At a CXD Trek Bikes team dinner the other night in Fayetteville, Arkansas, a group of athletes, friends and family got into a lengthy discussion about rider selection for the mountain bike cross-country race at the upcoming Paris Summer Olympics. Although this conversation went on for a while and really got into the weeds concerning the selection process, I wasn’t confident that we got it exactly right at the end of the night. So, being a bit of a selection criteria nerd, I figured I should do some actual research into how you get to the start line in Paris.

To begin, the selection pool is small. So small that the combined men’s and women’s fields could travel together on a single bus to the venue.

Contrast that one-bus commute to last year’s MTB XCO World Cup round at Nove Mesto Na Morave, where 132 elite men and 96 elite women toed the line. Not to mention, 143 U23 men and 82 U23 women also raced. That’s 228 elite riders (and 225 U23 riders) competing at one World Cup event. Compare that to the Olympics, where 72 athletes will compete in the MTB cross-country race, and you can see why Olympic years are crazy for mountain bikers.

The Olympics are the ultimate goal for MTB athletes. There’s no Tour de France or Paris Roubaix. The Olympics is the pinnacle, and only a fraction of the average field size is allowed to compete: thirty-six men and thirty-six women. That’s it.

So, how do you get to be in that number? Like most bike racing selection criteria, it’s not straightforward. To see how convoluted it can get, all you need to do is look back at how Great Britain’s Tom Pidcock needed Romanian Vlad Dasaclu to finish 17th at Nove Mesto, so Frazer Clacherty’s 14th place at the U23 world championships earned Great Britain a spot, and Pidcock was able to race. I explain Pidcock’s path to the Olympics in more detail in this post.

With the preamble out of the way, let’s try to break down this selection process.

As the host nation, France automatically gets one spot in the men’s and women’s races1, while two more will be set aside for Universality Places2, which will be decided by the Tripartite Commission. That leaves 68 spots for the rest of the world to fight over.

In Tokyo, it was possible for top National Olympic Committees (I’m using NOC or Nation interchangeably going forward) to qualify three riders in the men’s and women’s races. For Paris, the maximum a nation can qualify is two riders for the women’s race and two riders for the men’s race. A change that opens up slots for more Nations farther down the rankings.

Points earned in Olympic qualification events from May 7, 2022, to May 26, 2024, count towards NOC start spots. UCI rankings will be decided by adding the points of the three highest-ranked athletes from each nation across the qualification period.

Nations ranked one to eight on May 26 will qualify two athletes. Nations ranked nine to 19 will qualify one athlete.

Nations ranked 20th and below will not be automatically eligible to send athletes to the Olympics. For these Nations, athletes will qualify for the final seven spots on the men’s and women’s starting grid by being the highest-ranked finisher at a continental or world championship during the qualification period. This part of the selection process played a role in the wild Pidcock saga mentioned above.

Here are the specifics, according to Olympics.com, on how those Nations ranked 20 and lower can send an athlete to the Olympics:

·      A maximum of two Continental Championships are included in the rankings, with the last two to take place counting if there are more than two.

·      Outside of Europe and Oceania, a maximum of one athlete can qualify per NOC at the Cross-country Continental Championships for Africa, America and Asia—with the highest-ranked NOC allocated each place.

·      The two highest-ranked NOCs at the 2023 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in both the elite and under 23 races, which have not qualified a quota place through the UCI Mountain Bike Olympic Qualification ranking or the 2023 Continental Championships, will qualify a maximum of one place per NOC, with NOCs which have qualified through the elite race not eligible to qualify through the under 23 race.

In other words, if you finish 15th at the World Championships and everyone who finished above you races for an NOC that is in the top 19, congratulations, you’re Nation is racing at the Olympics.

The current Nations rankings for the men are here and for the women are here.

What This Means for Team USA

For the U.S., the men are currently ranked tenth with 4818 points. Denmark is currently in the eighth spot with 4874 points. Christopher Blevins, Riley Amos and Bjorn Riley are the three top U.S. riders that determine Olympic Nation ranking.

The rankings on the UCI website were last updated April 1 and do not include this past weekend’s races in Fayetteville where Amos earned 200 points. Forty for the second-place finish in the C1 on Wednesday, 60 for the U23 HC win on Friday and 100 for the HC elite win on Saturday. Blevins earned 60 for the C1 win on Wednesday and 35 for his sixth-place finish in Saturday’s HC.

As I mentioned in my recap of the US Pro Cup racing, the men’s U23 HC XCO event was initially scheduled for Saturday with the rest of the HC XCO events but was moved to Friday at the request of USA Cycling. The main reason for this specific schedule change is to allow athletes to gain as many points as possible in an Olympic year. Allowing Riley Amos to have an opportunity to race the U23 and the elite race by putting them on separate days makes it possible for him and others to double up on valuable UCI points. For Team USA, this schedule change paid off.

Without considering what other Nation riders may have done over the weekend, the 295 points Amos and Blevins earned provisionally move the U.S. into eighth place behind Great Britain. The goal is to stay there through the end of May and secure the two slots in the starting grid. [Update: the rankings were updated this morning and the U.S. is now in eighth place, 120 points ahead of Denmark. Here’s the top 20 as it stands on April 8.]

For the women, the U.S. is ranked fourth with a safe buffer zone of close to 3000 points between their current position and falling out of the top eight. The U.S. women, who are secure in their nation ranking, can now focus on themselves to see who, amongst Kate Courtney, Gwen Gibson, Haley Batten, and Savilia Blunk, will earn the two Olympic spots.

Racing at Centennial Park in Fayetteville, Arkansas, continued April 5 and 6 with UCI XCC short track racing on Friday, along with a stand-alone UCI HC XCO U23 men's race. On Saturday, the US Pro Cup and USXC round two events finished with the UCI HC XCO races in junior and elite categories, with the U23 women once again racing with the elites for all but the final lap and scored separately.

Short Track (XCC)

The short track at Centennial Park is one mile of wide-open circuit racing. Without any technical features, the powerline climb is the place to be if you want to see the XCC fireworks.

In the women's field, Jenn Jackson (Liv Factory Racing) entered the race as the hands-down favorite and she did not disappoint. She put on a clinic in this race, patiently sitting in the group, nestled between fourth and sixth place for the first three laps as Bear National Team teammates Bailey Cioppa and Makena Kellerman set the pace. Marin Lowe (Pittstop Racing Team) and Ella MacPhee (Pivot Cycles-OTE) rounded out the lead group.

On lap four of five in this 20-minute race, the bell rang announcing a $250 prime, courtesy of Orange Seal, and Jackson channeled Pavlov's dog and turned on the jets.

The frontrunners moved around the course at a brisk 4:03 to 4:06 pace for the first three laps. On lap four, Jackson shaved 30 seconds off that time, posting a 3:34 lap to grab the bonus cash. She didn't let up, though, and put in a 3:50 lap at the final bell to take the win by 12 seconds over Cioppa and Kellerman, who sprinted it out for second with Cioppa getting the spot on the line.

Asked if the prime payout was the impetus to attack on lap four, Jackson said not really. Instead, she had been reviewing mental game tape from last year and remembered Kate Courtney's attack on the powerline climb with two laps to go. That strategy paid off for Courtney last year and proved to be the winning recipe for Jackson in 2024. The prime was just a nice bonus.

In the men's short track race, all eyes were on former XCC World Champ Chris Blevins (Specialized Factory Racing). At the first round of the US Cup in Vail Lake, the men's short track was an elbows-out battle that came down to a three-up sprint between Blevins, Ben Oliver and Sean Fincham. We didn't get a rematch of that battle with no Oliver or Fincham on the start line. Also missing was Riley Amos (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli) because he was racing in the U23 HC XCO race later in the day.

That didn't mean there weren't any heavy hitters in the race. The Giant Factory Off-Road trio of Carter Woods, Jens Schuermans and Dario Lillo would give Blevins a run for his money.

In his prime, Sven Nys always seemed to place himself fifth in the field. This position seemed to be the sweet spot where you could follow wheels and conserve energy while not having too many riders in front who could make a mistake and end your day.

Blevins, much like Jackson in her race, adopted this strategy. Blevins shifted between fourth and seventh place for the first four of six laps.

The pace started high and remained that way until a group of six established themselves on the front. On lap four, with the race now down to a manageable number, the pace slowed, and the tactics began with everyone watching Blevins to see not what he would do but when he would do it.

On lap five, a person familiar with going fast at Centennial Park sensed the slowing pace and decided to get things moving again. That rider? Your 2024 US cyclocross national champ, Eric Brunner (unattached), who earned an impressive fourth-place finish against the world's best at the 2022 Fayetteville UCI Cyclocross World Cup. After Brunner ramped it up, Carter Woods took the opportunity to put in a dig and went to the front. Blevins followed with Logan Sadesky (Broad Street Offroad) in third.

The group of six stayed together on the final lap until the inevitable happened. Blevins decided it was time. The powerline climb is the sprint before the sprint. Get to the top and enter the Stonehenge spirals before the finish, first, and your chances of victory are high. This move is precisely what Blevins did, coming onto the asphalt first, making sure the sprint was never in doubt and taking the win. Woods finished second, with Schuermans in third.

Friday's final event was the U23 men's XCO HC race. This event, originally scheduled for Saturday, was moved a few weeks ago to Friday at the request of USA Cycling. Events in other countries started offering U23 races on separate days to allow athletes to race in the U23 and elite categories.

The main reason for this specific schedule change is to allow athletes to gain as many points as possible in an Olympics year. Allowing Riley Amos to have an opportunity to race the U23 and the elite race makes it possible for him and others to double up on valuable UCI points. The goal for the US team is to have two men compete in the XCO race, and to do that, they need to be in the top eight nations when the UCI compiles the final ranking May 26. Currently, the US is ranked tenth in the world. [I started to explain, the best I could, how the Olympic selection works but realized it made more sense as a stand-alone post.]

