Cyclocross Corner

Lots of exciting racing and injuries over the weekend, in both the U.S. and Belguim. 

First off, a Superprestige race in Gravere, Belguim on Sunday; better than church.  The Elite men's race, was won by some Belguim guy that wins a lot of those types of races, I think his name is Nijs or Nys.  He was on the podium with his old rival, Bart Wellens and Klaas Vantornout.  Finally, those young guns (Boom and Albert) have had a schooling by the old guard.  But in all fairness Albert was schooled by the course, not the old guard, since he went down in practice on Saturday and tore his spleen in the crash.   This may be karma for his claims about winning Tours without doping being impossible.

Jonathan Page continued to have bad luck finishing 16th, after crashing, breaking a rear deraileur, and puncturing, but he's confident he'll be on the podium again.

I just checked out sporza and saw a highlight from the race.  Looks like pretty gnarly terrain, Wellens even ran a downhill section.  Link: click on wedstrijdverslag, which I think means Highlights?

In the Elite women's race, Katie Compton showed she is the favorite for the world champs, winning the race by over a minute ahead of Daphny Van Den Brand.  Unfortunately, the current world champion Hanka Kupfernagel wasn't around to get a taste of late January.  If Unibet had bets on world championship women's cyclocross I would put my money on Katie.  (They don't, I already checked.)

In the States, there was a USGP weekend in New Jersey.  A muddy race weekend there just like in Belguim, the way it should be.  Tim Johnson won on Saturday ahead of Todd Wells and Ryan Trebon.  Tim crashed in the race and his knee swelled up so bad that he couldn't take the start on Sunday. 

Here's what he had to say about the subject, "I’ve never not started a ‘cross race. It was tough to stand and watch from the sidelines."  I wish Tim the most speedy recovery and maybe the time off will do him some good come January.

On Sunday, Todd Wells bested younger brother Troy, with Jeremy Powers holding down the Cyclocrossworld.com fort by making the podium.  It must be nice to be on the podium with your brother, but as we can see Todd wasn't going to give the younger Wells any favors, as older brothers shouldn't and definitely won't.

Georgia Gould won both days in the women's race but I'm convinced Katie would have beat her.

That's it and everyone have a nice Monday.