Podium Cafe

The curtain comes down on Cyclocross in Belgium this weekend, with Oostmalle being the last of the GvA series. Here's tgsgirl's take:

Oostmalle brings a smile to my face. In 2009, Klaas VT sprinted as fast he could to beat the group he was in. He did it. He reached the finish line before the others... with a lap to go. I'm amused by that, I admit it. I'm a simple girl. It wasn't the only thing that went wrong for Klaas though, 'cause with about half a lap to go KVT crashed and hit a pole, quite spectacularly (and painfully too, I imagine). It's in a forest again, this one, with some very nasty bumps in the road. Well, when I say road... There are sandy bits too, which turn ugly and unmanageable when wet.

Well, the snow is melting, so mud is everywhere I am told. Sound good? Oh, and not far away there's Cauberg Cross, and the star of the day will be none other than Lars Boom. Hopefully this includes riding to and from the race via his home in... in... I dunno, Noord-Brabant I think? Anyway, the Netherlands is about the size of Lake Washington, and I can ride around Lake Washington, so Lars should really think about packing in some extra miles. He's gonna need them, like yesterday.

OK, on to Patrick Verhoest's brilliant pics from last weekend at Middelkerke!

Get used to seeing this guy next year:

Lars vdH is for reals. Speaking of World Champions, Niels was in the house.

Of course, we know who the fans came out to see:

By the way, this was no easy course...

Sand is every bit as hard as it looks. Gotta have a sense of humor in CX... Anyway, this is how it looked:

And how it ended:

Happy farewells as the mudders make way for the skinny tire guys!

All photos by Patrick Verhoest for the Podium Cafe