Breaking Down the 2024 Cyclocross World Championships | THEMOVE

JB Hager, Johan Bruyneel, and Spencer Martin of the Beyond the Peloton newsletter break down this weekend’s Cyclocross World Championship events, starting with Mathieu van der Poel’s dominant victory en route to a sixth career world title, before speculating on how this will set him up for his looming Classics campaign, and where his CX career will go from here. They also discuss The Netherland’s dominance across nearly every category, including Fem van Empel’s supreme command of the Women’s side of the sport, Belgium’s multi-year absence from the top step of the podium in both elite races, and what we can learn about the future from the U-23, Junior and mixed Team Relay results.

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Same thing goes for for the women’s uh for the women you know I don’t think there’s anybody in in the women also um that that is up there uh at least not in the Juniors and under 23 so so yeah I mean it’s I I think the future looks

Orange the future of cyclocross looks orange thanks for joining us here at the Move podcast we’re going to uh jump in today and cover the 202 for 2024 World cycle cross championships all right I’m JB Hager and more importantly we are joined by Spencer Martin who you might

Know from the beyond the pelaton podcast and then of course Johan Bernal who’s on every show we could possibly make here at WeDo uh and uh his record speaks for himself as a bike racer and as a director uh but we’re going to get into

It today this is going to be really fun I you know a lot of us I think a lot of our fan base are a lot like me where um we have just really learned about cycle cross because when you have big stars like you know Vanderpool and vanart in

Recent years and pitcock in there us Ro fans are taking a real big interest but man there are a lot of specialists in there taking on on this uh race we’ll get into all of that in just a minute and and it’s some good story lines there

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Fee when selling your bike all right guys let’s jump into this uh you know all I saw were was a parade of orange and baby blue as I watch the cycle cross World Championships if you’re not from one of two countries you got to just sit there and shake your head sometimes with

Crossworld so let’s let’s Jump Right In to and I hate to disappoint people because there were no surprises you know we saw Vanderpool dominate all season this was a goal of his he took the lead from the beginning and controlled a very very muddy race where things could have gone wrong but

Uh let’s start with you Yan what was your takeaway probably no surprises whatsoever well you know we could basically you know resume this podcast okay mat vpol won another race right um he uh I mean of course he won the World Championships everybody was expecting it

So it was a bit of a boring race uh at least for first place and even second place um but yeah I mean you still have to do it you know this is the sixth time he is world champion Elite you know plus then a few other World Championships

Titles uh in the in the Juniors and the under 23 I guess so uh um sixth time he wins um nine years after his first world championships uh title uh 2015 at the same place in Tabor Czech Republic same course um he uh he wins again um as we

Said you know no surprise he did 14 races this year he won 13 of them uh one of them he didn’t win because he crashed out in in Benidorm we we talked about that a bit on another podcast but um still you know I mean it’s it’s it’s

It’s just I’m mean I’m in awe to see how strong these guys are and a guy like vpol people can say okay it’s boring you know it’s it’s easy I mean it’s never easy uh you have to deal with the pressure um he was from the gun out of

The starting blocks after one meter he was in first position he’s not been off the front you know at the beginning he was five to 10 seconds ahead of of the second guy and from then on he just kept going but you know the going really fast

And and if I look at his race I mean he made no mistakes which is which is crazy you know on a hard course mud slippery um the the to me what’s really impressive is is the way he sits on his bike and the way he has everything under

Control it’s it’s crazy I don’t I don’t know what you think Spencer yeah now I was dumb enough that I woke up this morning thinking wow well we don’t know what’s going to happen You Know Anything Could Happen let’s turn it on you know who knows this is why they

Do the race and then just seeing him at the start line like oh he’s going to win like he just physically looks so big compared to everybody else and then this the the gun goes and I think Johan you said in the pre-show he led from meter

One like ex it was exactly that he just like went was immediately leading he went out of the gate so fast and yeah just the way he sits on the bike it looked it you could probably be mistaken for thinking the course looked easy but it was just like that sticky sticky mud

