Friday, August 26, 2011

CXpreX Ann Arbor

 
Placings in the PrepRaces
Just thought I'd let you know who placed in the top 5 in the A and B races last night and top 3 women (I forgot to mention this during the swag session). 

B top 5
1.Rick Morris 2.David Zeman 3.Ryan McKinnie 4.Randy Arellano 5.Jay Ellis

A top 5 
1.Rich Stark 2.Andy Weir 3.Richard Rainville 4.Ken O'Day 5.Will Cawthorn...

Women top 3 
1.Wendy Caldwell 2.Adrienne O'Day 3.Anna Edmonds. 

Way to go gang!

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne 2011

Live Stream
Sunday, February 27, 2011
8:30am EST

Be There!


Sporza
Live Stream
Channel 3
Channel 5
Channel 8

Veemi Live Stream

Start List

Past Winners/Podiums


If all goes haywire, check out Cycling Fans to see if they have any ideas about where to go.

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad 2011

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad Live Stream
Sporza
Channel 3
Channel 5
Channel 6
Channel 7

Course Layout PDF


List of Racers/Teams

Cold, rainy, Belgium on a winter's day. Perfect!
Spring Classics. Enjoy.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Oostmalle & the GVA Final CX

Telenet Fidea vs. Sven Nys

Looking back! Notice all the Telenet Fidea jerseys.

I'm going to work on my Flemish for next year. I know that Pauwels was having a couple of serious bike problems out there, but all I could do was look at his frustrated gesticulations with no clarifying commentary to fill in the gaps. He'd stopped to fix the bike in one of the early laps, and then, in the last lap his arm went up after he vainly tried to fend off an attack by Nys, and Pauwel's pit stop shortly thereafter was an indication of bike malfunction. Otherwise it would have been foolish to change bikes at such a crucial moment in the race.


But what a race, huh? Telenet Fidea against Nys, basically. And the indomitable Nys came out on top. What a cap to a great season for one of the legends of the sport. He never ceases to amaze.

When Pauwels struggled, for whatever reason, to stay at the front of the bike race in the early laps, the wily Nys accelerated in an attempt to create enough of a gap to make it race over with seven to go. But the chips were all in Pauwels favor in the form of his teammates either working to rein Nys in, or to draft Pauwels back into the race.

It was primarily Stybar trying to get in front of Nys to slow him down, or Wellens (with a touch of Meeusen and Peeters) carving clean lines and blocking the wind in order to allow Pauwels to recover enough to get back to the front. And it worked!
When Pauwels got back on Nys's wheel with still half of the race to go, it looked like Nys had burnt himself out and Pauwels was just starting to get charged up, but lap after lap the two stayed together.

Celebration!

When Albert took off no one cared because he had no affect on the overall standings. Albert's impact was more on Wellens with a fourth or fifth place GVA overall, not the podium. By the final lap, it was obvious that the Telenet Fidea guys were trying to figure out a way to temper Nys's fire and get their guy to the finish line first. Stybar in particular kept looking back, trying to find Pauwels so he could perhaps block Nys at a strategic moment, or lead Pauwels out in the inevitable sprint.

A somber Pauwels after the race getting support from Stybar.

But the sprint didn't happen. Something went haywire on Pauwels' bike and his detour into the pits ended his chances. Sven had time to savor his victory long before he got to the line. That takes nothing away from Pauwels, who rode a great race and was unfortunately beset by circumstances beyond his control.

Nys
Who else, with all that talent matched against him, could still pull off such a commanding victory? Nys may not have the all out firepower he had in his earlier years, but that's now replaced with cagy wisdom and it's making for some of the most exciting racing you'll ever want to see.


Overall GVA Results 2010-2011

There are a couple of interesting side notes to mention as well. Jonathan Page stormed off the start and rode hard with the leaders for the first few laps, dropping a short ways back for the rest of the race to finish in 11th place overall. And Bart Aernouts had one of the best races of his season with a second place finish. You always felt he had it in him, but for whatever reason he'd been far off the podium for most of the season.

Okay, it's on to the Spring Classics and another great year of bike racing in all its forms. It will be exciting to watch Lars Boom in the road races. I think he has a great chance for some high placings and wins in many races to come. It will be interesting as well to watch Zdenek Stybar branch off into other venues. A man of such great talents can't be held down. And next year in cyclocross the jerseys will be mixed around a bit with top racers on different teams. I'm looking forward to watching all of that unfold.

I only hope that we can get better television coverage of both international and domestic cyclocross racing here in the US. Or, at the very least, better--and more--live stream feeds.


CX is good. Keep up the support.

