Been watching a load of cross races on GCN app, really good racing. Looking forward to this weekends racing. Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado is awesome and Wout v Matthieu is always great.
Course looks horrific over that sand!!

My money is on Van der Poel, watching him nail it is poetry in motion.

PS on beeb red button too.

Saturday 30 January

14:10-15:25 – Women’s Elite Race – BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website & app

17:10-18:25 & 22:00-23:15 – Women’s Elite Race – BBC Red Button (replay)

Sunday 31 January

14:10-15:40 – Men’s Elite Race – BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website & app

14:30-15:40 – Men’s Elite Race – BBC Red Button

15:40-16:55 & 20:30-21:45 – Women’s Elite Race (replay)

16:55-18:25 & 21:45-23:15 – Men’s Elite Race – BBC Red Button (replay)

Looks like a good course for Van der Poel. If he gets any sort of gap on Van Aert the race is over. Not sure if Pidcock is good enough in the sand to beat Vanthourenhout or Toon Aerts for third.

VDP I think / hope as well.
I think Brand will edge the ladies race

Also on Eurosport and probably any number of vpn dodged feeds through cyclingfans or steephill

Ryan kamp looks nailed on for u23 men’s but Britain with a great chance for the rest of the podium – Thomas mein, ben turner plus others.

Womens elite includes Evie Richards, aka worlds jolliest human being, who’s not had a good run in but could sneak on to the podium in a long race

U23 womens wide open IMO a looks like a hard course to call regarding what kind of rider it suits. A number of riders have been showing form in different races but Anna Kay has a has as much a chance as any of top spot.

Excited.

Looks like a good course for Van der Poel. If he gets any sort of gap on Van Aert the race is over. Not sure if Pidcock is good enough in the sand to beat Vanthourenhout or Toon Aerts for third.

Pidcock’s ability to peak for last years worlds was astonishing and I always enjoy seeing the drone shot of him riding 6 Belgians off his wheel but I think on flat sand and on current form sweek will get 3rd and possibly worry the top 2 for a while.

Good races all round I think.

Excited to see how Anna and Thomas get on. Probably more interested than the senior races. Both have had impressive results this season and have really looked at home on the world circuit.

Brand Vs Alavardo is going to be a good one too. Excited.

The women’s u23 could be a tight race, I think Bakker might edge it over Kay or Vas

VdP has stated that he thinks that WvA has better power over the sand, it might come down to the sprint, or as in more recent races punctures or mechanicals. Sand doesn’t suit Pidders at all – it’s not technical, it’s just down to big watts.

WvA whooped VdP in a muddy race a few weeks back but other than that has needed a MVP puncture to win.

Anyone got any links to the u23 race.
Local lad racing in it.
Cheers

Uci might have a live feed, might need a vpn though.

The WE is likely to come down to Brand or Alvarado but I wouldn’t discount Cant, Vos, Betsema and perhaps Richards.
ME depends on which version of VdP turns up. If it’s the one we’ve seen most of the season then it’s a close race between him and WvA, if it’s the Hulst/previous two seasons version then he’s unbeatable.

So excited. Hoping GCN is showing all four races. Mein looking good for a U23 podium, Turner too if he’s recovered from his Overisje crash.

Kay possibly lacking the power but she was looking good last weekend.

Interested to see how Evie goes. Perhaps not enough tech for her. Love how she needs next to no racing to find form!

Too close to call for the GOATs. WvA seems to have found his cx legs for the first time in a few years and MvdP hasn’t dominated as usual (lacking form or weather worked against him this season??). Big Mat was incredible on the Koksijde sand when he came from last place. But of course this is different sand!

Praying for Pidders. Agreed it might favour Sweeck but Dübendorf was a power course and he did alright there. He’s also making all the right noises about off road riding in the future thank god 🙂

What a visually impressive course BTW.

anyone got a good link to the uci feed?  All the stuff I can find looks as dodgy as :(.  It’s either that or brush up on Flemish pretty quickly (ok, might have to be French)

edit:  and are tyres really only 19-20psi?  Seems super low for such narrow tyres

Looking forward to it, not 100% about the course but sure it will be great racing.
If we are doing predictions then MVDP, WVA, Toon Aerts for the ME with Lars van der Haar as an outside chance purely based on him being my favourite pro and I just saw a short vid of him flying in the sand.
For the WE, I think Betsema will be on the podium with Brand and Alvardo battling for the top spot (brand edging it).
Women’s u23 is wide open, not sure about the men’s u23 bar Kamp likely to win.

They’re on tubs so pinches a rarity. Also they don’t pay for tyres and wheels.

BBC has seniors.

GCN race pass has u23. About £7 for a month if you can’t find a feed on steep hill or cyclingfans

GCN race pass has u23. About £7 for a month if you can’t find a feed on steep hill or cyclingfans

Got the GCN racepass but doesn’t work in Belgland for the cross unfortunately.  I thought the UCI used to stream it on YouTube previously but now YouTube seems to be full of dodgy clickbait links that want you to sign into some link in the comments.  Guess it will have to be rtbf for me

@leffeboy – if you can access it, BBC iplayer has Elite M & W listed

Allegedly from folks who’ve asked him on Twitter Jeremy powers is convinced gcn app has the u23s even though they aren’t listed. Hopefully it’s same on Eurosport 🤷‍♂️

the racepass is listing coverage from 12.15 to 15.40 – should be long enough to cover 2 races per day

@leffeboy – if you can access it, BBC iplayer has Elite M & W liste

tx, but can’t get the beeb.  Will take a look at steephill tomorrow and see what is around

Leffeboy,

It seems you are currently in Belgium so you ca watch on https://www.vrt.be/vrtnu/livestream/ live or direct in dutch. Only works if you are physically in Belgium or if you have a Belgian cell number in Europe.

Just watching U23 men now. It’s like Battle on the Beach. They’re riding through the waves.

Looks pretty slippery on the mud sections too. Some pretty good saves so far

Brutal!
Might favour WvA with morevrunning?

It seems you are currently in Belgium so you ca watch on

Thanks.  I was trying to find an English language feed but that seems pretty impossible here so I’ll just use the rtbf one.  Not up to following it in Flemish yet which is a pity as the Flemish commentary is meant to be the best

BBC red button only kicks in at 2:!0 ?

It’s there now.

It is so cold here today, goodness knows how miserable it is up at the coast 🙁

The ladies race was great.

Can’t wait for tomorrow!

that was brutal!

Didn’t see what sort of tyres they were all running but there was a lot of sliding on slick but not really lethal looking “grassy” bits

Shame about Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado she did wear that rainbow jersey rather well.

We didn’t get the usual tyre close ups.

You’d normally go for a file tread on sand but a few were saying an intermediate might be better on the front for the mud. It’s always a gamble between speed and grip. It’s also easy to be caught off guard racing – one of the skills in cx is being able to keep it all together under pressure.

I think Jeremey powers was saying they would likely be on Grifos

He said they were on Challenge Limus running 16psi. Well someone was anyhow 😃

Course is pretty boring tbh, not technical.

I think someone was running Baby Limus. Not sure you’d want full Limus on that course. Looked like Brand was running small birds?

Course is pretty boring tbh, not technical.

Yeah – in the dry I imagine it’d just be a massive power-fest but there seemed to be a real limit to pace on many of the green bits. I’d have gone full-tractor; wonder if that’s connected to my not having ever won a world champs ?