And the amount of power that he puts out and I guess the amount of stability he has like the fact that he’s able to put out so much power be so stable on the bike just consistently for an hour I mean it made him unbe it was as close to

Unbeatable as I’ve ever seen anyone on on any type of course like it was never it was hard to even fathom it ever being in doubt like he he just I was thinking well what what could cause him to lose this like his chain breaking but I don’t

Even know if that would have like that would have done it like maybe kidnapped if he was just stolen mid race like that would have stopped it and that was about it yeah I I would love to have you guys expand on a little bit because you know

Most of us who’ve maybe raced a bit here or there have never done cross like your heart rate is pinged the whole time which is going to lend itself to making more mistakes you throw in the mud you throw in all that you know all that moving around that makes it even more

Remarkable plus even though we all know Vanderpool is a freak Talent he’s up against Specialists exactly this is what they do that’s their job I mean number two number two and number three uh they’re they’re I and number four they’re all pure cyclocross Riders cyclocross professionals um whenever vpol is not

There they’re the best in the world and the way he writes I mean I I wrote down in my notes Here said everything under control this looked like just a sub maximum training ride for vpol I wonder I would be curious to see his his his heart rate uh you know

Because it really looks like he’s he’s so in control I mean of course it’s it is an intensive effort but he’s not at his maximum that’s that’s that’s the sad part for everybody else he is not as he’s once he has the Gap he cruises I’ve noticed that

What he had about a 40 second Gap and are they wearing radios or do they get Q cards or they get told when at the bike when you go by the pit yeah okay so he he knew it seemed like he was managing a 40-second gap and if he wanted to make

That bigger I felt like he could have but he also is trying to not make a simple mistake like he did in that one race he lost yeah yeah yeah no it’s it’s it’s it’s astonishing really how um how he has this under control um must be amazingly

Disappointing for for everybody else but hey you know you’re up against the big champion and you’ve SE we’ve seen clearly you know the the guy who got suck this was this was for everybody else this this was a race okay who can be the best of the rest right and uh and

I think the way yoris nean house nean house from uh the Netherlands celebrated his second place I think speaks for itself he came came in like he won the race I think this was the goal for everybody right okay who can be second well do you see what happened we were

Talking about being a submaximal effort this Belgian Rider Neils V vandut went went out really well like right on like just tried to challenge Vander Poole it looked like JB someone was out at Lake Austin and they’re like on an inner tube behind a boat and the boats turning

Around and this guy just like getting whipped around like the way Vanderpool was going to the corners was so controlled and this poor Belgian on his wheel was just like you could just tell he was dying dying to hold the wheel and then he fell apart you know halfway

Through the race finished 13th and it shows you like what happens if you do try to race for the win against them as opposed to just racing assuming second place as the Win race for that that’s all you can do really unless you’re you know this was so different from last

Year’s I I found myself missing last year’s World Championship in the middle of this race a lot of people didn’t like that course cuz it was so fast see really fast it gave us the illusion that someone could beat Vanderpool because it was you know if you looked at the heart

Rate data it was probably actually a lot lower last year because there was bunching and it was almost like a crit on dirt um this was just a pure test of how much power can you put out through mud for one hour well that’s that’s what really has surprised me about vpol and

You know I saw from the first the first race I remember seeing him appear in his first cycl race this year I think that we’re going to see a vpol on another level on the road also to me he just looks so much stronger I mean his upper legs are

Incredibly strong maybe the back injury is finally healed from the Olympics tumble you know that that nagged him for quite a while yeah yeah yeah but you know I mean I I I I mean I’ve seen him on TV I’ve also seen him in real life I

Mean the way he looks it’s scary it’s really scary how strong he looks Yan what is the record for most cycle cross World Championships well in professional uh it’s a seven uh there’s one one Rider um a Belgian guy named Eric devlaming who has won it seven times um Vanderpool has said already

Because of course on Belgian TV they’ve asked him many times already about the record right then uh of course he says he’s not interested I think at this point it it does doesn’t really matter to him because let’s face it for him this is this is a hobby right this is a

