NIEL (Belgium) – It takes just a few seconds to understand that you are in another dimension. A look at the crowds, a glance at the route, the presence of giant screens and vans selling beer, chips, and sandwiches: cyclocross in Belgium is truly something else.
If you then wander around the parking lot reserved for the elite, things change again. We're not at the level of a road race, partly because the requirements are different, but there are campers and motorhomes galore. And the big names all have their own personalized vehicle: one for each, that's the rule.
Niel hosts the Jaarmarktcross, third test of the super prestige. Practically everyone is there. The three "big boys" (Pidcock, Van Aert, and Van der Poel) are missing, but only because they'll be performing on a different schedule. And even among the women, the music is pretty much the same.
Alvarado: easy, easy…
And let's start with the girls. The favorite was Celyn Alvarado and Celyn Alvarado won. His success was never in doubt. After the first pass through the sand, the only place where he wasn't leading, the Dutchman created a clean sweep.
Just before the girls' start It rained heavily and the route, already burdened by ten days of almost incessant rain, worsened further. Very few could manage the 60 percent downhill hill in the saddle, much less the "Niel Wall" uphill.
The problem with that glide, besides the mud and the slope, was the "swamp" at the bottom. It consisted of mud at least 20-25 centimeters deep. Imagine a girl losing a shoe while walking across it! Then we dismounted and, once at the base of the ramp, we ran. All this while the crowd was increasingly cheering and, let's face it, getting tipsy from all the beer.
“It was a really hard cross,” Alvarado said. The trail was very slippery and you couldn't really see where you were going. Sometimes you also needed luck. Alone right away? That wasn't the tactic. But it allowed me to take my time and not take excessive risks."
She may not have taken any risks, but if you consider that she, who was the first to climb, in some sections even held on with the hand that wasn't holding the bike on her shoulder, you can understand the difficulty of the situation.
Iserbyt measuring
We barely had time to figure things out, and then the men appeared. The difference in speed was incredible. Different noises as they passed us. Different breathing.
The men's race was more tense. Much more tense. Thanks above all to Eli Iserbyt and Joris Nieuwenhuis, for a Belgium-Netherlands duel that's always a hot one around here. And indeed, the cheering was loud.
The two open up a good gap, but it takes them at least two full laps. Behind him, like an ant, the surprising Spaniard Felipe Orts rose up, and at the end he too was applauded.
Iserbyt warmed up on the road. The rollers were ready, but seeing the sun he preferred to pedal freely. Nieuwenhuis, on the other hand, like his entire team, Baloise-Trek-Lions He preferred the rollers. Everyone expected a three-way battle between Nys, Vanthourenhout, and Iserbyt, but none of that happened.
Nys seemed very tense to us: before the start he seemed closed in on himself. However, he finished the race, more than 7 minutes behind. He made a mistake in a technical section at the beginning. He lost a lot of positions and crashed. While Vanthourenhout, he retired. But those who know him say he'll redeem himself tomorrow.
Matter of centimeters
Finally, in the most technical section, the rider of the Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal he got the better of it. We are quite convinced that height also had an impact. Also because, as Iserbyt himself said, he doesn't like mud very much when there's so much of it. On this very slippery track, The Belgian's much shorter levers and lower center of gravity prevailed over Nieuwenhuis' heightThere are 21 centimeters between the two: one is 1,65 meters tall, the other 1,86.
And who knows, maybe a technical component also played a role. Of the bikes on the podium, Iserbyt's was the only one with a double chainring (46-39), despite the mud. The others had a 42 single.
Now all attention is already turned to tomorrow, to Dendermonde, about twenty kilometers southwest of Niel. This is the magic: all the races are close together and this encourages the team, the boys, the public... From Superprestige we move on to World Cup, two world-class races in 24 hours. And the spectacle won't change much. Iserbyt has already said he wants a repeat performance: "I hope my legs are as strong as they were today. Now we're off to recover."
