Masters Cyclocross World Championships 2011 Trip Report

Boulder Crew at the base of the Koppenberg

Masters Cyclocross World Championships 2011 Trip Report
You’ll never hear someone ask, “cyclowhat?” in Belgium. Belgians are tough as nails, especially when it comes to bike racing. Cyclocross thrives in Belgium; the terrain, soil and weather produce some of the best racing conditions possible. With my 2 CX bikes stuffed into a modified cardboard bike box, I set off with 5 good friends to race the big one… Cross Masters Worlds in Mol Belgium. Pete Webber(current 2 time US CX nat champ), Brandon Dwight(past US CX nat champ), Michael Robson, Brian Hludzinski, and Kurt Perham. It was a 12 day, 4 race adventure. We stayed in Oudenaarde at a cycling specific guest house run by a former road pro from Texas and his wife. Gregg and Holly were great and the place was dialed for racers, we shared the house with world cup pros from Canada and the UK on their own CX worlds campaign. http://www.thechainstay.com/
Our first group ride on Belgian soil consisted of the legendary Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders) sections, including the famous cobbled Koopenberg climb. The cobbles were wet and slick, with no good lines to choose from. I have a new level of respect for how hard cobbles are to ride, especially to race on. Impressive.

The 4 races were amazing, each providing a completely different racing challenge.
Race #1- Langemark, Belgium. Jan 15th. 11am race start, 30degrees, raining , mild wind, MUD. When we stopped the van in the middle of these huge flat fields far from anything that looked like a city, I looked out for what would be a city center or populated area that would hold the race, but we were actually at the race course! It would be like setting up a race here in Colorado across multiple farms in Hygiene. The course had paved sections on house driveways and back alleys, the fun doubletrack sections winding between and around outbuildings, stables and sheds, with long straight sections following farm fences on old farm work roads. It was amazing, true field racing. Unfortunately for us, it had been raining for weeks and the standing water was everywhere. This was the most muddy race I have ever raced, and one of the most difficult. The mud was so thick and deep, we ended up running 40% of the course. It was the kind of mud that would pull your shoes off if you did not have them tight. Our lap times were almost 10mins and they shortened the race to just 4 laps. Bikes were heavy and slow, with pounds of mud on board. I pitted on every lap and took a clean bike. That race was brutal but exactly what we needed, Langemark would help us appreciate the next courses. Pete 1st, Brandon 2nd, Brian 8th, Ward 9th, Kurt 13th, Robson 16th.

Langemark post race rejoice!
mud field running
more ankle deep mud

Race #2-Bakel Netherlands, Jan 16th. 1pm race start, 40 degrees, partly cloudy, moist ground, no mud! Bakel was my favorite race and town, it was as if someone compiled the course from all the best ingredients. Tacky dark soil, rolling hills with single line banked turns winding thru dense trees sections. This course was a bike handling dream and flow was amazing. The one paved section was short and quickly led into more fun fast turns and technical sections. The sand area was like nothing we have in the US, it was a new experience in bike handing. The 30ft hill of sand was steep and we traversed into it sideways, off a short descent. The best approach was to actually ride one footed into the approach and across the sand until you could unclip and start the run up. Very challenging and something you just can’t practice for. My call up for this race was almost last row, so I spent most of the race picking off racers one by one, passing in tight turns and on the less desirable line thru technical sections. It was a drivers course more than a fitness course. Below are some pics that show just how amazing the venue and course were. Brandon 2nd, Pete 3rd, Ward 7th, Robson 8th, Brian 9th, Kurt 22nd. A post race video here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGoUJ6a4QrU

lap 1, full throttle from the back row, dugast rhino's at 22/23psi.

s turns heading into the pit area, setting up to pass.

what locals call the "brown stripe racing", it's what cyclocross dreams are made of

key to moving thru the pack- pedal out of every corner earlier than the others.

image hitting this turn at full speed and not washing out, it's was beautiful...