As I wrote in Thursday's post, a similar accommodation was not made for the women's U23 field. Something that isn't fair and hopefully will be fixed in future events. However, as far as the US goes, the women are relatively safe in securing two spots for the Olympics and Haley Batten and Savilia Blunk spent the weekend collecting points in a Brazilian C1. The US women are currently fourth in the nation rankings with a decent buffer to eighth place, which is the cut-off for two spots. The men, on the other hand, have some work to do if they are going to get that second spot in the 36-rider field. So having this U23 race on Friday is a great opportunity, if not necessarily an equitable one.

Cross Country (XCO)

As for the racing, things went according to plan if you're Team USA. In Friday’s men’s U23 race, Amos went to the front on the second lap and kept the tempo high enough to stay in the front for the duration. He got some pacing help from Carson Beard (Durango Segment 28), who monitored the front for laps four and five. Amos took over the front for the final two laps and pulled away from Beard at the end to take the solo win by 26 seconds. Cole Punchard (Pivot Cycles-OTE) finished third.

Saturday in Fayetteville was another beautiful day, with sunny skies and warm temperatures. The wind, however, was relentless, with powerful gusts coming in waves throughout the elite races. As much as it affected the athletes' race strategy, the wind also dampened spectating opportunities at the popular first gap jump. With racers gaining speed off the big descent, they can use the jump to showcase new tricks everyone has been practicing in the offseason. However, on Saturday, you got the sense that most everyone, save a few brave souls, would play it safe. Carter Woods expressed it best on lap two when he got pushed around midflight like an errant drive at Carnoustie and, after course-correcting the landing, matter-of-factly exclaimed, "Yeah… that's windy."

In the women's elite race, I could probably just cut and paste from Wednesday’s race report. Jenn Jackson was first out of the gate and did not give up P1 the entire race. She put in a hard effort on the first full lap, clocking 12 minutes and 58 seconds. After that, she completed the next five laps between 13:18 and 13:25. Never too high, never too low, just metronomic the whole race. Ella MacPhee was again the best of the rest, finishing second, 2:21 behind Jackson. Makena Kellerman secured third.

Missing from the podium was Wednesday's fourth-place finisher, Bailey Cioppa, who opted to race in the U23 category instead. Cioppa won that race over Marin Lowe (Pittstop Racing Team). Kellie Harrington (Bear National Team) finished third in the U23 race.

At the start of the men's race, it looked like we may also get a repeat of Wednesday's race in which Blevins, Amos and Woods fought for the win.

That trio followed the same script as Wednesday with the two Americans ganging up on the sole Canadian a few laps into the race. Amos was the aggressor in the group and went to the front on lap four and got a bit of a gap. Blevins seemed more than happy to sit in and let Woods fight the wind to try and bring Amos back.

Blevins moved in to second place on lap five and looked like he may bridge to Amos, but Woods fought back. After that, everything seemed to fall apart for the US National Champ. Blevins started to fall off the pace on the next to last lap and, depleted of energy, slipped to sixth by the finish.

Amos, by contrast, relished in the opportunity to win an elite HC race and closed the deal emphatically, rolling through every post-up routine he's been saving for this opportunity. Woods finished second, with Punchard taking third.

As Blevins hit the tarmac in sixth to finish his race, he had Carson Beard (Durango Segment 28) coming up fast on his wheel. A sixth place in an elite HC and beating the national champ would've been a noteworthy accomplishment for Beard, but what he did was even more significant. He didn't sprint. Beard saw Blevins ahead, saw he was slowing up and just wanting to finish, and Beard waited. He could've easily taken the spot but chose not to. It was a classy move worth highlighting.

Full US Pro Cup results are here. Next up in the 2024 country mountain bike national series is Piney Hills Classic in Louisiana, April 12-14.

We started the day in the départ town of Compiègne, about a 90-minute drive north of Paris. While necessary in order to pick up Geoffrey’s credentials, going to the start of big road races is becoming less and less compelling. Particularly since COVID, riders tend to leave their team bus only to ride to sign-on and back. Unfortunately for the fans the days of riders hanging out in camping chairs, chatting, signing autographs, etc are well and truly over.

Before the riders rolled out we got in the car and headed for our first stop: The town of Noyon.

*Six spots total, five on pavé. I also shot at the start and around the velodrome after the finish. So, maybe 8 total? Not sure how to count them.

Noyon is situated well before the first pavé sector. It can feel a bit pointless at a race like Roubaix to photograph on a normal tarmac road. But the stop was also an opportunity to grab some supplies. I had forgotten until we reached Noyon that it was Easter Sunday. Luckily a boulangerie and a charcuterie were open so we were able to stock up on baguettes, ham and water before the riders arrived.

Our next planned stop was Saint-Quentin, a city on a large hill but also without pavé.

The Gèants du Nord deserve their own post. For now I’ll just say they are out in force for Paris-Roubaix. Many of the towns the race passes through have them. If you come out and only watch on a pavé sector you may not see them at all. On TV you’ll spot them if you are looking for them. But if you drive the route ahead of the race you will get the full experience.

Thanks to some unexpected traffic our Saint-Quentin stop was scrapped and so our next spot was the Troisville à Inchy pavé sector. Troisville is the first sector the riders tackle. This is a popular spot both with media and fans who are trying to follow the race. For photographers it is an opportunity to get the first images of riders on pavè out into the world. For fans it is early enough in the race to get to other sectors without needing the ability to drive on the course itself. Even with that ability we had to sprint to the car in order to make spot number three in time.

Spot number three was a new one for me, and for everybody else, as it was making its Paris-Roubaix debut. The Haspres à Thiant sector runs along the top of a small ridge, providing the opprtunity to get a variety of shots including the one below where the riders are on a road running parallel to the sector before turning on to it. There was also by now an established break, which is always good for increased photo opportunities.

Rolling out of this sector we had what I can only describe as a Sergio Leone-esque showdown with a Jumbo team car on a very narrow road. Can’t remember who blinked first but we got where we needed to be next before the riders so I will take that as a win.

Next up was the Hornaing à Wandignies sector. This is the one where you can see the nuclear power plant. It is a sector that I have shot on in previous years as it is the first sector tackled by the women’s race. I have also come here on recon days. Unfortunately, the logistics of the day meant we had to skip two iconic sectors: Trouée d’Arenberg and Pont Gibus (Wallers à Hélesmes). I have visited both of these sectors in previous years, so I did not feel too bad about missing them.

There was a good crowd here as usual without being so large that I was unable to get the photos I wanted. This is one of the places that is popular with the RV crowd. I have seen RVs parked here as early as the Wednesday before the race. So, if you were wondering how early you need to get here to ensure the best parking, now you know.

We arrived at our next stop, number 5, just seconds ahead of the race. We had to park 100 or so meters from the pavé and, as you can see in the shot below, I didn’t quite make it there for the leaders, so I missed shots of Wout and MVDP. This was the only pavé stop that I would consider a bust photographically. Not a complete bust, maybe a semi-bust. This put a bit of pressure on me to get some good ones at Carrefour de l’Arbre, our final stop of the day.

Carrefour de l’Arbre is maybe my favorite spot to photograph despite some immense challenges. All of the credentialed photographers shoot inside the final bend (not the turn off the pavé; the left turn before it), which is a great spot and it’s possible to get clear shots there. If you are anywhere else, you need to just pray that the hundreds of people blocking your shot will move out of the way at the last second. And to be fair, they almost always do. If they didn’t, the riders would hit them. It is pure chaos. Pure, beautiful chaos.

There are only two real sectors after the Carrefour, so by this point the race is truly blown apart. Riders will be coming through for the next 30 mins or so, similar to a high mountain stage of Le Tour. And riders outside the time cut will be coming through well after that. It’s the only the race of the year that riders care about finishing whether in or out of the time cut.

Unfortunately, we needed to go to the velodrome to return Geoffrey’s photo vest. By the time we got there the race was over and it was an absolute zoo. Many team vehicles were trying to exit while we were trying to enter. We were the one salmon swimming downstream.

It’s amazing how calm and empty the place was a mere 30 minutes later though. Just a few team cars and staff from Jumbo and Alpecin along with a few dozen superfans waiting for Wout, Mathieu and Jasper. It always shocks me how fast the circus folds up tents and a sense of normal life returns.

This coming weekend I am planning a bit of a different experience. Hoping to see some of each of the categories racing. I hate to possibly jinx it but I have a good feeling about the Americans competing on Saturday and Sunday. The juniors race is especially compelling. If you’re in North America and an insomniac I believe there will be live streams on YouTube for both the Juniors and U23s on Sunday.

Follow me on Instagram for semi-irregular updates at: @thepenultimatestage

This brings us to Fayetteville, Arkansas, and the second round of the 2024 US Pro Cup. On offer for elite racers are two UCI XCO races, including a C1 and an HC race. The goal for Americans is to Hoover up those points and (1) secure as many spots as possible on the start line and (2) perform well enough to make the argument that if spots are secured, one of those spots should go to you.

Now, let's get semantical for a hot second. When you read above that this is an excellent opportunity for Americans, you may have assumed I was talking about U.S. folks, but here's the rub. Most of the Americas came to play in Fayetteville: North, Central and South, depending on whose map you want to use. Throw in some riders from New Zealand, Estonia, Switzerland, and somewhere I'm surely forgetting, and this is not the U.S. point grab some may have assumed. There are so many Canadian/Quebecois teams down here, Arkansas could probably be the 11th province.