Hobby that entertains him in the offseason before he gets ready for for for the classics um but yeah Eric devlaming was an amazing an amazing cyclist brother of Roger the laming who was in the in the merx era you know his brother Roger damic is the record holder

Of the amount of wins in par du four times together with Tom bouran it’s brought on four times SPO was was an amazing cyclist uh Roger Eric also he passed away sadly a few years ago um for many years he was the the coach of the Belgian cyclocross selection the

Cyclecross team um but yeah I mean it’s for vpol it’s not a question if he can beat it it’s a question okay does he want to beat it I mean at this point I think uh he’s weven um he is now 29 years old I guess um even if he

Skips a few years he’s if he decides he’s going to go for it he’s gonna get it uh of course it would also depend on W vanard uh if onard does the World Championships or not but I mean sadly for cyclocross I think we’re going to

See a tendency that these guys are going to do less and less cyc cross races because the Road season is is so much more important uh they make they make a lot of money on the road um they get they make good money on the in the sac

Cross season also but compared to what they make on the road it you know it’s not it’s not balanced so it’s just going to depend on him but yeah seven Victory seven times world champion which is which is incredible re to think about it you know I mean being seven times in

Your career the best of the world it’s it’s amazing um for for Matthew I think it’s just the matter whe whether he wants to go for it or not I think Eric won that in in an eight-year spread which is pretty incredible to think he won seven out of

Eight World titles you know I was wondering about Vanderpool like how I I do I do think he’s going for the seven you start to wonder the wisdom of that I mean should you just because you can should you could he just I I felt like

He could have showed up to this race and won this race without having done any other cyclocross race races throughout the year maybe that’s not true but do you know is there a startline implication in that like if you don’t race enough are you buried a few rows

Back or since you’re he was on the first he was on the first line today so yeah um if you look at the UCI ranking uh he’s not he’s not first so I don’t exactly know how it goes but I mean listen I mean it would actually be good if he has

To start from fourth or fifth row four the suspense of the race yeah true watch world champion you get to start on the front but you know I heard a theory on on the cycling podcast earlier this week they had a cyclocross specialist on I forget his name I apologize but his

Theory was vanderpol is going to retire like short-term retirement from cyclecross try to come back later in his career and win the seventh the only thing about that is like we saw stear today stear used to be Vanderpool he was Vanderpool before Vanderpool he was like this Prodigy coming up winning world

Titles kind of feels like once you step out of that world and obviously vanderpool’s such a good Rider just better than star maybe could get away with it it does seem like once you take your foot off the treadmill so to speak it’s hard to jump back on you know just

The explosiveness is so high I think so I think so but again Spencer I don’t think really I don’t I don’t really think that vpol will lose a minute of sleep whether he wins six or seven yeah you know uh he’s he’s going to be remembered as an as an incredible

Incredible cyclist uh coming back on on Eric devlaming by the way he’s he was known and is still considered to be the how how would I call it the the the biggest acrobat on a on a bike um was amazing what he could do on

A on a bicycle uh let’s you know back then you know the bikes had no disc brakes they didn’t have the same uh the same tires it was uh toe Clips you know um and it was he was he was very famous for doing stuff on a bike which you could not

Imagine and before we move on from this race I don’t think we’ve mentioned him M the third place Michael vent turnout uh really good really good race to finish third stopped like the dreaded Dutch sweep of the podium that I’m sure like would have there would have been a

Special session of the Belgian Congress had that happened figure out what’s going on there but he bad start he gets stuck behind Lars vandar who slips a pedal at the at the beginning of the race kind of the opposite of what I described where his teammate tried to

Follow Vanderpool and just race head up against him paced the race perfectly tied Vanderpool for the fastest time out on course mid- race which is really impressive I would have liked to seen him maybe get a little bit better start that’s the one Rider I thought could challenge Vanderpool but really good