Race #3- Zilvermeer, Mol, Belgium. Jan 22nd. Masters World Championships. 1pm race start, 36degrees, cloudy with light rain. Moist course with several difficult sand sections and long flat power section, almost no recovery sections.
This was the big one and it was a tough course, there would be no fakin it here... This is the worlds race that defines a year of hard efforts. The venue was again almost perfect, Zilvermeer is a resort fun park area that covers a huge wooded areas, lakes and varied terrain. The registration process, course marking, call ups and race organization was great. The course was amazing. The sand sections were long and technical, image the Boulder res sand but 5x harder. In my mind, the sand sections would be the differentiator in this race, at least for me. If you can ride sand well, you could relax and ride them without effort. Or like me, sand is not one of my strengths yet, so I had to pin it at 110% into every sand section and blow myself up trying to ride/run the sand without loosing any spots. In practice I could clean the main sand section 50% of the time, in the race I cleaned that sand once in 6 laps! This course was fast and the pace of the race was like a first lap effort, but on every single lap. Any mistake or slight bobble and there was 2-3 guys taking advantage and attempting a pass. The same was true for racers ahead of me, I tried to exploit every mistake they made and forced passes in sections I would normally not attempt in Colorado. Consistent and aggressive riding would be the theme, and there were no sections to even think about resting or soft pedalling. Our whole crew had a decent call up, with all of use being on the 3rd and 4th row out of 9-10 rows. We all raced great and left nothing in the tank at Worlds. Pete 4th, Brandon 6th, Ward 12th, Kurt 14th, Brian 16th, Robson 18th. It was the pinnacle experience of my limited 5 years of cyclocross. The level of competition was amazing, the course was fair and challenging, it permanently defined the sport for me.
Some video’s of the worlds race.
Start and first sand section, with 9 mins of good footage from different sections of the race course.
http://www.youtube.com/user/attacketv#p/u/6/UfS7kxXk2wc

Last part of race and podium presentation.
http://www.youtube.com/user/attacketv#p/u/5/RfoqAaPLrXY

lap 1, full speed into the famous Mol sand section, Nico(green #48) won the world title.

givin' er' thru the fast flowing straight aways. Rhino's at 21/22 psi

fast barrier section with dense sand

chasing Kurt in the pit area, fast fun turns

Post race group shot. behind us is the paved 90degree turn that dumps into the large sand section.

Race #4- Assenede, Belgium. Jan 23rd. 11am start, 32degrees, cloudy with light rain, muddy farm field course but 100% rideable. This race was a lot like Langemark, minus the unrideable mud. Its was flat and fast with great 180 turns and flowing sections that covered several neighboring farms, passed thru outbuildings, climbed dirt piles, crossed irrigation ditches and paralleled long fence lines. It was a great race to end an epic trip on. It was also the last race of the VCC, the Flemish Cyclocross Cup (similar to our ACA cross cup series), so the local Belgian masters national champions, past masters world champions were all lined up with us. It was another great day to be on the bike. We all started in the back row and out of respect did not challenge for the points awarded on lap 1, these are prems points awarded and go towards to overall title. At the start of lap 2, it was race on and I gave it everything I had left for my last race of the trip. I bridged to the lead group with Brandon, Pete and Robson and hung on for a few laps but got dropped with 2 to go. I managed to work my back up to the top 5. Pictured below is our new friend Mario Lammens , sporting his Belgian champion stripes and world champion stripes. He is the current Belgian national champion(5th time) and past 3x Masters World Champion. He’s a legend in Belgium and has won over 300 cross races. He’s a true champion and a great racer, we all tried to convince him to make the trip to USA for the 2012 Masters worlds, hopefully he’ll be able to make it. Brandon took the W and flowers today, with Pete 2nd, Ward 5th, Robson 6th, Brian 7th and Kurt 12th.

full gas in the flat sections, and (temporarily) bridging up to Brandon and the leaders.

mid lap s turns , really fun section, rhino's at 22/23 psi.

large dirt pile descent, the course rode up the dirt ridge and back down into the field. great feature.

reward of a hard last lap effort, goal- catch Robson.

Multi Belgian and World Champion Mario Lammens and the Boulder crew

Hoogerheide Netherlands-Jan 23rd-3PM elite mens world cup race- 36degrees, cloudy with light rain, no wind and a muddy course. The world cup in Hoogerheide Netherlands our last stop. So we hustled into our van after our Assenede race and set off to catch the last world cup race of the season before elite worlds. Unfortunately we missed the womens race but made it just in time for the men's race. Being a superfan and attending a world cup race in person was a great ending to the trip. Imagine taking our USA nationals event and multipling it by 20. The area was packed with tens of thousands of fans, the bars were full of screaming rowdy Euro's, the most avid one's wearing "supporter" jackets for their favorite racer. There were massive jumbotrons showing all sections of the race course, several cranes and huge booms with camera crews maning each one, dozens of racer private RV's and warm up tents, the complete town was taken over by cross fans. Outfittted with pit passes from our Canadian elite racers, we were able to get in for free and also view the race from inside the pits. I was blown away with the sheer speed and power of the lead group. These elite men were so fast, it was impressive to just watch. The heavies like Stybar, Nys, and Albert would actually pedal thru muddy off camber corners that I would probably coast and brake thru. They would control the bike's drift thru corners and not even hesitate. It was like watching a magic trick as a kid and trying to understand what just happened. I still don't know how the do it, but I now have a whole new set of tricks to figure out for next season! Thanks for reading.

Hoogerheide world cup pit area. Kurt, Ward, Robson.