With so much racing on the schedule, we needed to start the weekend early, like Wednesday early. Load-in for the venue was Tuesday, and the first race of the event happened yesterday, with a full slate of UCI racing, including junior men and women races, a standalone U23 men's race, a standalone men's elite race, and a mixed women's U23/elite race.

That's a lot of races, but there should be one more. And I know I say this with the full knowledge that there are only so many hours in the day. But we need to stop combining the U23 women with the elite women. It's a disservice to riders, spectators, and, selfishly, photographers. The elite women and U23 women had full fields. They deserve separate races, especially with the confusing race durations. For the C1, the U23 women finished one lap before the elite women, but they all raced together. So, as it happened, the winner of the U23 race, Marin Lowe (Pittstop Racing Team), peeled off from the group of elite women she was racing with to raise her hands and take the victory while the rest of the group kept their heads down and did one more lap.

This is not a criticism of the race organizer or really anyone—just something whose time has passed. So now we need to find the time in the schedule and move forward.

In typical fashion, I've made it 500 words into this race recap and have yet to do any actual recapping. With introductory remarks this long, my race report has turned into a podcast.

Let's get to it and talk about the racing. There wasn't much drama at the front in the women's elite race. So much so that in true Canadian style, race winner Jenn Jackson (Liv Factory Racing) apologized for it being a little boring at the front after she crossed the line. Jackson wasn't throwing shade here. She was stating facts. She made that race boring from the start, as she should. There was no messing around in the field; Jackson took the hole shot and already had a decent lead by the time they finished the start loop. From there, it was all about racing steady and smart. No mistakes. She even opted for an abbreviated post-up, not wanting to take any chances with high winds at the finish.

Behind Jackson, Ella McPhee (Pivot Cycles-OTE) separated herself from the rest of the field to ride solo in second place. She finished over four minutes behind Jackson and nearly two minutes ahead of third place.

The battle for third was the most exciting racing in the field. The Bear National Team duo of Makena Kellerman and Bailey Cioppa dueled with Maria Carolina Flores Garcia (Specialized Racing Mexico) for the third spot. The trio fought for position for most of the race before Kellerman could get away and take the third spot, leaving Cioppa and Flores Garcia to sprint it out for fourth and fifth, with Cioppa gaining the advantage by three seconds.

Missing from the start line were Haley Batten (Specialized Factory Racing), who is already on her way to Brazil for the first round of the World Cup and Trek Factory Racing teammates Gwendalyn Gibson and Madigan Munro. Batten won the first round of the US Cup at Vail Lake, and Gibson and Munro were third and fourth, respectively. Jackson took second in Vail Lake.

In the men's race, Christopher Blevins (Specialized Factory Racing) and Riley Amos (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli) came into the weekend with a plan. A plan Amos would only generally share with me after Wednesday's race because he didn't want to give away tactics with more racing to come this weekend. If those tactics are "ride everyone else in the field off our wheels," I think they already know what's coming. The top-level plan, as it were, was to get the U.S. as many points as possible. Olympics. It's all about the Olympics.

In a rarely seen Specialized/Trek collab, Blevins and Amos took turns at the front, testing out the legs of their competitors. Blevins went first, getting a jump at the gun and looking like he was going to Jenn Jackson the field. But by the time the group finished the start loop, things had calmed to a more leisurely pace, and it would have been easier to name the riders in the 44-racer-strong field who weren't there.

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After four laps, the group remained at eleven riders. Blevins explained that the strong headwinds that had picked up on the exposed hilltop venue at Centennial Park made attacking a risky move. You didn't want to get stuck alone fighting the wind. To that end, Blevins and Amos shared wind-blocking duties with Carter Woods (Giant Factory Off-Road Team), Dario Lillo (Giant Factory Off-Road Team), Cole Punchard (Pivot Cycles-OTE), Logan Sadesky (Broad Street Offroad), Raphael Auclair (Pivot Cycles-OTE), Leandre Bouchard (Foresco Holding Proco RL), Tyler Orschel (Pan-American Union Racing), Bradyn Lange (SCOTT Orange Seal), and Carson Beard (Bear National Team). Robbie Day and Brayden Johnson chased the group a few seconds back.

With only a few laps to go, Blevins decided the time had come and started stretching out the group. Only Amos and Woods were able to respond. The trio came together on the back half of the course, and at that point, Canadian national champ Woods knew he had a numbers problem with the duo from south of the border.

Blevins and Amos worked together to drop Woods and ensure the top points went to U.S. riders. After achieving the Team USA goals, the gloves were off, and it was a two-lap battle for bragging rights in both riders' hometown of Durango, Colorado.

The Centennial Park track has a classic sprint before the sprint. The only person I can remember ever coming from second position in a sprint after hitting the tarmac is Marianne Vos in the 2022 Cyclocross World Championships. For everyone else, the goal is to be the first to enter Stonehenge—the spirally finishing turns that funnel riders into a steep banked turn before the paved finish. Blevins and Amos know this, which meant the race for the finish line happened somewhere before the tech zone, and Blevins was faster, as he entered the stoneworks first. Amos put up a good fight and was on Blevins' wheel to give the sprint a go, but Blevins had the few feet he needed to make it stick and take the victory.

In the men's U23 race, Zorak Paille (Pivot Cycles-OTE) earned the win. Noah Ramsay (Bateman's Bicycle Company) and Jack Spranger (Bear National Team) followed him across the line. Marin Lowe won the women's U23 race with Kellie Harrington (Bear National Team) in second and Jocelyn Stel in third.

Nicholas Konecny (Bear National Team) won the men's junior race, with Henry Coote (Competitive Edge Racing) in second and Luke Mosteller (Bear National Team) in third. Rafaelle Carrier (Pivot Cycles-OTE) won the women's junior race with Bear National Team teammates Vida Lopez de San Ramon in second and Ingrid McElroy in third.

Next up in Fayetteville is a full slate of UCI XCC short track racing and a standalone UCI HC U23 men's race that was added at the last minute to the schedule to allow riders like Amos to race both the U23 and elite HC events. The elite HC event is on Saturday. No similar concessions were made for the women's field.

The soil in Temecula Valley is a decomposing granitic, sandy loam, which provides the 1,300 vineyard acres and the one bike park hosting a UCI mountain bike race, a well-draining soil conducive to producing world-class wine and miles of post-rain hero dirt. Although I didn't have time for a winery stop on this trip, I did get to see a weekend full of top-notch short track and cross-country mountain bike racing at one of the best tracks in the nation.

The Orange Seal Pro Cup, presented by Vailocity Bike Park, which took place March 22-23, is the first stop in the US Pro Cup and the newly created four-race USXC Open, with Fayetteville, Fall River and Missoula. 2024 is a Summer Olympics year, which means UCI points are worth their weight in potential gold, and the world's top racers are scouring the globe for XCO C1 races like those found in the US Cup events.

Nestled in the back of the KOA Vail Lake Resort in Temecula, California, is the Vailocity Bike Park. Before you get to the venue proper, you must first pay your daily $10 tithe to the KOA caretakers and wind your way through RV camping, minigolf, and rentable golf carts (do you think anyone uses the golf carts for their mini golf round?)

Once you've made it through the campers—some bike-adjacent, but most just having a fantastic vacation—the trees disappear, and the bike park reveals itself. The place is massive, with trails ranging from easy-peasy to jump lines and downhill runs.

The track's focus for the XCO and XCC races is the coliseum trail, which features a decent-sized double jump in the center and ridge line climbs and descents enveloping the exhibition area. Natural amphitheaters are always the best race venues. Like the Albstadt World Cup or Zonhoven, Vail Lake has a good one.

Short Track (XCC)

The UCI racing started Friday morning with a full slate of short track events. XCC racing is between 20 and 25 minutes, with each lap lasting around two to three minutes.

The Vail Lake XCC track is wide-open without much elevation and ample passing opportunities. The centrally located tabletop allows the kids to get steezy, and the tight berm before the finish makes the final sprint technical and tactical.

Bailey Cioppa (Bear National Team) set the early pace in the women's elite race, closely marked by Haley Batten (Specialized Factory Racing) and Jenn Jackson (Liv Factory Racing). Maddie Munro (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli) and Gwen Gibson (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli) also closely watched the proceedings at the front. On lap two, Gibson moved to the front with Munro on her wheel. Batten, Jackson, Makena Kellerman (Bear National Team), Ruby Ryan (Team Durango Segment 28) and Merili Sirvel (Trey Trek Team) were also in the front group.

On lap three, Batten put in a dig and got a gap over the group, but the move was more of a leg stretcher than anything definitive, as it all came back together on lap four, with Gibson controlling the pace at the front. On lap five, it was Jackson's turn to test everyone's early season high-end, stretching the field out and reducing the front group to six with Batten, Gibson, Munro, Kellerman and Ryan still in the hunt.

At the end of lap 6, right before the final turn, Batten maneuvered around Gibson and took the lead with two laps to go. By the time the group reached the tabletop, Batten had a two-second lead, and Kellerman led the chase. Batten didn't look back, extending her lead and taking the win by four seconds. Jackson finished second, and Gibson third, another second behind Jackson.

In the men's elite race, Sean Fincham (Maxxis Factory Racing) shepherded the field through the early stages of lap one. Ivan Sippy (Team Durango Segment 28) took up pacing duties on lap two, which gave him first crack at the mid-lap style competition. Ben Oliver (Denver Disruptors) monitored the front along with Lasse Konecky (Bear National Team), Fincham, and Carson Beard (Team Durango Segment 28). Short track national champ and former XCC world champ Christopher Blevins (Specialized Factory Racing) was comfortably in sixth place, in no hurry to get to the front.

