I woke up early, 4 am. to watch the Junior World Championships in cyclocross. I was interested to see how well the young kids negotiate the sand. Also, I wanted to watch to see if Adrie Van der Poel’s son, Mathieu, could win as the all out favorite. Plus, my friend, Thomas Frischknecht has a son, Andri, who was racing too.

After watching the race, I’m not sure it is such a great course for a World Championship. I know that it has been used for decades for cyclo-x and is famous, but there is just too much sand too early in the race. Too much sand in general if you ask me. If I was anyone lining up more than 3 or 4 rows back, I wouldn’t even bother starting. The race is going to be over for them less than a minute into the event. It was chaos for the junior men and there weren’t that many of them.

Mathieu Van der Poel rode an excellent race. I don’t think he had his A game on and still won. Or maybe he just isn’t as good in the sand as the Belgium riders. The Belgian, Wout van Aert, rode excellent too. He led early got caught, regrouped and separated himself from the group to finish 2nd alone, less than 10 seconds back. I think on a different day with a different mindset, he could have won that race. He seemed pretty happy to finish 2nd, making me think that he had already given 1st to Van de Poel.

Since I’m up, I’m going to watch the U23 race at 8 am CST. I’m watching it on Belgium TV here. I’m hoping Zach McDonald has a good race and finishes in the top 10. He has been having a stellar season and deserves to finish it off on a high note.

I spent 15 hours or so on the roof Thursday and am pretty much finished with it. I’m getting some drip edge bent and after I put that on, it’s done. Everything went pretty seamless. No problems, even though the wind was gusting over 30 mph when we were laying the rubber. I think I have the process down well enough that I can do it in about any wind, but you never know. I think I’ve went up and down the ladder at least 300 times the last few days. Usually carrying something heavy either up or down. My calves are toast. Someone left this kind of pointed message on my facebook page – “Just think if u have to work all year long like the rest of us. Would u still race?” I wrote back, yes I would, but that I don’t think think there are any professional cyclists that are also professional, full time, roofers anywhere on this planet. I might be wrong in this, but I’m pretty sure no one could juggle both jobs.

The weather here in Kansas is supposed to be stellar the next few days. In the 50’s over the weekend and then in the lower 60’s most of next week. I’m hopefully going to get in some big, slow miles.

Mathieu van der Poel winning today in Belgium. He was pretty emotional crossing the line.

Trudi and Bill putting on the last of the flashing.

It turned out pretty good, no wrinkles.

I don’t know if you got a chance to watch the U23 Worlds this morning, but if you didn’t you missed a very good bicycle race. I’m still not big on the course. There aren’t that many places in the world where we race 1/4 of a race in sand. The single line in the sand makes the start much too important. But that is cross.

I’ve been looking for the video of the last lap, but haven’t located it yet. The last lap was crazy exciting. 2 Dutch riders and 1 Belgian. From watching on the computer, the Belgium guy, Wietse Bosmans couldn’t have done anything more to lose the race. He didn’t lead into the sand section he was gapping the two Dutch riders on. And then within a stone throw of the finish, when the defending U23 Champion, Lars Van Der Haar, dabbed, Bosmans made the pass when Lars was dismounted and then didn’t attack. He looked back a couple times and sort of waited for Lars to catch back on. He then just let the Dutchman pass him 50 meters before the final corner, less than 200 meters from the finish. He got smoked in the sprint. It was 45 seconds that Wieste is going to remember for a very long time. I feel bad for him.

I wonder how thrilled Bart Wellens is going to be watching the cross worlds tomorrow. He had his house raided looking for drugs last week, but the authorities only took his computer. He’s been under investigation since before his near death experience before the Belgium Nationals a couple weeks ago. He says he’s not stressed about it. The original cause of the liver, heart, kidney failure was “clearly due to a bacterial viral infection” according to his personal doctor, Peter T. Seyen, said after the scare. Now the answer is that he had a tooth ache. I love it when the explanations just keep coming and changing. I’m lucky I didn’t spend a week in intensive care for my tooth the last month. You know those Belgians and their teeth. Sounds pretty plausible to me. If it doesn’t to you, then go with the viral infection explanation.

Tomorrow’s race is going to be great. I assume that Marianne Vos is going to win the women’s race easily. She has made that last few races look like child’s play. The Elite men are a different story. Like I stated above, the start is going to be crucial. I think that it is going to between the 4 guys that have won nearly every race this year. Dah. I am having a hard time choosing between Stybar and Albert. I would like to see Nys win, but he doesn’t have such a good record at the end of January. And Kevin Pauwels just isn’t World Champion material yet. He’ll have a good race, but he doesn’t ride with passion in my opinion. So, I’m going to go with Albert, then Stybar, Nys, then Rob Peters. I think Albert is the best in the sand when he has power. Stybar is going to be motivated, but it is in Belgium. Okay, we’ll see tomorrow. Don’t miss it. Cyclingfans.com is the link. Women at 4 am CST and Men at 8 am CST.

Lars Van Der Haar winning over Wietse Bosmans in U23 Worlds.

My pick for tomorrow, Niels Albert, doing his thing in the sand.

Bart bounced back from this crash but not so fast from a bad tooth. He does have 31% liver function now though.