Race from him I mean off a great season yeah you know he’s a typical uh he’s very very famous for peing towards championships um you know he was Belgian champion last year uh European champion last year this year again European Champion didn’t have a great season but

You know at the important events he was there and today again you know mean luckily luckily uh for for you know he has he has this medal because you know I mean it looks like the tendency is going towards you know the Netherlands uh the belgians we’ve always dominated but

Right now it’s there’s no way um to you know to beat vpol the second guy I mean yoris nous I think we should we should talk a little bit about him he he’s not a young guy anymore uh but he um he started in Robo Bank

Development team then he went to Sun web and tried a a road career on sunap and DSM and then um I don’t exactly know the reason I think I’ve heard somewhere that today that he had he went to a very difficult time personally I don’t know

Exactly what it was but all of a sudden he quit DSM uh in the middle of the year and signed on for the track balwi uh cyc cross uh team and since then he’s been you know very consistent and and this year he’s won already a few a few

Important races is Dutch Champion also won that by Miles uh which it’s not it’s also not an easy race to win the that Championship cyc cross um so yeah hats off to him Amazing Race and you know at the beginning the first two laps he was

There 5 Seconds 10 seconds and it looked like werpo was not able to distance him you know I watched the race on on Belgian TV um and uh they were they were speculating that you know vpol didn’t have a great day the first two the first two laps because he couldn’t distance n

Enough you know turned out that that was not the case but at least the first two laps there was some hope that we could see a real race before we wrap up the mens you did touch on stear for a second but I think it’s worth coming back to that because

He got a big sendoff and again like I said a lot of us are are newer to following cycle cross so uh that seemed like an emotional moment can you elaborate a little bit more on what her his career has has meant yeah stear has

Been a big champ you know he’s been he’s he’s been three times world champion then actually started as a real cyc cross guy then switched a little bit to the road went on went went to to quickstep uh won big races um you know he won stages in the tour I think he

Went a stage in the VTA um was up there in in Flanders and Par even St ban I would want to say St ban but I’m not sure I think yes I think I’m a bit of a stear h following star’s results on the road are kind it’s my uh

Side hobby I kind of always thought he was going to be a big star because he came from he was like Vanderpool he came from Cross and it was like well wait till you see this guy in the road remember he wins a Neco tour in 2013 and

It’s like yeah it’s starting and then he had that rub do you remember this Johan where he gets knocked off his bike when he’s in the lead group it doesn’t seem like he was ever quite the same after that and he did win strata by the way in

2015 okay yeah I mean he he uh of course he’s at the end of his career he was at the end of his career he’s getting older he had uh he had physical problems um one year ago actually he had a a heart surgery um so you know to be able to

Still race and come back and and and put up this whole show because you know he was he’s without a team since December 31st he was on on jao alula last year uh and he set up this oneman team specific spefic you know uh specific Expedition for for this world championships but you

Know I think the way he got sent off today didn’t was not a factor in the race of course but I think it’s nice he he was quite emotional um he’s very popular in Belgium actually uh he’s married to a Belgian woman speaks perfectly Flemish um and uh you know his

Interviews are on Belgian TV are great so uh big respect for him and and you know congratulations on his career I’d love asking Johan about his cycling career you know as a racer uh of course we talk a lot about as a director but did you get that um that emotional

Sendoff as a last like this is my last race because that doesn’t always happen for writers sometimes it’s like I raced and then I didn’t get a new contract right and you know I come from Radio that’s you don’t usually go out kicking and screaming it’s usually not pretty

Like that so did what was your last race like did not know yeah I mean I had it was in ’98 um it was I think in August of 98 um no send off I just you know I because I I had I did decide already

That it was going to be my last year but I was you know planning on finishing the season uh but then you know in August I did a race uh actually here in in Madrid and I and and I I remember I I got dropped uh on a climb which now I do

Sometimes uh with the mountain bike I can see it from my backyard actually this climb where I finished my career it’s called Nava serada which is a famous clim in the tour of Spain um and so yeah that day I just you know I I was