On lap four, Oliver, who splits his time between the dirt and crit racing, moved to the front with Brayden Johnson (Santa Cruz RockShox), Cayden Parker (Bear National Team), Blevins, Fincham and Sippy on his wheel. The rest of the field was also there.

On lap seven, Robbie Day (Bear National Team) moved to the front, with Blevins starting to take things more seriously in second. Oliver was on his wheel with eight more behind him.

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It wasn't until lap eight of 10 that Blevins went to the front for the first time and started to stretch out the front group. Oliver kept him close as Johnson, Beard, Fincham, Parker, Day, Gabe Harrelson (WE Development) and Raulito Gutierrez (Bear National Team) joined in the selection.

That group more or less stayed together for the remaining laps.

On the final lap, Blevins, Oliver and Fincham separated themselves from the pack and jockeyed for position. With the tight berms and inability to pass before the short finishing straight, leading into the final turn was mandatory. Oliver pushed through Fincham and Blevins to gain the advantage before the final berm. Without any remaining options, Blevins tried to take the outside line on the wrong side of the berm, but his speed carried him well off course. Blevins' deviation gave Oliver the advantage and the clear path to victory. Blevins held on for second, and Fincham finished third.

Cross Country (XCO)

After a long winter of cold and rainy cyclocross races, I always look forward to the mountain bike season with its warm weather and clear skies. But thankfully, I never really unpacked my bags from cyclocross. The rain pants stained with Czech mud, and my waterproof boots remained in the suitcase. Although it never got muddy (go back and read that lead paragraph again), it did rain for a good portion of the day, affecting conditions and tire choice.

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Canadian Champ Carter Woods (Giant Factory Off-Road Team) took the holeshot in the UCI C1 XCO men's elite race. Oliver was on his wheel, with Blevins sitting about sixth. By the time the field started heading back towards the coliseum, Blevins was in third with Cayden Parker (Bear National Team), Fincham, Bradyn Lange (SCOTT Orange Seal) and the rest of an 18-large group close behind.

By the time the group reached the HT Components power climb on lap one, the selection was made. Oliver pushed the pace with Blevins and Woods on his wheel. Johnson and Adair Gutierrez Prieto (Canyon Cllctv XCO) made up the second group a few seconds back. Fincham gave some obligatory Canadian "sorrys" to a trio of Bear National riders as he danced from ninth to sixth.

During the second lap, Oliver dropped back to 11th, suffering from a less-than-ideal tire choice for the conditions. Blevins, on the other hand, kept a steady pace and started to stretch the field. Woods found himself in second, eight seconds back.

By lap three, Blevins had increased his lead to 19 seconds, with Lange in second and Day and Adair Gutierrez another 20 seconds back.

From that point on, it was all Blevins. While others in the field started to slow down, Blevins consistently pumped out sub-12-minute laps for the first five of seven laps. Lap six was 12 minutes on the nose, and he eased up a bit on the final lap with a 12:20 time. His closest competitor only banked three sub-12-minute laps out of the seven.

The fight for the remaining podium spots came down to four riders. Adair Gutierrez was the best of the rest, finishing second, 1:20 after Blevins and Lange finished third. After dialing in the sprint the day before, Oliver bested Day by three seconds for fourth.

In the women's elite category, which also included the U23 field, Haley Batten was the rider everyone had their eyes on. First, because she was the favorite and second, because she already had a gap on the field before UCI official Justin Evans finished blowing his whistle to start the race.

By the time Batten reached the top of the Violich Farms climb, about two minutes into the race, she already had a five-second lead over Jackson in second place. A few seconds behind was the Trek Factory Racing duo of Gibson and Munro, and Ryan in fifth.

I wish I had more to report on this one, but it blew up pretty fast from the start, and how the top five lined up on the first climb was how they finished 75+ minutes later. Batten built close to a three-minute lead by the time she crossed the line. Jackson, in second, finished 1:45 ahead of Gibson.

The closest battles at the top were between Bear National Team teammates Kellerman and Cioppa, who sprinted for sixth place, with Kellerman taking the spot. Right behind that duo, Erin Osborne (Momentum Endurance) pipped Lauren Aggelar (Trinity Racing) for eighth place.

Other winners in the UCI categories were Ellie Krafft (Pivot Cycles) for the U23 women, Sippy for the U23 men, Vida Lopez de San Roman (Bear National Team) for the junior women and Nicholas Konecny (Bear National Team) for the junior men.

Full results for all races and categories at Vail Lake are here. Next in the US Pro Cup and USXC Open in Fayetteville, Arkansas, presented by the Ozark Foundation. See you there.

Picture two cow fields bisected by a hilly road. In a non-peer-reviewed study, I've concluded that those are the essential building blocks for any Spring Classic.

Belgium's famed Koppenberg cobbled climb is between two well-used cattle grazing hot spots. Liege-Bastogne-Liege's Cote de la Redoute is also watched over by resident bovine spectators. Similarly, Hall County, Texas, home of the Valley of Tears gravel race, features race-changing climbs nestled between cow pastures.

Am I saying the Valley of Tears, which took place for the first time this past Saturday, is a gravel racing fall classic? I may be.

The brainchild of Amarillo, Texas' cycling-obsessed Fairly family, the Valley of Tears starts in Turkey, Texas, population 326, and winds through sand, dirt, gravel and a small amount of road before reaching two defining climbs that proved decisive in the pro men's and pro women's fields.

The 112-mile open race—scheduled for 115 miles but changed by the organizers to remove some of the longer unrideable sand sections—follows the script of your favorite spring classics. It's full-on from the start, with the pro fields jockeying for position from the gun. After two blocks on the road, the field turns left and heads onto the sandy red dirt roads. After three miles of smooth riding on the dirt, the fun begins with long stretches of sand. Much like cyclocross at Koksijde—a Winter cycling classic for any true cyclocross fan—momentum is the rider's ally. Lose it, and you're off the bike and running. But momentum can also be your enemy: carry too much of it into the sand, and you will soon be stuck in a rut and flying over your handlebars.

If you make it through the first 10 miles of dirt and sand, your next obstacle is the Limestone Pits sector. Like the Arenberg Forest in Paris-Roubaix, you can't win a race in the Limestone Pits, but you can lose it. Rocky terrain and several limestone shelves make riding the section impractical, if not impossible.

It is no surprise that Keegan Swenson not only led the field through this section but already had a gap, thanks to pristine dismounting and remounting skills. Chase Wark and Innokenty Zavyalov led the men's field pursuit.

Not too far behind, in a line of riders finding their way through the pit, Sofía Gómez Villafañe maintained a minute or so gap over second place in the women's field, Jenna Reinhart. At the back of the pack was Emily Newsom, nursing a badly cut knee following a crash at the start that left her with a broken rear derailleur and only two working gears, thanks to her 2X setup.

After the Limestone Pit, the field rode to the hilly western loop of the course and the Clarity Tunnel, an abandoned train tunnel and home of half a million Mexican free-tailed bats. Once through the tunnel and an impressive accumulation of guano, the race continued on the Caprock Canyons rails-to-trails section.

By this point, Wark had bridged the gap to Swenson, and the two began to work together to distance the field. With his distinctive HED disc wheel and aero bars, Wark had no issue putting in time at the front, and the duo quickly relegated the pursuers to a race for third place.

Villafañe remained at the front of the women's field, but Jenna Reinhart soon joined her. Not long after, Emily Newsom pedaled her two-speed bike through the entire field and made contact with Villafañe and Reinhart. Newsom, realizing she had nothing to lose at this point, attacked the group after they crossed the iconic Caprock Canyon rail bridges.

While Reinhart and Villafañe worked in a group of eight to pull back Newsom, Wark was making things exciting at the front of the men's race. After a bobbled hydration pack handoff in the feed zone, Wark lost his balance and went down. With nowhere to go, Swenson ran into Wark, crashing on top of him. Both riders were a bit bloodied but otherwise fine. The biggest casualty of the incident was a broken strap on Wark's hydration pack that left him with no fluids for the remainder of the race.

With many miles left, Swenson gave Wark something to drink in a semi-altruistic gesture. "He had nothing to drink, and I needed him to do some more pulls. I couldn't have him blowing up too early," Swenson joked after the race.

The eastern loop of the race took riders through the Tampico Tundra, with flowy dirt roads and punchy climbs. The Tundra is where it happens. The Tundra is where truces are broken. It is here that the attacks occur.

About a mile into the Tundra and about 90 miles into the race, there is a long descent followed by a punchy half-mile leg breaker of a climb. Like the Paterberg in the Tour of Flanders, this Tundra ascent is the decisive climb. Get to the top with a gap, and you could take that lead to the finish.

Swenson tucked in behind Wark for the descent and let him take on the hill for about 100 meters. As soon as the terrain started to show its steepness, Swenson turned on the power and left Wark behind. That was the move, and it stuck.

Continuing through the Tundra, the terrain remains rolling and punchy. There is one other significant power climb before you reach the Tampico monument marking the Ozark Trail and head east towards Turkey and the finish. When the three leading women approached that climb, and Sofia refused to take her turn at the front, Newsom knew the gig was up. In a possibly unintentional Ruthian gesture, Sofia called her shot. By not taking a pull, Villafañe showed her cards, letting her competitors know what was about to go down.

As the group hit the base of the climb, Villafañe punched it, dropping the remaining men in the women's lead group and stretched the elastic to the breaking point for Newsom, who chose the easiest of her two gears and ground it out as the others rode away. Reinhart reacted immediately to the move and was able to keep on Villafañe's wheel. Newsom was left to chase alone, with the rest of the group cracked by the climb. She gave it what she had (at a very low cadence due to her gear restriction) but could only watch as the lead duo disappeared ahead. Ultimately, Villafañe distanced herself from Reinhart and rode into downtown Turkey to take the solo win.

