would that be considered a good result?
Well, you didn't really have any contenders here

so it’s a decent result. Zach McDonald in the U23 race this afternoon maybe has a better chance, but he’s not a favourite either.

We have a contender (not necessarily a favorite) in the women's race, right?

Katie Compton?

A favorite

That is, in any normal non-Vos world she would be a top favorite

Oh yeah, Compton is definitely a contender

It’ll be a matter of timing her crash (she always crashes, every race) right. If Vos weren’t so crazy good, she’d be a favourite.

So a medal favorite, if nothing else?
Yep, definitely
I always think...

that if you’ve been in a race with Vos, you can subtract one place from your finish. I you were fourth, consider yourself to have earned a place on the podium – because it’s as good as third in a race without Vos.

Until recently, the same was said about time trials with Cancellara.
Hey,

this means I could ride in a pro race and not finish last.
My mum would be proud….

yes

Americans getting better at it

Wow, kid speaks really good English
Dutchies usually do
That's because Dutch is actually the same as English

…but they only speak with a mouthful of grapes. If they swallow the grapes and then talk, it’s English. English speakers can put this to the test: buy some grapes and cram as many as you can into your mouth. Then, talk. You see? Fluent Dutch.

UCI obligatory English interview?
I kindly asked Pat if he could take some of the translation work away from me

It only took 250.000 euros to convince him too

Oh noes

It’s the Belgian Justin Bieber

Always cool to see somebody get their new rainbow jersey
Alright, see you all in just under three hours kids!

Time to do some ironing.

1. Van der Poel (Ned)
2. Van Aert
3. Jauregui (Fra)
4. Hermans
5. Soete
6. Tichelt
7. Herklotz (Dui)
8. Hoeyberghs

Somehow, Sven vth seems like a right asshole.
Winning

world champion

podium

Such babyfaces

But such young hardmen

Not as damp as I thought it might be

Sand drains well, obviously, but I thought the muddy bits would be – well, muddier.

VdPoel's worst result this season?

Fourth.
In Neerpelt. Season opener.

Well that was sorta fun

I still don’t really know anything :p If I’m still awake I’ll probably watch the next race.

good morning...!

Am I too late?

I guess I am....
Yes, you are

But there’s another race this afternoon – my afternoon. You’re in New Jersey right? Then it starts at 9 am I believe. (it should be 7:14 for you now, in that case)

No maths..!!! Thanks GS..!!!
The podium picture 4 posts above

was kind of a clue…
But you are never too late for the scintillating company of your fellow PdCers

Hey! I was told this fun in the sand would start at 5am my time.

I don’t know if I can stay awake for 45 min without anything to do.

Want to play U23-VDS?

I’ll take Van der Haar.
Who do you want?

I want van der Haar! No fair.

I’ll take Mike Teunissen. Only because I have no idea who any of them are.

I'll take Jack Clarkson

for purely patriotic reasons.

I can't believe

you guys are letting me get away with that!

you posted it first, you get the pick.
"Tom, Tom, Tom. We have a problem"

guy is on my screen! I heart him.

Ooh la la la la la la la la la la la
he's losing his hair! (I just noticed)

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