(exciting music and race starting tones)
- Welcome back to the GCN Racing News Show.
This week, have you ever felt
like you're going nowhere fast?
Well that's exactly how the competitors felt
at the Dutch National Headwind Championships on Saturday.
We've got that plus the latest round
of the Brico Cross from Essen,
and the Car Park Cannon Ball Race
from Christchurch in New Zealand.
Plus all the other major news in pro cycling.
They don't have many hills, the Dutch,
but they do have a lot of wind.
Even so, the Dutch Headwind Championships has no fixed date,
instead, being put on when the forecast looks good enough,
or bad enough, depending on how you want to look at it.
And it was bad enough on Saturday for it to take place
in the Zeeland region of the Netherlands,
on a flat road they call Dutch Mountain,
right by the sea, on a road that's about as exposed
as you can get on a day when flights
and sailings were canceled due to wind gusts
of 127 kilometers per hour, nutters.
There are three key rules
to the Dutch Headwind Championships.
Number one, wind speed must be at least
seven Beaufort, which is over 50 kilometers per hour.
Number two, competitors have to ride
eight and a half kilometers into that wind,
and number three, they have to do so
on a standard Dutch town bike.
Sounds like one for lasty, if you ask me.
In fact, shall we have a pain and suffering compilation,
before I tell you the results?
Yeah, okay.
(heavy rock music)
That looks grim, doesn't it?
The concept arose in 2013 through Robrecht Stoekenbroek,
who says that almost every Dutch man and woman
has endured a kind of trauma in their lives,
through cycling to school into a block headwind.
And so, he decided to recreate that trauma
with these Championships, which are now in their fifth year.
Over 300 riders took part on the day.
The men's winner was Max de Jong
in a time of 18 minutes and 16 seconds,
which is a pretty impressive average speed
of 28 kilometers per hour,
whilst Lisa Scheenaard won the women's
in an equally impressive 20 minutes and 28 seconds.
The best team was Team Nooitstop,
but I must say well done to everyone who took part.
What a savage event, although the ride back
must be quite nice.
Over to the mud now, and with the big guns
Mathieu Van Der Poel and Wout Van Aert
on a mid-season training camp, the races were wide open
in the Cyclocross world at the weekend.
At the Brico Cross on Saturday in Essen,
it was Laurens Sweeck who took advantage,
coming home 19 seconds to the good of fellow Belgian
Gianni Vermeersch, with David Van Der Poel in 3rd place.
In the women's event, Maud Kaptheijns
took her first victory in over a year,
14 seconds ahead of Lucinda Brand.
Brand, though, would get her own back the following day,
at the 81st edition of the Vlaamse Druivencross,
which is described as the Mother of All Cross Races.
That win came despite three crashes on the muddy course.
Each time, she had to chase back to Nikki Brammeier.
Her deficit eight seconds at the bell,
but on the final lap she got everything right
and eventually finished with 11 seconds
to spare over the Brit.
Ellen Van Loy had briefly led on the first lap,
but then twisted her knee in a nasty looking crash,
her team saying that she'd bruised some ligaments
and will remain in hospital overnight for checks.
We of course wish her all the best in her recovery.
In the men's event there, World Cup leader
Toon Aerts continued his stellar season,
winning with a comfortable half minute advantage
over Michael Vanthourenhout.
The mud, though, continues this weekend
with the next round of the DVV Trophy on Saturday
and then the Superprestige coming on Sunday,
both of which are live here on GCN
and both of which will have commentary
from the one, the only, Tom Last.
I know a lot of you have been missing him,
so make sure you tune into that on our Facebook page.
In other racing news, Annemiek van Vleuten
was honored by the Dutch Sport Minister Bruno Bruins
last week after her courageous ride
to a top 10 placing at the World Championships,
which she did with a fractured tibia.
Thoroughly deserved, I'd say.
And van Vleuten is the queen of comebacks,
since she faces yet another long road to recovery
right now, after that crash.
A few teams have been unveiling their 2019 jerseys.
This is what Boels-Dolmans will be wearing.
A slightly different shade of orange,
and a bit more black than previous years.
Team Ketusha's shorts have remained almost the same,
but their jersey has completely changed
to a turquoise blue, which should be
relatively easy to spot in the bunch,
whilst Lotto Soudal's kit looks comfortably familiar,
although there is a little bit more white
than there was this year.
Incidentally, that Belgian squad has just signed
the cross-country former mountain bike World Champion
Annika Langvad, and watch out for her
in the hillier races next year.
Meanwhile, former tour and Giro Stage winner
Ramunas Navardauskas will swap jerseys completely.
He's just confirmed that he'll move
from Bahrain-Merida to Delko Marseille next year.
Meanwhile, Dani Rowe has announced
that she is retiring from competitive cycling altogether.
I must admit I was a little bit surprised about that one,
as she's had her best ever season on the road,
however, it is on the track
where she's achieved her major successes,
with three world titles and an Olympic gold.
Not a bad haul, just 28 years of age.
There's been some good news for the Drops Women's Team,
whose crowdfunding campaign has been successful enough
to see them continue into 2019,
despite losing Trek, their main sponsor,
who will have their own women's team next year.
And finally, Geraint Thomas has ended speculation
that he may go back to the unfinished business
he has with the Giro d'Italia next year,
while revealing that his main aim will be
to defend his Tour de France title.
It's going to be very interesting
to see how things play out at Team Sky next year,
because you'd also imagine, a fifth tour title
will be Chris Froome's number one goal.
Right, we shall bookend today's Racing News Show
with another interesting event,
which is brutal for a completely different reason.
The Car Park Cannon Ball
over in Christchurch, New Zealand.
So each category has 32 riders,
who go head to head in pairs as they race up
eight floors of a multi-story car park,
which means that if you want to get to the final,
you'll be doing the climb five times.
Unfortunately for us roadies, it appears that
the mountain bikers were showing us
how it's done over there, in fact,
they filled the first two spots
in the men's event with 16-year-old Jacob Turner
getting the better of Cameron Kay.
Kay, incidentally, was competing on flat pedals
and in baggy clothes, having just taken
the child seat off his bike the day before.
It was a decent lineup too, in the men's event,
with last year's Zwift Academy winner
Ollie Jones also taking part.
Donna Head successfully defended her title
in the women's geared event, and I have to say,
that does look like a lot of fun.
All proceeds from the event go towards
men's health and Movember, so it's well worth
supporting next year if you're in the area.
Okay, that's all for this week's Racing News Show.
Don't forget to set a reminder on Facebook
for the live Cross Event on GCN this weekend.
I'll be back tomorrow with Si on the GCN Show,
so we hope to have your company then.
Before then, though, if you can't get enough
of your Cyclocross at the moment,
why not check out how Emma got on her first ever
Cyclocross race, by clicking just down here.