The men's and women's pro races at the inaugural Valley of Tears gravel race were not your typical war of attrition events. These contests were not just carb-ingesting and watt-producing contests but full-on bike races. 112 miles of tactics, strategy and power. A classic in the making.

Full results from the Valley of Tears event are here.

On the latest episode of Cyclocross Radio, the Media Pit discusses last weekend’s Middelkerke and Lille races before getting down to the serious business of choosing the All Cyclocross First Team.

As a first-time endeavor, we had to set some ground rules, like how many people are on the all-cyclocross team (we decided it’s three), before debating our selections.

In the episode, I ask for your input into who you would put on your first team, but more importantly, which three riders you would put on your second-team all-cyclocross. Leave a comment below on the @cxhairsbulletin Instagram feed or the Slack channel, letting us know your squad.

If you enjoy Cyclocross Radio, consider leaving a five-star rating and a review on Apple Podcasts:

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Thanks for listening to Cyclocross Radio. If you enjoy it, check out the other podcasts on the Wide Angle Podcast Network and consider becoming a member:

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The first Worlds race I ever wrote about was the bonkers last-lap thriller between Sanne Cant and Marianne Vos at Bieles in 2017. The second was the battle between Katie Compton and Sanne Cant in Valkenburg that we all thought was going to be the one where Compton finally did the thing.

Those were followed by Sanne Cant’s nerve-wracking last-lap in her win at Bogense, the Alvardo sprint win at Dubendorf in 2020, Lucinda Brand outdueling Annemarie Worst in the last lap at Oostend, and Vos outsprinting Brand in Fayettevil. So many S-tier races!

Last year was notable because it was the first time in forever where you could not with any shred of credibility say that the Elite Women’s Worlds race was better than the Men’s. And it is against that backdrop of banger after banger that Fem van Empel’s winning margin of 1:20 really stood out.

It was fait accompli that Mathieu van der Poel was going to win, with the only real question being if the race would be interesting for any measurable period of time. It was not, and Van der Poel won by a comfortable 37 seconds.

The two dominant wins by the Dutch masters got me wondering if these Worlds were the least compelling among those held in the modern (read: the women have a race and Cyclocross24 has results) era. I know it’s been a while since we have done this, so how do we do this … ah yes, let’s go to the numbers!

Cyclocross Worlds Winning Margins

There have been a total of 25 World Championships held since the Elite Women’s race was introduced in 2000. That gives us a decent number of events to base this analysis on.

There are two ways of looking at this. The first is the average winning margin in the two Elite races. However, devotees of the Zach Schuster Content System dating back to the CXHairs blog days know that I am not a fan of averages because they are too easily skewed by outliers.

I much prefer the median, but in this situation with only two data points in each yearly dataset, the median is … the average.

One need to look no further than Valkenburg Worlds to see the average’s shortcomings illustrated.

That weekend was the site of the Compton-Cant banger that was much closer than the 12-second winning margin suggested. No one would deny that race was all kinds of compelling.

It was also the weekend of an utter beatdown delivered to Mathieu van der Poel and all the other hapless souls who dared face him down in the mire of that muddy morass. Van Aert won by a crazy 2 minutes, 12 seconds, giving a very uncompetitive average winning margin of 1:12.

Bor. Ring. Right? Except that it wasn’t.

A better metric, I think, is the minimum of the two victory margins. This tells us how close the closer of the two races was. A high minimum means that the races were not that close at all.

Across the 25 years we have winning margins for, Mathieu van der Poel’s 37-second win made for the second least-close Worlds of this millennium. Only Richard Groenendaal’s 38-second win at Sint-Michielsgestel (say that 5 times fast) in a year where the Elite Women’s margin was 57 seconds was a less compelling more compelling race.

If you found yourself not being super compelled by this year’s World Championships races, the winning margins suggest you were warranted in not being compelled. The margins of victory for Fem van Empel and Mathieu van der Poel were near record-setting among races held this millennium, and Van Empel’s winning margin was the 2nd-highest in Elite Women’s history, second only to Marianne Vos’s 1:34 margin at Louisville Worlds.

There are a few more nuggs we can likely squeeze out of the data. I was also curious what the odds of getting a last-lap banger from the Women, Men, or at least one of the two races are, historically speaking. I arbitrarily picked a margin of 5 seconds to define a “banger,” knowing full well that both the 2018 Valkenburg and 2019 Bogense Women’s races don’t quality under this criteria.

If someone wants to go back and do a more subjective banger assessment by re-watching all the races, I am definitely here for the true banger tally.

In the last 25 years, here are the banger tallies:

• Men: 40% (10 of 25)

• Women: 32% (8 of 25)

• At Least One: 64% (16 of 25)

Extended this out to 10 seconds, the Elite Men’s races don’t change, but the Women’s percentage bumps up to 40%.

This seems kind of interesting(?) because the perception has been that the Elite Women’s races are super compelling while the Elite Men’s are snoozefests (I’m looking at you, Slow Ride Podcast). Subjectively, the 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2015 Elite Women’s races were all bangers, while the 2024, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017 Elite Men’s races were all kind of meh.

The 25 years of the modern era are bookended by the 2000 and 2024 snoozefests, and the years to be there appear to be 2006 in Zeddam, Netherlands, where Erwin Vervecken beat Bart Wellens by 2 seconds and Marianne Vos eked out a sprint against Hanka Kupfernagel, and 2007 where Vervecken beat Jonathan Page by 3 seconds and Maryline Vassal Salvetat beat Katie Compton by a second.

(I begrudgingly admit that this is a situation where the average is useful. We’re all not perfect, ok.)

For funsies, I decided to look at every Elite Men’s winning margin dating back to 1950—just because it’s a more complete dataset—to see how recent results compare to historical results, and I think I may have found the source of our perception that cyclocross is not delivering a good banger percentage as of late: the 2000s were really exciting!

Seven (!) of the Elite Men’s races and four of the Elite Women’s races were decided by 5 seconds or less. When many folks in Cyclocross Nation were getting into the sport, Worlds were super exciting with the likes of Sven Nys, Erwin Vervecken, Bart Wellens, Lars Boom, Niels Albert, and others duking it out and the era of Marianne Vos winning all the things only starting to take hold.

Looking at finishes under 5 seconds by decade for the Elite Men, the 2000s stand out as an anomaly. Removing the 2000s (or including it, because median), the median number of sub-5-second finishes by decade is just 2. Extending that margin out to 10 seconds, the 1990s also had a high number of close finishes in the Elite Men’s races, so let’s call it one pretty good and one pretty great decade of Worlds races for the Elite Men in relatively recent memory.

So yes, using Cyclocross Worlds as a proxy, ‘cross is perhaps not as compelling as it was in the 2000s, but at least it’s not the 1960s where 3 of the Worlds races has margins over 2:30 or 1979 where records show that Albert Zweifel won by over 4 minutes.

History Check

As Mathieu van der Poel continues to rack up Worlds wins and move precipitously close to the all-time Worlds records, it is as good a time as ever to check how his record stands up against the all-time greats.

(I am loathe to toot my own horn, but I think this was a pretty good look at Van der Poel vis-a-vis Erik De Vlaeminck from 2021o when he had a mere four World Championships to his name, if I do say so myself.)

The same goes for Fem van Empel. Not even an Elite by age, how does she stack up in the history of the Elite Women’s Worlds race? And to continue a hobby horse I staked out after Worlds last year, it’s as good as time as ever to reboot the Lucinda Brand Appreciation Tweet.

Scoring systems are arbitrary, and I settled on an approach similar to Jeff D. assigning twice the number of points to a win as a 2nd and making a 2nd worth twice as much as a 3rd. So 8-4-2.

Using these metrics, here are the current top 10 for the Elite Women and Elite Men:

Elite Women

Elite Men

Van Empel checks in at 8th despite not yet being racing age 23, and Brand sits in 4th on the heels of her string of 7-straight Worlds podiums. Her podium streak bests Sanne Cant’s 5 straight from 2015 to 2019 and is one shy of Marianne Vos’s 8 straight from 2008 to 2015 (she may or may not have won 6 of those). The Men’s record also appears to be 8 straight for France’s Andre Dufraisse from 1951 to 1958.

Van der Poel’s sixth Worlds win puts him in the rarest of rare company, with Dufraisse and Zweifel beating him out by their total number of Worlds podiums. If Van der Poel gets his Men’s-record-tying 7th Worlds win next year in Lievin, France, he will ascend to our list based on the arbitrary point system.

He will, of course, need two more wins and a podium finish to equal the lofty standard Marianne Vos has set, so keep racing that cyclocross, plz and ty.

Certainly not unobtainable and probably more contingent on his desire to keep chasing cyclocross jerseys versus physical ability.

Other Odds and Ends

While looking at the results, I was thinking about how Joris Nieuwenhuis has only won a handful of Elite races and is now a Worlds podium finisher. I figured his tally had to be the lowest among the Elite Men this millennium—I was right—and wondered who could have the second lowest haul of wins while also sporting a Worlds podium on their palmares.

The record of races available at Cyclocross24 appears to be pretty complete, so similar to the winning margins, this analysis is limited to podium finishers since 2000 for both the Women and Men.

It turns out that for the Men, Joris is the low man in the clubhouse with 5 wins. Rob Peeters, who finished 2nd in 2012, is next with 8, and then our man Tom “Pidders” Pidcock is next with 10.

Lots of good stuff here. It’s interesting and a full 25% of Jonathan Page’s career wins were at U.S. Cyclocross Nationals, and Eli Iserbyt is making a run at being the Belgian Francis Mourey, aka the dub machine without very much Worlds hardware.

The Elite Women’s is also shared for completeness, although it is safe to argue that many of the names near the top (bottom) of the wins list are not really household names, even in the vaunted Cyclocross Nation.

