Pidcock's full 2023 season in a nutshell

Cam Mason has been looking real impressive 

5th place today for Cam , my new favorite Scottish cross rider  

Drew Dillman’s on board video of Diegem gives a great sense of how fast and intense that race was. I kept thinking that it was amazing that there weren’t more crashes. Well, apparently there were a few as can be seen here

https://twitter.com/cyclocrosss/status/1610664499253575682?s=46&t=-3AwytuqzlRqOlEovrDijw

Wout’s bike today:


Notable — 46T front! & chain keeper! -- noticed similar chain keeper (WolfTooth) in Van Empel’s 

Also, the comment during the broadcast was that the wheels could be shimano 

Drew Dillman's Koksijde scrub zone video!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg8RoZ967rg

Mark Taylor said:

https://theradavist.com/2022-cyclocross-nationals-on-film/

This set is great!

Mark Taylor's favorite type of video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ7N4rk25Ao

That one is rubbish , no slow pour coffee making shots and wistful gazing out the window 

brb, gonna go race pro for the pleasure and not try to win...

That is one of the best parts of the "slow pour coffee making shots and wistful gazing out the window" genre.

The obligatory 'the results don't matter' claim.  

Cyclocross Worlds is happening & there's no shortage of content!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKR8uRXz-4A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjGd2312BIY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skcR2sbimoo
(our friend Nystrom says hi for a quick instance)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f73Hs_7-lY&

We're not talking about the men's elite worlds yet?

*With every successive parried attack, I figured MvdP was digging his own grave.  I figured WVA would wind it up for the longest possible sprint.    

*Despite the awesome show of power from the first two, third and fourth place were pretty close the last few laps.  Lars van der Haar is probably the greatest 'nearly' man of this generation.  

*Curtis White underperformed.  Sure looked like he couldn't take advantage of his second-row start, and it just went downhill from there.  

Having watched the previous days racing and U23 women , I felt somewhat underwhelmed by the coarse , the men’s race was super exciting , seemed clear that neither one could drop the other , Happy MVDP won and also another impressive ride by Cam Mason 

The elite men's race was crazy exciting. In the last lap, I went back and forth multiple times: "advantage wout" "advantage mathieu" "advantage wout" ..., etc. So fun!

The drone shots were amazing. 

As well as these two know each other, Mathieu making a decision to take Wout to the line and sprint it out is an insane level of confidence -- 'cause, duh, Wout could easily be considered one of the best sprinters in the world -- Also Mathieu's ride to the pit post finish, the interviews, etc... dude has so many accolades and this still means so much to him!

The US in general underperformed in most fields. AJ August had an unfortunate start crash, he was the favorite to come away with the best US result. Not sure what happened to Curtis, but he was almost dead last after a few turns, he did recover, finishing 20ish on the lead lap.

Michael Van dem Ham relacating his finger after an early crash. What?!? ouch!

The Holgrem sisters taking gold and silver for Canada in the junior race is literally a movie waiting to be made. So much awesomeness!!!

Rochette top ten is a great result. Hope we see her fully back next season!

Puck Pieterse coming across the line one handed wheelie for silver, after earlier consoling Molengraaf (who was the favorite for the Junior Women, but flatted twice, finishing 7th)

Thibau Nys becoming U23 world champion, it clearly meant so much to him and his dad.

Caveats for doping.

Caveats for doping always. I thought the WVA MVP race was not that exciting; they were both on the limit, but no mistakes (except at the end perhaps) and no real changes of "leader" as they seemed as much to be taking turns as taking charge.

The drone shots were so so so fire.

Meanwhile...!!!

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cyclocross-world-cup-could-come-to-new-york-hints-uci-sport-director/

#RaineyParkWorldChamps

I got bored and updated the Google sheet with this seasons CX races:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1r7fzXmO8bc7e7bCTLUqWvUXw3VN-uXRvulGXCExfzDw/edit?usp=sharing

Just add your name to the left side column and let us know what races you're going to and if you either need a ride or have space to drive others. Feel free to add any races I missed.

I also added all these races to the Kissena google calendar.  If you don't already, I suggest subscribing so you can stay up-to-date on all the local/region races as well as club events.

https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=kissenacycling.com_p5t1ukckv7inao1c5lrt66e2lk%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America%2FNew_York

Haven't thought that far ahead even though cross is coming, but I'm probably going to make the NJ Cross Cup my season target again

This is great! So many races!

I have no idea what to expect of these events (like, what, single speed cx is a thing?!), but I'll try to tag along for as many as possible as it looks pretty awesome

I realllly want to try cross this season but need to figure out my bike situation first. Im on a tight bike budget at the moment so don't want to buy a whole new bike just to try it and potentially not be crazy about it. I have a decent hard tail, I can't use that even for a novice race can I? Any chance someone would have an old cross bike for sale/rental for a race or clinic?

GrantSeltzer said:

I realllly want to try cross this season but need to figure out my bike situation first. Im on a tight bike budget at the moment so don't want to buy a whole new bike just to try it and potentially not be crazy about it. I have a decent hard tail, I can't use that even for a novice race can I? Any chance someone would have an old cross bike for sale/rental for a race or clinic?

Dude , your trek will be awesome , all you need are tires !!!

@GrantSeltzer Depending on the race you can probably use your hardtail for novice.  But if you can use your trek for gravel, CX a should be a breeze.

I fit 32cm smooth road tires on it, I'm skeptical that 33 knobby tires could fit, and if they do i'd imagine there wouldn't be much mud clearance. Worth a try though!

Wout won a world title on 30mm tires,
just saying!

Recommendations for knobby 30mm tires?

@GrantSeltzer I've got a few older Kenda and Ritchey 28/30 tires for you to check out. You'll have to run tubes, but at least you'll see if they'll fit. Come tomorrow to L&C reg table, I'll hook you up.