Hasselt, bpost bank trophy

Hasselt is a fairly artificial race, where the circuit is looped across the grounds of the municipal swimming pool, playground, tennis courts and skate park. It's the tennis courts where I got the scar on my right knee, the playground where I used to conquer my slight fear of heights by climbing all the way to the top of the spiderweb-contraption (which they tore down earlier this year, alas), the swimming pool where the waterrapids got progressively less rapid as I got older.

As for the circuit itself - it's mostly flat, but the organisation has thrown in just about every kind of cx trap there is: a couple sand pits, an off camberish snake shaped section, a couple of pushed down logs, a few bridges. A bit for everyone, though all in all it's a pretty sane race.

The past two years, Yoah won this one.

Asper-Gavere, Superprestige

The day after, we're on to Asper-Gavere. The Vier dudes really like marketing this as the classic of all classics, mostly because they co-sponsor the Superprestige series, which means they casually forget a lot of cooler races like Zonhoven, Koppenbergcross, Namur, Koksijde, Scheldecross, GP Baal...

That isn't to say that Asper-Gavere isn't fun. But really, it's not the RVV or PR-equivalent of cx. The twisty bits in the forest and the downhill sections are the bits to look out for.

Picture by Balint Hamvas, www.cyclephotos.co.uk.