The world’s top cyclo-cross riders are heading to the Czech Republic this weekend to compete at the 2024 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships, at the c …

By stwhannah

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How to watch the 2024 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships

Camerooney just pipped in a photo in the Team Relay. France win, GB 2nd. He looks good for the Mens race.

Beaten by a junior – I didn’t see that happening. Had about 5 secs to make up…….

good to see stuff on the red button / iplayer, lets hope they are both good races

If this is going to be the thread for discussion etc do we need to make it a no-spoilers title please?

Another French win ahead of the British rider in the women’s junior race; Cat looked stronger but not as good technically, which we’ve seen most of the season the tougher courses, Namur for example. The course today looks harder than yesterday with lap times slower.

Men’s U23 coming up, and no medal chances for the British riders, who aren’t up to it at World level; after Tom & Cam it’s pretty threadbare…..

Will likely be a battle between Del Grosso, Michels & Verstrynge.

Well that was dull/impressive in equal measures!

that wasn’t sport it was a procession 🙁

He’s just too far ahead of the others…made for dull viewing

Even MvdP looked bored!

It’s getting weird, can’t be good for the sport to have one guy (ok, three guys on a good day) just so far ahead of the rest.

What happened to Cam Mason? ☹️

What happened to Cam Mason?

Shit start – like quite a few.  I think somebody probably slipped a pedal or something in front of them

Not the most engaging world champs tbh. Having two massively dominant man and woman elite riders is one thing, but felt the course routing / conditions didn’t help at all. It told few stories. Relay race was genuinely the most exciting event I watched.

Overall the season has probably featured the strongest display of cyclocross riding ever seen. Wasn’t the most exciting racing, but vdP in his physical prime is something to behold. We might not see it again very often, but I think he has said that De Vlaeminck’s record on 7 is on his radar.

I think somebody probably slipped a pedal or something in front of them

One of the Dutch riders on the front row – haven’t seen a replay but looked at first like he’d started in completely the wrong gear.

No WvA (and maybe Pidcock) killed the race. Looked like 100m of effort followed by a Sunday gravel bimble for him – surprised he wasn’t wearing a flannel shirt

No WvA (and maybe Pidcock) killed the race.

Helen Wyman said in commentary that MvdP decided to go full gas at the start of the Cx season as he knew his two biggest threats weren’t going to be at the worlds and he could therefore burn a few candles early, so he was obviously expecting a fairly easy day!

No WvA (and maybe Pidcock) killed the race. Looked like 100m of effort followed by a Sunday gravel bimble for him – surprised he wasn’t wearing a flannel shirt

As a WvA fanboi it pains me to say it, but I doubt his or Pidcock’s presence would have changed the outcome (although I guess a heavy/non-technical course favours Wva?).

Will be interested to see if WvA’s strategy of backing off for CX season in favour of the Classics pays off, I hope so but I just can’t see it. Any reason why MvdP can’t just continue his dominance?

It’s getting weird, can’t be good for the sport to have one guy (ok, three guys on a good day) just so far ahead of the rest.

Isn’t that just what happened when Sven Nys was in his prime though? He pretty much dominated the sport for years.

As a WvA fanboi it pains me to say it, but I doubt his or Pidcock’s presence would have changed the outcome (although I guess a heavy/non-technical course favours Wva?).

Possibly not, but we would’ve got at least 1 interesting lap out of it

It’s really just a local derby between Holland and Belgium with the occasional outside interloper getting a look in.

Isn’t that just what happened when Sven Nys was in his prime though? He pretty much dominated the sport for years.

Nys’ prime was before I followed the sport, but for a couple of years in the 00s it looked like no one could touch him. 2 world champs in 20 years suggests it wasn’t at the same level of dominance as vdP. Like if he had an off-day Nys would be beatable, but this year’s vdP could spend Sat night on the ale and still win on Sunday.

I don’t think Nys was known for blowing the race up from the gun – or if anyone was capable of doing that at world level pre-WvA and vdP. He’d be more like a rider who was exceptionally technical and would be the strongest on the last two laps.

Niels Albert and Stybar had some celebrated battles with Nys, but they’re a lot younger – Nys was declining as they were coming up. Will eventually happen to vdP but whether that rider is around right now as a junior IDK – the Danish lad Philipsen is a multi-discipline talent (world junior XCO and road race champ last year) and came 5th at the weekend, but off a light calendar afaict.

Nys rode 40+ races a season and was dominant overall due to his consistency, but ‘only’ won the worlds twice because others (Vervecken, Stybar, Albert for example) would really peak for it whereas he didn’t.

He wasn’t unbeatable-bar-own-error in the way that VdP has become.