Screenshots courtesy Sporza

Friday, February 18, 2011

Cyclocross Livestream - Cauberg & GVA-Troffee Oostmalle

Cauberg Cyclocross
Saturday, February 19, 2011
9am EST

Channel 3
Channel 7
Channel 8
Awful feeds, unfortunately. The downside of live stream!

GVA-Troffee Oostmalle
Sunday, February 20, 2011

8:40am EST


Channel 3
Channel 7
Channel 8

This is the last weekend of CX for the year.
Spring classics are up next.

GVA Elite standings to date:
1 (1) Sven Nys Landbouwkrediet 150
2 (2) Kevin Pauwels Telenet Fidea Cycling Team 148
3 (3) Zdenek Stybar Telenet Fidea Cycling Team 138
4 (4) Niels Albert BKCP-Powerplus 116
5 (5) Bart Wellens Telenet Fidea Cycling Team 113
6 (6) Klaas Vantornout Sunweb Revor 108
7 (8) Tom Meeusen Telenet Fidea Cycling Team 75
8 (7) Bart Aernouts Rabo - Giant Offroad Team. 71
9 (10) Rob Peeters Telenet Fidea Cycling Team 65
10 (9) Enrico Franzoi BKCP-Powerplus 59
11 (13) Sven Vanthourenhout Sunweb Revor 55
12 (11) Gerben De Knegt Rabo - Giant Offroad Team. 52
13 (14) Dieter Vanthourenhout BKCP-Powerplus 44
14 (12) Philipp Walsleben BKCP-Powerplus 43
15 (15) Jan Denuwelaere Style & Concept Cycling Team 41
16 (16) Christian Heule Champion System LBS Team 28
17 (18) Jonathan Page Planet Bike 28
18 (17) Thijs Van Amerongen AA Drink Cycling Team 24
19 (26) Kenneth Van Compernolle Style & Concept Cycling Team 21
20 (19) Tom Van Den Bosch AA Drink Cycling Team 20

The battle is between Sven Nys and Keven Pauwels to take the overall. Nys has taken the overall for the past six years running. Can he do it again? (He's won 7 GVA's total.) Also, notice all those Belgian flags, especially in the top ten.

Women
1 (2) Sanne Cant BKCP-Powerplus 83
2 (4) Helen Wyman
72
3 (3) Daphny Van Den Brand ZZPR.NL 69
4 (1) Sanne Van Paassen Brainwash wielerploeg 60
5 (6) Pavla Havlikova APB cycling team 56
6 (7) Nikki Harris APB cycling team 53
7 (5) Sophie De Boer ZZPR.NL 48
8 (12) Marianne Vos
47
9 (8) Reza Hormes-Ravenstijn ZZPR.NL 46
10 (13) Hanka Kupfernagel
41

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Superprestige Middelkerke

Middelkerke
Saturday, February 12th
9:30am EST


Klaus Vantornout! Who'da thunk? Nice to see, though.

Live Stream
Channel 3
Channel 7
Channel 8


Superprestige

Top 5 in each race
Ruddervoorde 10.10.10
Stybar Aernouts Nys Chainel Wellens
Zonhoven 10.31.10
Stybar Pauwels Nys Aernouts Albert
Hamme-Zogge 11.14.10
Nys K.Vantornout Albert Wellens Peeters
Asper-Gavere 11.21.10
Nys Pauwels Albert Wellens Stybar
Gieten 11.28.10
Meeusen Simunek D.Vanthourenhout Nys Pauwels
Diegem 12.27.10
Albert Nys Stybar Peeters Wellens
Hoogstraten 2.6.11
Nys Albert Pauwels K.Vantornout D.Vanthourenhout
Middelkerke 2.12.11


Overall Standings to Date
Points Accrued (15 for 1st, 14 for 2nd, 13 for 3rd...)

97 Nys
78 Pauwels
75 Albert
74 Stybar
64 Wellens
49 Aernouts
47 Vantornout
44 Meeusen
41 de Knegt
35 Peeters

Nys has already won the series with 97 points. He doesn't even have to race Middelkerke. The closest to him is Pauwels and the best he can do is get 93 total points with a win.

The race is really on for the rest of the podium, which will be a battle among Pauwels, Albert, and Stybar, and, with a little luck, Wellens.

There are two racers from the USA in the top 25: Page at 21st and Johnson at 24th. Page has only received points in three races and Johnson in one. Interestingly, the official Superprestige website has given Johnson citizenship from Great Britain (unless there's another Timothy Johnson who is from GBR).

Friday, February 4, 2011

GVA-Troffee Lille & Superprestige Hoogstraten 2-5&6-11

GVA & Superprestige all in one weekend!

LIVE STREAM
Troffee Lille
Saturday, February 5th
8:40am EST

Hoogstraten
Sunday, February 6th
8:40am EST


Channel 3
Channel 7
Channel 8