Dropped I saw the car the team car there because there was a feed Zone I I you know pulled on the S I put my car my bike in the car I gave my number to the to the swan year and I said okay this is the last one I’m never

Putting a number on my back again you just knew right then and that was it I’ve never never raced again so I mean I I felt like at that moment it was the right thing to do and I don’t regret it yeah yeah well you couldn’t then you

Jumped right into being a director so we know how that worked out took a whole month off before we get into the the women’s uh cycle cross World Championships I want to tell you about a few of our other partners that we really appreciate they help us uh uh pull us

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Get into the women’s but one thing I I know you wanted to also talk about in general with this world championships is how big the crowds were not being in Belgium or places that are used to hosting cycle cross race can you elaborate on that cuz that’s a that’s a

Big deal deal and stear too got that big sendoff probably for that reason too it was a home crowd for him yeah it was it was a it’s a home race for him he’s he lives close to Tabor but you know Czech Republic cycl cross historically has

Been popular in the Czech Republic uh they’ve produced some world champions um but you know not to the extent of Holland and Belgium so you know it was nice to see um a big crowd out in in a country that that that’s not Holland and and Belgium

Uh for the World Championships of course the World Championships it’s it’s a special event I would I would dare to say probably that probably a third to half of the people that were on the course were probably not Czechs uh probably belgians or or or Dutch U

Because you know it’s so popular it’s such a religion that actually people make those strips uh even if it’s it’s you know even if it’s a th000 or 2,000 kilometers away uh but yeah I mean huge crowds I mean not just with the pros you know

With the with the women yesterday the um the junior races I saw I saw a lot of people you know I agree probably the the send off of stear probably has to do something because he is very popular in in his country but uh but yeah I mean

Great organization you know the the thing with Tabor is Tabor is is is a class in the in the cyclocross season because it’s always been a World Cup event uh so you know they’ve been going there since 20 or 30 years the the race has been on

The calendar so uh it I think I think that’s also one of the reasons why there was so many people did you notice there’s a check riter in seventh Michael boros so I mean clearly the stear effect is trickled down and that I it might not sound that

Impressive to like just a random if you’re just listening to like seventh that’s not good but to to just be in the top 10 and not be Dutch and Belgian is really hard like it doesn’t happen that often they did get two medals they got

They got a second place uh in the under 23 women and they got a third place uh in the Juniors I think under under 20 uh the junior men so you two medals for Czech Republic uh it’s not bad it’s you know it’s almost equal with Belgium so

Pretty good I have a couple theories of why cycle is on the rise One streaming we can watch these races which we couldn’t not very long ago we did not see these we just read about them the other one is people who don’t feel comfortable on the road you know you get

Up you don’t want to put you just put your kid like you I’m sure you can relate to this Johan you just don’t want to throw them out on the road any more than possible if you have this option and passion for riding off-road whether it’s mountain biker Cross or gravel yeah

Probably probably I mean today look today for example I was out on the m mountain bike ride with some friends this morning and we we came across uh a gravel event here in in around Madrid was the the Spanish cup the first the first race of the Spanish cup and um you

Know still I think gravel and saer cross it’s a different it’s a different discipline uh because cycl cross is is very specific but uh but yeah I mean you know uh we all want our kids to be safe and you know this when when they start

It’s better to be on the out in the fields then on the road for sure so it could have something to do with it like Spencer do you feel like it’s you’re you’re in cycling Mecca of America Boulder is it on the rise there it definitely I feel like in you know maybe

10 years ago for for adults it was much bigger you know it was kind of like the that was the cyc cross boom Jeremy powers like those races at Valmont were massive but for kids I mean I feel like it’s huge now you know you see like you

Go out to these parks in Boulder and just like in the fall there’s just like armies of children at cyclocross practice basically um so it’s definitely very popular with kids there’s actually I think the top American in the race today Eric Brunner is from Boulder he

Finished 30 26 26 so yeah it’s and I have a child as well so it’s definitely appealing to think about just putting them in a park and having them right around it’s good for skill building too like if you want to be a really good road racer as Vander Pole’s showing

