Matt Shriver

World Cup in Zolder was a shocker

I wanted to get some pictures from someone before I posted the report from the World Cup on the 26th, but I couldn’t find any of the Americans that I could post. Anyway, I will give you the run down of the race.
First off the atmosphere was insanely huge. The weather was cold and clear with 20,000 spectators and that is a conservative estimate. These people are crazy for cross. It is all very confusing while you are waiting in the start grid for your call up. I had no idea that my call up was coming, but knew that I would be towards the back. It’s crazy that in the US my call up is either first or 2nd row, but here I am 2nd to last row. I waited and finally heard my call up and rolled to the back of the start grid. I think there were roughly 68 starters. All of them the countries best. I am not sure how many countries were in the race but I am guessing probably between 15-20 nationalities. There were 8 Americans that were able to start and it goes by the UCI points that you earn all year.
The course in Zolder was really awesome and well designed. They design each course over here so that you can watch the entire race play out on t.v. and it is live on the Belgian Sports channels. It started on a formula one track with 500 meters of pavement and jumped into some flat sweeping turns. Then onto more pavement that went up into some sandy hills before dropping down some steep rutted out chutes, the right back up into the woods. The wooded sections were awesome. Very wide with trees in them, something that never happens in the US. Basically they just put tape through the woods and you have at it. There was one other burly technical drop in. The ruts were frozen and it was straight down with a hard left at the bottom. This was the most challenging and dangerous part of the course. It was also the most watched by spectators waiting for the carnage. The run up was straight up, very hard to actually run up. In fact, Jeremy Powers fell backwards is what I have heard from Wells. That is steep!
The race went alright for me but wasn’t my best. The legs felt a little slow and I lacked the snap from racing allot. Hoping that it will come back around here as I am racing every other day. I hung in there and fought through the traffic. It is hard to move up when the guys are so strong. One thing I was surprised with was that the technical skills are not as good as in America. Or they save energy for other sections, but guys kept getting off in uphill corners that were totally ridable. I could ride past them without much effort. It was weird. But that same guy on the flats or straight away was like following a motorcycle. So fast and just hang on for your life.
At one point I actually was confused as to what was going on. The crowd was never really loud. They only cheer for the leaders or boo the guy they don’t want to win. I was in no mans land for awhile and thought that they pulled everyone behind me. Then I saw a group coming and thought I was about to get lapped. They are so fast over here. Turned out it was a group in between just chasing me down. I jumped in there and stuck it out to the finish.
I was not disappointed with my ride, but know I can do better. After having a good taste of what it is like, the results should get better with some good fast, fun , racing with no mishaps. I ended up 41st and 5th American. I was only 3:51 down on the winners which to me is crap. But I guess to do your first World Cup and finish on the same lap as the leaders, this is a good race.
Now I am preparing for the Supreprestige in Diegem in Belgium just outside of Brussells. Supposedly you can watch it live on this internet site http://www.sport.be/nl/wielrennen/veldrijden/article.html?Article_ID=330595. This is supposed to be a great classic race in Belgium. I am excited to race. It will be under the lights with a 5:30pm start and really freaking cold as it is just 30 degrees out right now.
I’m psyched and the hunt for a spot at World Championships is still right on track. Thanks, hope to have some good pictures and an update from tonight for you tomorrow.

Flander's Neutral Peugot

Posted in: Just Squawking

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 28th, 2008 at 6:23 am and is filed under Just Squawking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.