There was a world cup in Bogense the year before the world champs, and they tweaked the course after criticism.

Valkenburg was a cracking world championships was’t it, with that savage rut going round the left hand corner, and I think Evie Richards won u23 and Ben Tullet junior?

If only I could remember as much useful stuff as I can trivia 🙂

Report on the course from Sven Nys here: https://sporza.be/nl/2020/01/31/sven-nys-treft-een-loodzwaar-wk-parcours-dit-had-niemand-verwa/

Worth looking at the state of his mech after a lap or two half way through the third video.
And because I’m a saddo I’ve google translated the text on the Sporza page…

Last night a guest at Extra Time Cross, this morning already on the World Championship course in Switzerland. Sven Nys set out to explore with his team in Dübendorf and finds that the great powers are allowed to rub their hands. Nys sees 3 reasons why it becomes a very difficult cross.

1. The steep verges: “Dangerous to hit the ground below”

Few altitude meters in Switzerland, but there are still a few roadside verges on the trail that are quite spicy. Sven Nys: “They are just verges, but they are very steep. In total there are five scattered throughout the course.”

“Both the ascent and the descent are always very steep. And that makes it difficult. You can hardly stay straight here, keeping a grip is very difficult. Most of them hold onto the wood of the fence. But if you are here with 4 consecutively, you are down in a traffic jam. ”

“In the descent it is essential to immediately click in your pedals. If you don’t, it is very dangerous to hit the ground below. Certainly if some mud clicks under your pedals, you must have faith in the movement that you make. ”

2. Steep bridges: “They will start hurting, for sure”

In the run-up to the World Cup, there was some laughter about the large number of bridges in the otherwise mountainous Switzerland.

“They are not just bridges, they are really difficult”, the double world champion states. “That has mainly to do with the ground just before the bridges, something that will only get worse due to the rainfall that is still expected.”

“You can’t make a lot of speed right in front of the bridges. That’s why some women are already choosing another gear at the front just to get on it. Those bridges are going to start hurting, for sure.”

“By the way, the bridge at the finish is crucial, because after the descent there is only 1 left turn and you have to start for the final sprint.”

3. The background: “Certainly change your bike every round”

The route is already quite difficult during the exploration on Friday. With the expected rainfall, the World Cup promises not to be a flight meeting.

“If you push a half a circle here, you are immediately physically at your limit. So it is advisable to drive with slack tires so that you have a lot of grip. And then try to make speed anyway, otherwise it will become a walking passage on every bridge “I think most people did not expect this.”

“The bike will also give up. Even if it hasn’t rained today, you will get into trouble with your derailleur. It is a question of changing your bike every lap and maybe even twice per lap.”

Bogense

Yep, me getting my ‘B’ venues mixed up, ignore me – I was talking about Bieles!

Haha!

Another course preview from Cameron Mason, and to be fair bits are cutting up nicely

Looking at the vids, it going to busy in the Pits!
And it might be who ever makes the fewer mistakes is going to do well.

Another mainly flat & featureless course for a major championship – I hope this is not a trend. I want to see riders tested by the course; technical sections, climbing, descending, etc not just who has the horse power – we have TT/Track for that.
I know they expect some rain – but if a course needs rain for it to be a test, then it’s not very good.

Of all the places in Switzerland, and they choose an airport……..dumb!!

Yeah mixed reviews about the course, does seem to be chosen/designed for close racing due to lack of tech sections.

I text a rider who is over there about the course, who racing tomorrow and the reply was,
“course is heavy going, slow with tacky mud, lots of bridges and yep very bumpy! Its a bit in the middle because the tyres are clogging quite quickly, im going for baby limus front and grifo on the back”
Think a few people hope it rain to make the mud less heavy and more sloppy.

Anyway should be 2 days of good racing.

Cam Masons vid makes things look more promising! Those banks will cause bobbles which will split up groups. Sven’s opinion that the bridges will be tough because there’s no fast run in looks spot on.
It’s going to be brutal for the riders, 9min lap from Cam on his reccy. Not a fun course for riding but will probably produce some good racing.
I’m especially going to be cheering on Hattie Harnden because she’s awesome, Ben Tullet because he’s a local lad and also awesome and of course Tom Pidcock because he’s a joy to watch.
Love world champs weekend!

Live stream

Main womans event on Redbull later

Well the mud didn’t materialise! This u23 race could be exciting though!

