The Dirt Nap: Week 3

2 Oct

Welcome to The Dirt Nap!

This is designed to be a weekly newsletter to keep you up-to-date with all the happenings in professional cyclocross - both in Europe and North America. This week we’ll be covering all the CX action from the weekend of September 25th-26th, 2021.

Results

This was the third consecutive week of action in the Ethias Cross series, with this week’s course taking place around a dry grassy course in Bredene, Belgium. This race is usually held in cold and muddy conditions in December, but with hot sunny weather and no recent rainfall this course was about as close as racing in Europe comes to a grass crit.

The result of the dry surface and high speeds of the riders meant that large groups were able to form and stick together much further into the race before breaking up - the men’s race saw what could be reasonably be called a peloton on lap 9 of 11!

The women’s race saw a spirited three-way battle between Puck Pieterse (Alpecin-Fenix), Denise Betsema (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) and Yara Kastelijn (IKO-Crelan) that went all the way until the last lap until Betsema powered clear, eventually taking the victory over Kastelijn by 13 seconds, with Pieterse in third a further 7 seconds behind.

The men’s race saw a third consecutive victory for Eli Iserbyt (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal), who surged clear of a group of 9 on the third last lap, eventually winning the race 3 seconds in front of his hard-charging teammate Laurens Sweeck, with Michael Vanthourenhout completing a clean sweep of the podium for the Sauces.

Due to some technical issues at the CXDU secret volcano lair we only have a detailed summary for the European races this weekend, but be aware that there was a (televised!) weekend of racing in North America at the Cyclocross Rochester C1 in Rochester, NY. You can see the action from both days below, with a summary from Wide Angle Podium on the left and the video of the men’s race from Saturday on the right (we checked - the other races got taken down from YouTube).

In any case, it was a case of doubling up in both categories, with Canada’s Maghalie Rochette (Specialized-Feedback Sports) winning both days of the women’s race, and visiting Belgian Vincent Bastaens (Deschacht-Group Hens-Maes Containers) crossing the line first in the two men’s events.

WE INTERRUPT THIS RECAP TO BRING YOU:

CX INFLATABLES WITH THREATENING AURAS

*…THERE IS NO SPIN CYCLE LONG ENOUGH TO WASH AWAY YOUR SINS.*

Who’s hot

*Puck Pieterse put in a properly eye-catching performance at Bredene.*

Women

Although Denise Betsema was the winner of the race in Bredene, we finished the race instead marvelling at the racing of Puck Pieterse. The 19 year-old from the Netherlands (where else?) is relatively new to being at the pointy end of the Women’s Elite field, but in Bredene she raced with the maturity of a 10-year veteran. Pieterse started hard, bunnyhopped the barriers throughout the race, and generally looked utterly unafraid of swapping elbows with some of the best riders in the world. It’ll be very interesting to see her progression this season.

Men

Laurens Sweeck (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) had perhaps the most interesting race of anyone in Bredene. While on lap 3, a crash while in the leading group saw him go over the bars and required a bike change that dropped him back to 20th.

With his form clearly progressing well and adrenaline pumping, Sweeck charged through the field in the second half of the race, eventually making it up to the second group on the course. In a move that wouldn’t fly in road racing, he then attacked that group to take second place outright, even though he had a teammate in Eli Iserbyt off the front. Although Sweeck risked dragging others across to the lead of the race with the move, he was able to get away on his own, and was closing the gap on Iserbyt all the way to the line, eventually finishing 3 seconds off the win.

Sweeck has already said that he won’t be making the trip to the United States for the first three UCI World Cups, but if his form continues to improve on this trajectory, he could well cause some problems for the likes of Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel when they start their cross programs in November.

*Laurens Sweeck (circled in red) had a tough start to his race in Bredene, but fought back to second after going over the bars.*

Who’s not

*Okay Thijs, you missed your rut and bumped into someone else - just stay calm.*

This is Thijs Aerts. He’s a former junior world champion and he rides professionally for the Baloise Trek Lions, just like his older brother Toon (they also share a blog - with entries dating all the way back to 2012!). He’s 24 years old and in all likelihood is probably a very nice man.

Unfortunately his approach to the sandpit on lap 3 of Saturday’s Ethias Cross race didn’t exactly go to plan.

*Uhh, this is a bit awkward. Try running with one foot either side of the bike and see if that works.*

*Notworkingnotworkingnotworking - look Thijs, you need to get both legs on one side of the bike.*

*Okayokayokay, smoothly lift the leg over - you can still save thi…*

*DAMMIT THIJS THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS.*

Who we’re watching

European champion Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Alpecin-Fenix) took to the start line for her first race of the 2021/2022 season at Bredene and looked a little off the pace, eventually finishing in 9th place, almost a minute and a half down on race winner Betsema.

It’s perhaps expected that Alvarado isn’t at full flight yet, as she suffered a nasty crash at the Mountain Bike Cross Country Short Track World Championships about a month ago, which would have disrupted her training.

It’s safe to say that the former world champion isn’t quite at her best just yet, and it’ll be interesting to see how her form progresses as the three major CX series all kick off in the next few weeks.

*The former world champion had a first lap run-in with Yara Kastelijn at Bredene, which meant banging her shifter back into place.*

What’s next

It’s a European double header this weekend, with the fourth round of the Ethias Cross series happening in Meulebeke on Saturday, and the opening round of the Telenet Superprestige Series on Sunday.

Across the Atlantic, action will be focused on Charm City CX in Baltimore, with a UCI C1 race on the Saturday and a C2 on a reversed course in the same location on the Sunday.

All the above races will have English language coverage available on GCN+.

Tom McQuillan