It’s January and for me, for years, that meant one thing: cyclocross. Riding through mud, jumping over barriers, running up stairs, it was all part of the post-holiday routine.
And while on the worst days ‘cross can be uniquely painful and make you question the whole bike racing thing not to mention your own sanity, most of my memories are of the best kind. Good friends, cold beer and cow bells, lots of cow bells.
Unfortunately, they don’t do ‘cross in the mountains. There’s plenty of it down on the front range in places like Denver and Boulder but up here in the high country, no. When there are snow-covered mountains outside your window, folks around here turn to skiing and other winter sports.
And while I would argue that cyclocross IS a winter sport, I’m in the minority around here. So these days I scratch my weird Eurocentric cycling itch with YouTube.
Much to my enjoyment, there are more cyclocross videos available than ever. Say what you will about the UCI, but even they have gotten on the bandwagon with their own YouTube channel, including live streams of races from around the world.
When it comes to cyclocross at the highest level, Wout van Aert is the man. He started his 2024/25 season with back-to-back races the first weekend of January.
Check out his race at Gullegem. He goes from starting on the third row to third place after the first two turns, then rides a tactically brilliant race for the win.
And Dendermonde, where he slogged his way to a well-deserved victory in conditions I’m sure would have warranted a cancellation for any race I’ve ever done. Just another day in Belgium.
Women’s start at 9:40; men’s start at 1:40:00.
It would have been interesting to see how these would have played out if Mathieu Van Der Poel had been there but apparently, he has been sidelined with an injury.
In any case, it’s great to be able to see the pros ply their skills from the comforting glow of my computer screen rather than the cold Belgian rain. A lot less muddy too.
As I read someone somewhere comment: “Always be yourself unless you can be Wout van Aert, then always be Wout van Aert.”