I hope this was an enjoyable look at an otherwise less-than-compelling Worlds. It was fun to be back crunching some numbers and doing Cyclocross Math.

Perhaps the best I can do is outsource it to another pretty good cyclocross racer, Sven Nys, as translated by our friends at Cyclocross24:

"He transcends our discipline. He is someone that e…

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Few riders in the professional ra…

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Elite Women

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The UCI Cyclocross World Championships kicked off today from Tábor, Czechia, with the mixed team relay. This is the third year the relay has been a part of the World Championships and the second year it was a championship event. Year one in Fayetteville, won by the Italian squad, was a test event.

In 2023, the Dutch, who opted out of the test event, took the gold medal on home turf at Hoogerheide, Netherlands. With their gold medal in hand, the Dutch once again declined to participate.

Coming into the 2024 edition, Great Britain and Belgium looked like the favorites on paper. Were they able to live up to expectations? Results after the spoiler-blocking wolf.

Since the UCI let down its half-century chauvinistic guard in 2000 and invited women to race Cyclocross Worlds, Belgium has earned at least one podium spot in the Elite races every single year.

Belgian men swept the Elite podium 5 times in that span and took 2 spots another 14 times, the latter including their most common haul—8 frustrating 2nd-3rd combos.

In 6 of those 24 competitions, a Belgian woman joined her male compatriot(s). To be precise, a single Belgian woman—15-consecutive-time National Champion Sanne Cant—to no one’s surprise.

The Cyclocross Eras

Let’s attach some numbers to these words and quantify Belgium’s CX dynasty. What numbers, you say?

The UCI offers no official Worlds points tally across the Women and Men’s Elite, U23, and Junior fields. Which leaves a vacuum this analysis rushes to fill.

For the sake of argument, assign 40 points to each winning Junior, 20 for each 2nd-place Junior, 15, points for each 3rd-place Junion, and then 9, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 to round out the top 10. Double those points for U23: 80, 40, 30, … . And double them again for the elites: 160, 80, 15, … .

Winning earns twice the points of 2nd? This isn’t the Life Time Grand Prix—the Bulletin rewards winners. Especially World Championship winners.

The chart below tracks these points across four eras for the top five teams since 2000: Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Great Britain, and the Netherlands.

We can break the 21st century into four eras, if you will:

Era I: Belgium reigned supreme for the Belgian Years, albeit barely eking out the Netherlands in the first of these.

Era II: Next up, the Contested Years of 2005-06 through 2010-11. A rising France nearly toppled Belgium in 2005-06, then nearly did the same to the Netherlands in 2006-07, but never quite earned the top spot. Belgium rebounded in 2007-08 only to fall short of Netherlands and Czech Republic, who traded bragging rights in 2008-09 through 2010-11.

Era III: 2011-12 saw the emergence of the Low Country Years. Belgium held the upper hand over the Netherlands except for 2012-13, but only just bested the Netherlands in 2016-17. And both separated themselves from the pack.

Era IV: The Netherlands Years launched in 2018-19, when the Oranje grabbed hold of a supremacy they’ve yet to relinquish.

Dutch Sweep?

So what about the 2024 Era?

The question on the minds of the black, yellow, and red frites-and-mayo contingent: Can Belgium challenge a Netherlands team that has a strength not not seen in the last half-dozen years?

With Wout sitting this one out, not a chance.

But it’s worse than that.

Without Wout, the Netherlands might notch an unprecedented Elite podium shutout against their Low Country rivals.

On the women’s side, Belgium doesn’t really have a prayer. It would take two of the all-Dutch Quad Squad—Lucinda Brand, Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, Puck Pieterse, and Fem van Empel—to falter, and even such a faltering only opens the door to their countrywomen Manon Bakker and Inge van der Heijden.

Sure, leading Belgian racers Sanne Cant, Marion Norbert-Riberolle, or Laura Verdonschot might step up, but that’s not what the smart money says.

Which gets us to the men. The Woutless men.

Two weeks ago, the chances for the Belgian men looked about as bleak as the women. An all-Dutch podium of everyone’s favorite, Mathieu van der Poel, and his two sidekicks, Joris Nieuwenhuis and Pim Ronhaar, seemed a decent bet. And Lars van der Haar stood right there waiting in the wings.

Then Belgian Michael Vanthourenhout won a week ago at Exact Cross Zonnebeke-Kasteelcross and finished 2nd at World Cup Benidorm. Countrymen Thibau Nys and Eli Iserbyt took 3rd and 4th at Benidorm. This past Saturday, Mikey V and Eli took 2nd and 3rd at X2O Hamme.

At the risk of jinxing things, hand the top step to Mathieu. That leaves a pretty sweet three-vs-three for the final two steps: Netherlands’s Joris, Pim, and Lars against Belgium’s Mikey V, Eli, and Thibau.

Which takes us to Hoogerheide on Sunday, where all six of the top Low Country rivals lined up for a three-vs-three battle royale.

Who does Hoogerheide give the edge on form?

Mikey V fell victim to a Ryan Kamp crash at the barriers early on, eventually worked his way back up toward the lead group, then faded. That aberration aside, Hoogerheide leaves us with mere seconds separating the Dutch and Belgian World Championship podium contenders.

Is Belgium peaking at the right time? Or does the Netherlands deny them an elite world championship podium for the first time since 1996-97?

Coin flip territory. This writer says “Heads” … Belgium extends its podium streak.

If there was ever…

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Last Wednesday, I returned to Belgium and have been hunkered down in Antwerp catching up on work and traversing a few countries tracking down wheels, brake pads, and bike frames the CXD Trek Bikes squad had stashed in different garages and warehouses over the past three months. I'm also here to take in a few more bike races.

If the dress rehearsal for the World Championships is the Hoogerheide World Cup, then Flandriencross Hamme is, well, I'm not sure what it is. Final wardrobe fitting? I've sat here for five minutes trying to make this analogy work, and I'm stymied. Hamme is an X2O series race, an opportunity for one more race on Belgian soil before the World Championships, a chance to award yet another iteration of podium ducks, a race with my favorite cyclocross weather.

Blue skies and muddy tracks! The best cyclocross weather. What a pleasant surprise waking up to sunshine on Saturday. As an extra bonus, Hamme is only 30 kilometers southwest of Antwerp, which meant a relaxing late morning start.

The venue is in a park that abuts a sports hall and is on the banks of the Durme, a tributary of the Scheldt. The river, the pond in the middle of the venue and an elevation right at sea level are major factors for why Hamme is always muddy. That and the classic cyclocross paradox: the system created to get your bike clean is the system most responsible for getting your bike dirty.

Let me flesh that one for you. The muddiest part of the track is coming out of pit one. Most riders enter that pit and receive a bike on their shoulder in the exchange. They then run through a watery mud pit created by the runoff from pressure washers. The mud cleaners produce the sloppiest section of mud.

That's not to say bike exchanges would be unnecessary without "Lake Pressure Washer," but it is a tad ironic. Thankfully, there was no mud in the wooded Blair Witch-inspired wooden fence section of the track right after the start. This swoopy flow section is one of my favorites in cyclocross.

The organizers built the feature on existing MTB trails that snake through most of the park. It is something that I remember being a crucial part of the race at the end of the lap, so I was confused when I found it right after the finish line at the beginning of the lap. It made more sense once I realized they reversed the course after the 2022 edition. The counter-clockwise version of Hamme puts the swoopy section at the start and takes away the tiny leg-breaker hill infamous for the 2014 brake check by Mathieu van der Poel on Wout van Aert and Philip Walsleben.

To be fair, that 2014 track looks nothing like this one. Some flyovers and off-cambers are nowhere to be seen on this year's track. And any version of the track isn't going to be memorable unless you get the fireworks like that sprint in 2014 or the near fist fight between Vincent Baestaens and Jens Adams in 2016.

My final observation on Hamme is that there seems to be a Kerstperiode hangover in Belgium. I think that all but the hardcore fans (and there are plenty of those) ended the season with Belgian Nationals. Hamme and Hoogerheide had decent crowds, but nothing compared to what we saw a few weeks earlier in Zonhoven and Hulst.

That's a wrap for Belgian and Dutch cyclocross for this season. One more day in Antwerp for me before flying to Prague for Worlds. See you in Tabor

Media Center Rating:

Hamme Flandriencross: Modest room in the sports hall. There is decent WiFi, standard sandwiches, and coffee, but not enough table space. Pretty close to the course. All in all, it is an unremarkable but workable setup. B+

Hoogerheide World Cup: The room was decent-sized with plenty of space for everyone. It was not too far from the venue. I didn't mess with the WiFi because you had to download an app. They offered some pastries and coffee in the morning, but that was it. It was like the World Championships all over again—no love for the hungry media. Give us a sandwich, Adrie! Thank goodness there was a Jumbo down the block. C-.

USA Cycling announced today the roster of athletes who will compete at the cyclocross world championships in Tábor, Czech Republic February 3-4.

Selected to compete:

Elite Men

Eric Brunner (Boulder, Colo.)

Scott Funston (Boulder, Colo.; Cervelo / Orange Living)

Curtis White (Delanson, N.Y.; Steve Tilford Foundation Racing)

Elite Women

Katie Clouse (Park City, Utah; Steve Tilford Foundation Racing)

Clara Honsinger (Portland, Ore.; Team S&M CX)

Raylyn Nuss (Lawrence, Kan.; Steve Tilford Foundation Racing)

U23 Men

Marcis Shelton (Mill Valley, Calif.)

Andrew Strohmeyer (Mount Airy, Md.; CXD Trek Bikes)

Jules Van Kempen (Chapel Hill, N.C.; Cervelo / OrangeLiving)

Dylan Zakrajsek (Grand Junction, Colo.)

