As my blog ends up on sites with a preference towards cyclocross I tend to feel a certain pressure to write exclusively about the winter discipline, and now it’s September the ‘cross season has either recently started or is just about to depending where you live so it’s in the forefront of everyone’s minds. But I’m currently en-route back to the UK from Mountain Bike Worlds in Australia where the XC race action was quite possibly better than at any of the previous 19 editions of the Worlds since Ned picked up the first rainbow jersey back in ‘90 at a race in Todd Wells’ back garden.
The essence of ‘cross racing for me as a spectator is the man against man action; I love watching guys and girls who love to race each other, I like seeing lead groups get gradually smaller until the line is in sight and the one who has prepared the best and who wants it the most prevails. Those people who need to win things are a breed apart from us mere mortals and whether it’s Federer winning another tennis Open, Cav unleashing with 200m to go, or Katie Compton romping round the sand dunes at Koksijde there is the same look in their eyes. Last year at ‘cross Worlds in Treviso I just happened to be watching on a quieter part of the course as the lead group started the last lap, and as they came up the climb towards me Lars Boom slapped himself in the face and was talking to himself, telling himself presumably to focus everything on the next six minutes. It gave me goose bumps to watch him, especially when he finally won the race and I felt like I’d seen a pivotal moment. I mean who else slaps themselves when they race?
Now mountain bike racing has those athletes too, and I’ll go out on a limb here and say that I firmly believe that the elite end of mountain bike racers are the best bike riders in the world, period. A mountain bike racer (and I’m talking the top ten at Worlds level) can, in my opinion, and with a little time to adapt to the environment, win a Grand Tour stage in the mountains, win a world class TT, and win a cyclocross World Cup or Championship. They are the ultimate bike riders; fitter, stronger and better prepared physically than bike riders from any other discipline and with ultimate bike riding skills and handling.
Oh crap, I’m going to get so many tweets and mails now telling me I’m talking bollocks from the “there’s no way Adam Craig could beat Valverde...” crowd, but I don’t care; it’s what I believe, and I can give you dozens of examples. Drop me a line and I’ll send you a list rather than boring all those reading who already agree with me!
But that doesn’t mean mountain bike racing is the most exciting discipline for me, again as a spectator, mainly because the extra variable thrown in to mess up the great racing between these ultimate bike riders with that “must win-lust” look in their eyes is the course and that, in the majority of cases, wins out. But last weekend in Canberra the course added to the spectacle and resulted in last laps in both Men’s and Women’s Elite races that pretty much rivalled the last laps in any of the great ‘cross Worlds. If you are a hardened ‘cross addict and think fat tyres and straight bars are for pussies go check it on You-tube or Freecaster and I’m sure you’ll revise your opinions. You’ll also get to see Sven Nys go from a start position of 42 on the grid, right up to the lead group of five by the end of the first lap which was a pretty good sight to see, but also quite remarkable considering the amount of technical singletrack on the course that he needed to get past 37 riders on! He managed to hold it together for around an hour and forty minutes too which was impressive, but the lights went out on the last lap and he dropped back into the mid-teens at the finish. He then proceeded to spend the evening puking, he had tried so hard. Proof if required that Sven is a real live human being but wired up in such a way that those brain sensors which stop normal people digging too deep and causing damage are by-passed in guys like him when the must-win chemicals start to flow.
What I don’t envy for those mountain bike guys, and which is impossible to recreate in ‘cross is their schedule for the next few weeks. Worlds down-under followed next weekend by a World Cup in France? Who thought that one out? If they fly immediately after Worlds they arrive on Tuesday into France and ideally need to be on the course on Thursday. But if they stumble through the fog of travel fatigue and jet lag and keep it together for that one, guess what comes seven days later? Oh, another World Cup, this time the Finals and this time in Austria. Then three days after that one the hardest core of hard core bike riders, stand up and take a bow Todd and Georgia, toe the line at CrossVegas. That’s why when you read Todd’s blog he is gluing tubs on for Vegas back in June sometime; when else is he going to get it done?! Sven on the other hand goes straight back to Belgium, swaps 44mm Dugast for 32mm and no doubt starts another 20-win season.
I think the division between ‘cross and mountain bike racing at the top end is starting to get smaller and in the lead in to London 2012 don’t be surprised to see some of the other winter specialists take a leaf out of Sven’s book and give it a go. It will be good for both disciplines, great for the media and fans, and reinforce what I have thought all along; it’s all just bike racing!
Simon