2011 CX World Championships Sankt Wendel

Sankt Wendel 2011
Under 23 and Juniors
Saturday, January 29th
Juniors @ 5am EST
U-23 @ 8am EST

Elite Men & Women
Sunday, January 30th
Women @ 5am EST
Men @ 8am EST

Channel 3
Channel 7
Channel 8
Channel 9

Junior Final
He may be fourth overall in the World Cup, but Clement Venturini is the World Champion in the Junior level for 2011. In fact, it was a French sweep of the podium with the Doubey brothers Fabien and Loic taking 2nd and 3rd. Laurens Sweeck, the Junior WC Champ had to settle for 5th, and Jakob Skala of the Czech Republic took 4th.

Venturini broke away from the pack to lead by about 14 seconds, then he nearly ruined his gap with a slip on a slick off-camber in the last lap that had him tied up in the fencing. That was after a fall in the previous lap as his front wheel smacked down on a greasy turn. Even with these struggles, he still won by a wide margin over the Doubeys, who themselves won with a good buffer over the rest of the chasers.

(photo courtesy Sporza livestream)
van der Haar takes it!

U-23 Final
Whew! That was a good tight race. Any one of about 12 or 13 guys could have had the world champion's jersey right down to the last lap. And Danny Summerhill (USA) was one of them. He finished 13th, but was riding with or near the contenders throughout. Very impressive.

(photo courtesy Sporza livestream)
This was the tough spot for everyone.

It was actually an odd situation where Mike Teunissen (NED) gapped the pack by a wide margin with half a lap to go and barring a fall looked like the sure winner, but his own teammate, Tijmen Eising, reeled him in with another teammate, Lars van der Haar, on his wheel and Karel Hnik (CZE) right there as well. In the final stretch, Eising faded, van der Haar opened up a lead, and Teunissen and Hnik sprinted for second, with Teunissen taking it, and van der Haar winning overall.

(photo courtesy Sporza livestream)
This isn't mud, it's grease!

That gives the World Cup winner, van der Haar, the World Champion jersey as well. Great nail biter of a finish.

Elites
Pick your favorite.
Albert, Stybar, Pauwels, Nys, Vantornout, Meeusen, Chainel, Mourey, Walsleben?
Compton, Vos, Kupfernagle, van Paassen, Nash, Cant, Ferrand Prevot, Ferrier-Bruneau?

This should be good. And if you want to get a preview of the up and coming stars in cyclocross, watch on Saturday morning where you'll see the Juniors and the U-23 battling it out. Keep in mind, Albert, Stybar and Boom only rose into the Elite ranks in the past few years. They were the hotshots in these younger groups not long ago.

Then, get up early on Sunday for the women. The rare moments that the women are televised is at 4am on the Universal Channel (295 on my TV) and I'm not usually up at that hour for much of anything. But it happens on occasion. There's never a commentary, just crowd noises and the cameras following the leaders.

But 5am is possible and since these are the World Championships, and if we're lucky, they'll commentate on this one. Even if they don't, it will be worth watching. The top women are excellent CX'ers and it will be fun to see if Compton powers away from the pack or if the others are tired of her winning ways and able to match her skills.

Hang around until 8 and watch the wheel wrangling among the men. Albert's on a roll, but this might not be his course or his day. That's part of the fun of CX. The top guys have been passing it back and forth all year. It will be interesting to watch who brings their A game to this one.

Great weekend for CX! Get up early, put on your helmet, clip into the pedals, aim your computer screen at the handlebars, and spin along with the best. You're there!