U23 Women

Mia Aseltine (Littleton, Colo.; Comp Edge Racing)

Ella Brenneman (Gibsonia, Penn.; CXD Trek Bikes)

Keira Bond (Louisville, Colo.; CXD Trek Bikes)

Lizzy Gunsalus (Dudley, Mass.; CCB Racing)

Kaya Musgrave (Littleton, Colo.; Cervelo / OrangeLiving)

Lauren Zoerner (Highlands Ranch, Colo.; Groove Off Road Racing Team)

Junior Men

Henry Coote (Manchester, Mass.; Comp Edge Racing)

Calvin Conaway (Zionsville, Ind.; Ignition Racing)

James Halverson (North Branch, Minn.; Minnesota Junior Cycling)

Miles Mattern (Rochester, N.Y.; CXD Trek Bikes)

Alexander Scopinich-Burgel (Concord, Mass.; New England Devo)

David Thompson (New Canaan, Conn.; AG2R Citroën U19 Team)

Luke Walter (Boulder, Colo.; Boulder Junior Cycling)

Junior Women

Jorja Bond (Louisville, Colo.; Boulder Junior Cycling)

Lidia Cusack (Chevy Chase, Md.; CXD Trek Bikes)

Vida Lopez de San Roman (Sebastopol, Calif.; Bear National Team)

Alyssa Sarkisov (North Potomac, Md.; CXD Trek Bikes)

Alyssa White (Elkins, W.V.; Finkraft Junior Cycling Team)

U23 Men’s National Champion Jack Spranger (Sammamish, Wash.; Bear National Team) was selected to the team but declined his nomination.

I’m not above awe and wonder. I invite it. And maybe the thing that makes things awesome and wonderful is that you don’t see them every day. During my time covering cyclocross, I’ve been lucky to visit many of the monuments of the sport, but I can’t say that many of these places routinely inspire awe. The one that comes to mind is Koppenbergcross. And that is probably because of the history on the road and in cyclocross of the climb. Seeing and riding the Koppenberg in person was fantastic because the memories of what happened on that climb are part of why I love bike racing. And for the most part, my memories of that iconic place were created thousands of miles and one ocean away from the actual place. Nove Mesto on the mountain bike side was probably another. Seeing that venue on television was mind-blowing; seeing it in person on race day was more mind-blowing.

For most other venues, like Hoogerheide, Hulst, Baal, and many more, they have been cool to see, but in the end, they are just stages for the performances, not necessarily stars on their own. It’s like we constantly preach in these parts: the racers make the race.

For me, classic cyclocross venues are classic because of the epic battles. For instance, when I think of Hoogerheide, the first thing that comes to mind isn’t the stairway to heaven or the off-camber; it’s Stybar v. Nys. It’s Wout v. Mathieu. Those battles, and many like them, are what make Hoogerheide epic.

This is all to say that I got two heaping doses of venue-inspired awe and wonder in our last two stops of Kerstperiode: Koksijde and Zonhoven.

My first impression of Koksijde was great because I was in the press room, and they told me there was a shuttle to the finish line. [Ya hear that Hulst?]. Having never been there, I didn’t know if such a luxury was necessary (it turns out it wasn’t; the track is literally across the street from the press room), so I took the ride and got dropped off on the finishing straight, which admittedly is a good distance from the business part of the track.

From the finish line, it’s tough to get your bearings. You can see a few buildings that are part of the military base. You can see some trees, and you can see a vast flat field. Nothing screams “Welcome to the beach, friend! Come play in the sand.”

So I started to follow the track, and after a few wrong turns and false starts, I wandered out from behind a vacation cottage and saw the dunes and the two-way sand highway that is easily a top five (top three?) iconic feature. I’ll admit it, I got a little chill seeing it. Through being a fan of the sport, creating SVENESS videos and watching so many great races here, seeing this feature up close was cool. Getting to shoot the race was even cooler.

Thankfully, the fenced-off area between the two-way sand section and the flyover that houses the crane rigging for the broadcast was a haven for photographers. That little section was all I needed. I wandered to a few other places, but I knew for me and anybody I was shooting they wouldn’t use any photos other than the ones in the sand. It’s Koksijde, you need sand photos. Even if it’s a muddy Koksijde, the sand is what you’re there for. You can go to Loenhout to get mud, you go to Koksijde for the dunes.

I had a similar experience in Zonhoven. Our condo was under 30 minutes from the venue, so it was easy to head out the day before the race to get in a few riding recon laps for the riders and one walking recon lap for me.

The Zonhoven venue is a nature preserve, mountain bike park, and home of a dog training school. For Saturday’s practice session, we parked in the adjacent neighborhood and walked up a park road through a wooded area. Similar to Koksijde, I went into this venue blind. I had no idea where anything was located and just followed a random inclined trail through the woods for about a minute until it crested into a clearing. And there it was. De Kuil. Just a big effin’ sand pit in the middle of the park. A sand pit that looks like it was created by an asteroid hurling into Earth.

To get a little pedantic for a second, to call it a sand pit, is a little misleading. The steep hill that starts on the far side of the pit and wraps about a third of the way around is all sand. The remaining crater walls are dirt and roots, and the floor is mud. But sand is the predominant substance, so calling it a sand pit is more than acceptable.

Part of what makes De Kuil a top three (top one?) iconic feature in cyclocross is the crowds. The crowds are irrationally huge. It’s like a sellout at the Rose Bowl, and everyone has rushed the field.

Knowing what it will look like on Sunday is why seeing De Kuil without spectators on Saturday was a special moment. You could be tricked into thinking that the crowds were what made the venue iconic. I can tell you that is not the case. Even without people, De Kuil is breathtaking.

Now, once the people arrive, the place is completely off the charts. It is a party from minute one, with football chants, singing, cheering, and non-stop frivolity.

Crowd interactions this season haven’t always been the best, with some antagonistic fan and racer incidents marring otherwise great racing. None of that was evident at Zonhoven. The fans cheered everyone down the descent. The more hesitant back-markers appeared, the bigger cheers and encouragement they received. If you crashed, there was a jubilant “Ohhhh!” when you went down and an even louder eruption of cheers and positive vibes when you got back up and headed on your way. There was not one heckler in the bunch; if there was, the positive energy drowned them out.

Belgium is not the most welcoming place in the winter. The sun rises (but may never come out) after 9 am, and it’s already going back down by 2:30 pm. Constant rain and wind make every minute outside a challenge. It can wear you down. After six races in under two weeks, Zonhoven was the perfect capper for our stay—a feel-good finale to a great trip.

I’m back home for a few weeks before heading to the Hoogerheide World Cup and the World Championships in Tabor. It’s been fun sharing some Kerstperiode thoughts with you. If there’s anything else you’re curious about from behind the scenes at these events or something you’d like me to cover on my next trip, let me know in the comments.

Media Center Ratings:

Koksijde: Close to the venue on the military base, which meant access was limited so you weren’t fighting the crowds to get there. Good veggie sandwich options, bottled water, coffee, and plenty of space to work. Solid A.

Zonhoven: Located next to De Kuil in a dog training club that had their own bar. Cheese and bread sandwich option and drinks at the bar. Zonhoven attracts a big media crowd and the room was a bit cramped, but other than that, it was a nice set up. A-

Postscript:

I talked about the shoe choices in my Baal entry and my fascination with the white shoes at cyclocross flex. Here’s one of these Baalers in the wild.

Over the years, I have constructed a 10-story high soapbox to address my feelings on "cyclocross weather." And I have beaten this topic into the ground so thoroughly that even in Belgium, folks at races ask me if THIS is cyclocross weather. To which I dutifully reply, yes, it's always cyclocross weather.

Say it with me: cyclocross weather is the weather in which you race cyclocross. It could be hot and dry, like most of the early North American calendar, or muddy, cold and rainy, like a good portion of the Belgian calendar. One is no more "real" than the other.

I will concede that cyclocross at the highest level for the past several decades takes place predominantly in Belgium. I will also concede that it rains practically every day during the winter months in Belgium, meaning mud and rain are the conditions most associated with the sport. But that doesn't make your late summer race in Texas any less cyclocross-y; it's just different.

Cyclocross in Dutch is veldrijden. In English, "veld" is "field," and "rijden" is ride. In its most basic terms, cyclocross in Belgium is field riding, and the fields in Belgium from November to March are saturated mud bogs. What has been great about my time in Belgium over the past few weeks is that despite it raining every rest day, the rain has been minimal for race days, which creates some of my favorite cyclocross conditions: mud but no rain.

The Sven Nys GP at Baal was a great example of these conditions. It was muddy. Wet mud, heavy mud, forced to pedal downhill just to keep moving mud. But it wasn't raining. Perfect.

This mud I speak of, wasn't in play just for the riders. The spectators must deal with it, too. The spectator area outside the party tent at Baal was ankle-deep slop. But this didn't stop thousands from attending. If you come to a cyclocross race in these parts, you know what you're in for. Nobody is showing up surprised by the conditions.

I have the same waterproof hiking boots I've taken to every event for years. They are US14 or 49 for you Euros, and they take up half of my luggage. Between the boots and the coffee kit, I have little room left for clothes. I also wear rainpants on sunny days. Just because the sky is sunny doesn't mean the ground is dry. And the secret to race photography is getting low. Prone, even. Not having wet pants and a soggy butt makes for a much more enjoyable workday.

But back to sensible footwear, not everyone has it. There is a segment of spectators (most of them in their teens) who make a choice. This isn't a mistake; it's a choice. And that choice is to show up in their trainers, mostly white ones, like some nice Nike Dunks or the equivalent. And in an amazing display of agility and vigilance, they keep these kicks more or less clean throughout the day. I became fixated on watching these magical people traverse the venue with deft steps and calculated paths to keep the shoes pristine. On the other hand, I'm like a kid who loves playing in the rain, stomping through puddles without a care. It's a very American look.