What happened to Ben T? He was 7 seconds off 5th then disappeared. I stopped watching at that point.

Dunno, they just said mechanical

Has anyone got the women’s race working on iPlayer or Red Bull?

Both just giving me a ‘coming up’ screen, grr…

Edit: ignore, button bashing eventually got results!

What a finish! Alverado really wanted that! Great to see after last weekend’s disappointment.

A lot of emotion in that podium display…the contrast between winning and losing a world champs on show there

Ferrals,Thanks for the heads up about it being covered on Red Bull TV.
I enjoyed that race,exciting last lap!
I’m glad Alverado won it after what happened last week.
Hope the men’s race is as competitive tomorrow

I think it was BenT that snapped his seatpost on a descent, then had to ride some way out of the saddle to get a bike change. He was going really well. Happened in front of me.

Pouring now, so will be a different course tomorrow

Real shame about Tullett, he was motoring on! Sounds sketchy too, visions of thigh on a skewer!

The women’s race was great to watch, shame Evie Richards had a bad start as she looked rapid, but nonetheless a real thriller.

Thanks for the weather update @martinb I was wondering about that. Fingers crossed it rains all night!

Cameron Mason did himself proud imo.

Yeah agreed, cracking ride. Great ride from Josie Nelson to come 4th in the juniors too, though the gaps between the top few in that made it less exciting to watch.

Also from today, cheesy proud dad moment: I’d put Frozen (Disney film) on to occupy my three year old so I could watch the women’s which I had on a laptop on silent- after 10 minutes she made me turn frozen off so we could watch the cycling 😁

What about Katie Compton? Best of the rest at 41 years old. I’d say that was a result.

Great ride from Josie Nelson to come 4th in the juniors too,

Millie Couzens. Josie Nelson was 7th, Anna Flynn 15th and Maddie Wadsworth 24th.

Looking forward to seeing how the course races today, strong winds overnight but rain this morning apparently.

Raining again, proper cross conditions now. Will be some sketchy tarmac corners and comedy run ups

rumours on dutch websites via twitter that mens’ elite might be cancelled (!) due to impending storm.

mvdp is off like a scolded cat !!!!!

VdP is on another planet – clearly saw that with the deep ruts / only one racing line that any following rider is at a disadvantage so has pressed home his advantage. Aerts looks to have gone too deep and the start and is now suffering. Concession might be that Pidders can grab a podium spot?

come on tom! chase him down ! lol

come on tom! chase him down !

👍👍👍

this is brutal !

Great job there!

What an attack! Brilliant ride.

What a ride son. Take a bow Tom Pidcock

Awesome! Well done Tom!

There were a few corners where it looked like Tom p would be caught.
Made it exciting. Bravo.

Excellent result for Pidcock,I was wondering if he could keep up the pace for the full distance,he did,well done!

U23 and men’s great races today.

Classy rides from Tom and Anna to pick folk off after slow starts with good racing and pacing it well.

But 2-4 in the men’s: someone who hasn’t looked close to doing that all year And had been ill, a man who’s had broken ribs for a month and a man who tore has leg off 6 months ago. Funny old game.

Another day of great racing!
Great rides from Anna and Tom, total change of course from overnight rain.

It was great to see Great Britain flags in the top 10 of every category.
Great rides from the athletes, really shows hard work/training is paying off for them.

IIRC VdP said that was his hardest race ever (RedbullTV), he’s in a league of his own.

Tom Pidcock 🥈 such an entertaining race, a race changing break from him resulted in a well deserved second place, well done!

What by all reports what was an easy flat course, turned the pain up to 10 for the men’s elite, I enjoyed it.

Managed to avoid social media spoilers and watch the womens u23 and mens elite last night. The mens elite was super exciting, pleased the cameras focused on the race behind a lot and not just MVDP. That TP acceleration was blistering! Bet he’s pleased he cracekd Iserbyt, given the reported rivalery betweeen them. One of the best races I’ve watched in a long time. Pleased WvA came in well too. Some of those ruts looked savage.

Very composed ride by Anna Kay in the WU23, I watched the Mens elite first and Helen Wyman hinted that a brit had had a good result but given the mud-plugging I was expecting it to be Hattie Harnden, who also did have a really good ride.

Will have to try and watch the mens juniors tonight