A day at the races.
 

When Louisville, KY was selected as the host city for the World Cyclocross championships, I was excited. I had never attended a world championships in anything, and I bought tickets as soon as they went on sale.

I got the opportunity to volunteer and applied for a cushy job checking people's credentials. Little did I know I would be assigned to the Preatorian Guard, placed at the entrance to the inner sanctum of the UCI:

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Now this might not look like much, but when I allowed some stray Ostragoth through, I heard about it:

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I can now add a butt-chewing by none other than the UCI itself to my resume.

Good thing they didn't know about my Androgel.

After that no one got by without submitting to a cavity search:

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The Dutch did well and take their cyclocross seriously. Here is one of their stars being interviewed:

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The Belgians were also well represented:

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I stood guard for three out of four races. However, I was right by the Big Board and saw most of the action:

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The first race was the 17 and under men. Even at that age they were bunny-hopping the barriers. A Dutchman won, and a game Yank made a bold move for podium but came up short.

The women's elite was won by Olympian Mariana Voss. A pile up on the first lap took out 1/2 of the American team, including Georgia Gould. Katy Compton made a monster move and dropped everyone beside Voss for the silver.

The 23 and under was interesting, and I got to see the Move as it was right in front of me. A Duthman and Belgian were on each others wheel until they reached the pavement beginning the very last lap. The Belgian looked over his right shoulder. Unfortunately the Dutchman was on his left shoulder and kicked on the afterburners in a move that reminded me of Cavendish. You could see the Belgian's soul crushed, and the race was pretty much over at that point.

For the last race I finally got to leave my post for the starting line:

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In this race the Belgians won first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh. Ho hum.

No, it wasn't that lopsided.

I stood atop a very nasty and steep muddy hill, as it turns out, next to a very nice 50+ Belgian gent who knew everything about the sport.

Photos never quite capture the steepness:

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Amazingly a Frenchman opened up a huge lead early on.

"One Frenchman against four Belgians?", my new friend said. "They are only playing with him".

Indeed. In what seemed distinctly sadistic, the Belgians slowly caught up with him, rode his wheel for a bit, and summarily shelled his frog ass out.

Nys took the lead and wouldn't surrender it:

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x...ps300c38a2.jpg

Some other Belgian dude took second:

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A third Begian, Pawlets, would have podiumed but his rear der exploded, again right in front of me. He was very noble about it. Good sports, these Belgians.

My Belgian bud was very complimentary. "Very European, this course. Wonderfully horrible weather. Just what we wanted. The worse the weather, the better Nys rides."

The entire American team stopped at the Belgian beer-flavored SnoCone machine at the top of the stairs and was nowhere to be seen for the rest of the race.

One more thing. At the Kentucky Derby they have the call to to post played by the official trumpeter. Well, he was there:


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And that is how I spent my day.

:roflmao2:

Dudel, that was a GREAT Race Report!!!

Thanks for the great pix and race report. Damn I was really rooting for KfC!

Great report! Snow on the ground and bikes racing :eek: those are some tough dudes and dudettes. Well done on your volunteer effort.

Nice pics. Hopefully, you did not touch any racers or they touch you where you smear on your dope.:eek:

Meh. No report on the Omaha guy's win? How Eurocentric. :innocent:

http://www.cxmagazine.com/cx-male-ma...pionships-2013

Very nice pictures and a great report, Dudel, glad the weather was suitably bad for the Belgians. I am officially jealous of you now. Enjoy.

Thank you for the link to Cyclocross Magazine, Donn, that was a neat report about the Omaha masters rider winning. Bookmarked the page at its portal.

Bill

Great pics. Good job.

Nice photos, thanks for posting.

:thumb:

Very Cool!! Thanks for doing it, and reporting so well!

Other than the butt chewing, it looks like you had a fine day.

Nicely done. Now I can stay home and work on cleaning out the shop instead of driving down to L'ville for today's races.

Totally excellent race report, Dude. Very enjoyable; great pics. I'm amazed at what the XC riders put themselves through.

Here's a photo gallery from our paper: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/...nclick_check=1

Excellent write up !
I cant believe Im about 4 miles from the track and I missed this!!
#$%^ wTf :crash:

Off topic, sort of . . . Might you explain the categories to me please?
Can a 54 year old guy show up on a single speed bike and have a designated place?

TIA :)

^^^^^Dude^^^^^

Not to make you feel any worse, but you could have had my tickets. Once I had my credentials, I didn't need them.

It was quite an experience.

Two more things I didn't mention. When you took a position on the course where you couldn't see the rest of the course, it was an incredible sound to hear the crowd noise surge towards you as the racers, or as a favored racer such as any American, got nearer. And the crowd noise was loud and raucous.

There was a hill that spectators were trying to navigate that turned into a mud slide. There was almost as much cheering for people flying uncontrollably down on their butts as there was for the racers.

Most local racers sign up for the OVCX season late summer. I'm afraid you have to earn you palmares before you get to do an upper level race. I think any schmuck with a day license and a legal bike can do any of the open races, as long as you don't mind being pulled from the course for being DFL by the second lap.

Lucky!!!!

A couple of my favorite pictures from a local amateur. I believe these are for common use.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x...psadc7a816.jpg

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x...psb38c79e5.jpg

Too cute. The kid, that is.

:cry: :cry: :cry:

Im going to look into the day race stuff. I have a perfect donor bike, and wont mind the DFL stuff, wouldnt be the first time I was pulled out of something double dfl :lol:

Thanks again !

BTW, they have an SS category. Just put on the largest knobbies your frame and the regs allow, and you're off to the races.

Thanks for the great report & photos Dudelsack. I watched online all day Saturday. Great online coverage in HD. They are archived on youtube by the UCI. My wife & I may be in Poland next fall or Christmas & hope to go to Belgium & see Nys race in the rainbow jersey. I was pulling for him on Saturday. Within the next year or two, it may be hard for any of the Belgiums to beat the little Dutchman, Lars Van Der Haar.

At the 2012 Worlds, the Belgium Elite Men did actually place 1 - 7.

Dudel,
Who won the women's WC title for the elite women?

Bill

A day at the races.
 

Mariana Vos. Kate Compton second.