New Year's Day was my first time to Baal. The track has a lot of elevation, with the cycling center sitting atop a hill and the track running around it. I was talking to one of the broadcast camera operators from the area, and he told me that the grounds used to be a motocross course and the downhill whoops section is the last remaining feature from those days.

Along with the whoops, I spent a lot of time at the water feature at the venue's absolute lowest and most remote corner. With large, soupy mud puddles concealing hidden potholes, this section was tricky. Easy enough if you chose the right line, but pick an unlucky route, and you'd lose your front wheel in a hidden divot. I don't think the feature impacted the racing, but it made for some good photos.

Along with challenging the riders with elevation changes, multiple line choices and various mud types, Baal was also fun to shoot. Many different angles and hidden nooks and crannies that weren't places fans congregated made for a fun day out.

Media Center Rating:

Baal: The press room was in a large heated temporary building constructed track-side. The location allowed easy access to the finish line and the mud sections. Coffee, bottled water, veggie sub sandwiches and beer, Sven and his crew do it right. A+. No notes.

Postscript to Hulst:

Kudos to the Zonhoven race organization and the Belgian press liaison. Following the interaction between a photographer and spectators, which I talked about in my last entry, we received word before the Zonhoven World Cup that there would be dedicated photo spots available at Sunday’s race, and they would be staffed by stewards to keep spectators out of the areas.

A day after Loenhout, we were back at it with an 80-minute drive from Scherpenheuvel to Hulst, Netherlands, for round 11 of the UCI Cyclocross World Cup. This was the second time I've been to the Hulst World Cup.

If you missed the first installment of the Kerstperiode Notebook covering Diegem and Loenhout, it is here.

In a confusing bit of calendar shuffling, Hulst happened twice in 2022: once in January and once in November. The January 2022 version of Hulst happened while lockdown protocols were still in place in the Netherlands. The November 2022 version, like this year's version, was open to the public, and the public showed up. I was previously at the January ‘22 version.

Photographing the Kerstperiode at the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022, during the pandemic, brought a bit of cognitive dissonance. It was a low-energy affair. Without the crowds that mean so much to the sport bringing the place to life, the race-day environment lacked that spark a typical Kerstperiode race brings. On the other hand, it was really easy to shoot because the absence of spectators meant you could get everywhere in the venue and get there quickly.

It's a no-brainer that the return of crowds and any hassles that may accompany them greatly outweigh a worldwide pandemic and sport without spectators. Just look at these two photos taken from the same spot two years apart.

Or these along the windmill descent.

The energy and electricity from the spectators during this year's Kerstperiode have been amazing. These are the biggest crowds I've seen, and I love it. But I think that once spectators were allowed to attend races again, working photographers lost out in ways that may not be obvious from the outside.

The most significant change is new limitations on access for credentialed photographers. This is happening at most races, but I'll use Hulst as an example. In the past, a race like Hulst had designated photo zones. These were marked on the course map and in the event's technical guide. In the venue, the organizers taped off restricted sections and often had stewards assigned to keep non-credentialed people out of those areas.

For Hulst, the off-camber that takes riders from the front of the course to the back was media only. Also, the right side of the run-up had been reserved for photographers, as well as the pond side of the track leading up to the run-up. There was also a small photo pit on the off-camber near the start. For this year, none of these media-only sections existed.

The only place where photographers could go without crowd interference was on top of the run-up, inside the barriers. As a practice, I hate being on the course, but when the setup gives you no other options, and the organizers allow it, you take what you can get. And even this was a self-policing area with more than one fan deciding they could go on course to get a shot for themselves.

You may have seen at Hulst that spectators shoved a photographer into the pond, and his camera gear was destroyed. I don't know what led to that moment, but it was 100 percent avoidable and should have never ended as it did with over $15,000 in damaged gear. The part of the track where the shove occurred had been off-limits to the public in the past. It's dangerous for more than a few people and not a place that spectators need to go.

After the race, I was told that a conversation had already occurred between the series organization and the press liaison. I hope that this incident, as unfortunate as it was, will be the catalyst for bringing back photo-only sections at venues, making it possible for photographers to do their jobs and spectators to enjoy the race simultaneously.

Much like improved infrastructure would address many problems between drivers and cyclists, improved logistical planning and infrastructure changes at races will help the interactions between media and spectators.

I didn't set out to spend 500 words on this topic, but sometimes you just go where your fingers take you. I do want to stress that I'm not complaining here. I got the shots I needed and some others I liked. Part of the challenge of shooting races is figuring out how to do it with these massive crowds. It's a puzzle that we enjoy trying to solve. And even if we never see the return of the photo-only sections, any day shooting a cyclocross race is still 1000 times better than shooting a gravel race.

Press Center Rating:

Hulst: The media room is fine. It's large, well-lit, indoors, and they had coffee and some sandwiches. There was no vegetarian option, but there was a tuna salad-type sandwich that was pretty good. The downside is that the press center is a 1.5k walk from the venue. I love walking, but a press room far from the venue has diminished value. I went there in the morning to pick up my photo vest and grab some food. I went back at the event's end to return my vest and snag some more food. Grade: B-

Here's a travel tip: Christmas time in Belgium is not a heavily sought-after vacation destination on Air BnB. For instance, you can get a sweet-looking loft apartment on the Paterberg for $93 a night. I will go out on a limb and speculate that if you wanted that same place the last weekend in March (the weekend of The Tour of Flanders), it would be much more. This is all to say that as big as cyclocross and Kerstperiode may be in Belgium; spectators are mostly homegrown. Good rentals are a bargain and readily available.

After several years of traveling to Belgium during winter and staying in the old USA Cycling road team apartments in Izegim, technically called the Belgian Cycling House, I wanted to branch out and find a place more convenient for the Kerstperiode races. That place was Scherpenheuvel-Zichem, a small city in the Flemish Brabant province. It's about 45 minutes East of Brussels, and If you're a hardcore road cycling fan, you may know it as the host of the opening stage of the 2023 Baloise Belgium Tour.

We arrived in Belgium on the morning of Superprestige Zolder. Grabbed a rental van, packed a few CXD Trek Bikes gear and riders into it and headed to our makeshift HQ. We didn't make it to Zolder, despite it being 25 minutes away, but instead made the smart decision to call it a day and let the jet lag do its thing. Racing would come soon enough, however, with the insanity that is the Superprestige Diegem less than 24 hours away.

Diegem is part hilly criterium, part urban cyclocross race, and all an excuse to have the rowdiest party under the lights and in the shadows of Brussels International Airport. The Diegem track can be broken down into three tiers. The lowest level is a public park with football fields and that nasty off-camber feature you know well if you've ever watched this race. The middle level is more of a transition tier. An uphill flyover and a significant cobbled climb leads into a bridge over some train tracks. This middle sector is the same on the way back down: more streets, an alley or two and some high-speed, dimly lit descending. The highest tier is a short, wooded section, a sand pit, and planks all smashed together in an "oh crap, we need to make sure this looks like cyclocross" bit of course design. It's unique, challenging, and the biggest drunken spectacle this side of a Lost Frequencies set at Tomorrowland.

The best part of Diegem is that despite all the craziness and the peculiar track setup, the racing is spectacular. Possibly powered by the sheer volume and enthusiasm of the crowd, riders come into Diegem motivated for the win. The worst part, on a personal level, is that it is nearly impossible to photograph. It's more like a gravel race in that you may get one opportunity to get a shot, so make it count.

This is not a complaint, however. Unless the race organization starts handing out jetpacks to photographers, there isn't much that can change. The sidewalks are jam-packed, and if you want to shoot the sand and the finish, you better do the former on lap one if you hope to get to the latter for the last lap because you're looking at a 30-minute journey to go about three city blocks.

Thankfully, for me, my photo work was light at Diegem. CXD had three riders in the women's race; shooting them was my only assignment, and that was plenty.

I secured a spot on the off-camber for lap one of the women's race with mixed results. I then worked my way to the sand to shoot the leaders on the final lap. Other than that, I think this shot of the men's junior race during the gloaming may be my favorite from the race.

We took off after the women's race to ensure we arrived home before midnight. With a lot of racing ahead, there was no point in staying out all night on day two of the trip.

The next day, I headed to Loenhout for Azencross with fellow Bulletin contributor Ethan Glading. None of the riders or teams I usually work with were racing Loenhout, which allowed me to shoot a race just for the heck of it. It's been a while since I did this, and it allowed me to do things I usually can't do, like sit in the warm media center while Ethan shot the junior men's race in a downpour. I also had the opportunity to take my time, find different shots, and not worry about cameras or deadlines. It turned out to be a nice day, too. There was no rain (other than for the junior men's race), a little sun, and a lot of mud. For me, those are ideal cyclocross conditions.

We also got to see Sanne Cant win a race, and Mathieu van der Poel continue to destroy the souls of his fellow competitors mercilessly.

That about does it for the first few days of the trip. I will stop there because Substack gets mad if your posts are too long. I'll be back with some thoughts from the next few races, including a look back at the January 2022 version of the Hulst World Cup, that took place during lockdown, and the 2023 version. But before I go, here are my initial grades for the Kerstperiode media rooms.

Press Room Ratings:

Diegem: A bit removed from the venue, but not too far away. There were no drinks or food, but they did have coffee and some cookies and waffles. I'll go B-.

Loenhout: Right on the course. Kitchen on site serving soup and sandwiches. And, amazingly, they had vegetarian sandwiches. It's a solid A. Would recommend.