Cyclocross is a good place to start I agree I agree it’s a great it’s a great start I mean it’s and then you know it has changed so much you know um they today they were they were interview on Belgian TV again you know they have

It it’s such a special race that they have the the preow and they have then the PO like like like at the tour you know like V club or they have something like that like a discussion going on and there were two uh ex- world champions as their guest a Dutch guy and

And a Belgian guy and they said you know how much it has changed since they were racing uh because one of them was world champion juniors in 98 uh a guy called Richard grundal um who was um you know Dutch Dutch guy and then another guy Neils Albert who was uh

World champion juniors in you know early 2000s and back then he said you know we were just cyclocross guys uh we didn’t even get the chance to try it on the road now since it’s proven that cyclocross is such a great start I mean everybody wants to be Walt vanard and

Matthew VPO what how did they start they start they started as Cy cross Riders so uh it’s it’s it’s a good start I mean it’s it’s a good way of trying you know if you can if you can be any good at this and it’s so much easier like

Gravel’s probably pulled some um like middle-aged people away from cyclocross like today and B there’s this big gravel race but we got a foot of snow yesterday like I’m not going to go to my son and say like you want to go do a 100 mile gravel race in the snow he’s probably

Say that doesn’t sound that fun but cross is a much easier sell to a child than uh than a miserable gravel race all right let’s jump into the women’s well this time we’ll let you lead off uh Spencer not that much of a different story than what we saw in the

Men’s no it’s kind of a a similar thing actually hold on I’m pulling up the results so f vanle is that how we say her name Johan am I saying that right yeah yeah just wins dominant dominant race finishes off it’s a Matthew Vanderpool esque season probably more

Impressive because she did more races one all but two races so you kind of saw this coming on visma so obviously a really good team Dutch we had a Dutch sweep of the top four um so it’s even more concentrated than in the men’s race um what like

What um I’m curious Johan to get your take on so she wins last year she wins this year so second straight World title I maybe deluded myself midseason into thinking like oh this could be this could be a fight for the world title with the women because you had a lot of

Good there was two races there was a World Cup at Hol Hol where Puck Puck Peterson wins and then you had another one where the World Cup g g where wins as well yeah and then I thought uh Alvarado Carmen Alvarado looked really really good about midseason and then it

Was just it was similar to my delusion on the men’s side where it’s just like no there’s act absolutely no question about who’s the best racer here yeah it’s the same you know f vanle is they also predict a huge future on the road she just you know she just hasn’t tried

Hard enough yet but already last year she she did the tour of the LA let’s not she’s still very young so she’s only 21 years old so you know she’s normally still under 23 so is p Peterson by the way um and so uh she won a stage in the

Tour of the lavenir has almost no Road Race experience yet but um you know somebody who has that kind of power she must be a great a Great Road racer uh in the future and um I think the same is going to happen with her you know she’s

At some point she’s going to get bored and tired of winning and not being challenged enough and um so yeah I mean um P vanle the dominant the dominant figure and um and pck Peterson P I think pck Peterson in terms of talent and uh quality she’s up there with f

Vanle uh she started the season later uh and then um but she got sick and injured uh the last the last races so um I think that’s one of the reasons but um pck Peters is known to be the most skillful and technical rider in in women’s cyclocross and Lucinda bres you know

She’s an established uh value um also great Raider Rider on the road per Peterson by the way is is amazing in in mountain bike also she I think she won the Under 23 World Cup mountain bike yeah she’s like I mean that’s probably why she’s the best technical

Rider in cyc Cross she’s a great mountain biker yeah um what is this I mean I I kind of hate questions like is this good is this good for cyclocross that we have such dominant Riders who are probably going to leave because it just it is what it is it doesn’t matter

If it’s good or not it’s probably just good that we do have dominant Riders winning they’re fun to watch it’s it’s kind of mesmerizing actually how much better they are than the other Riders and how much they can make a really difficult thing look easy but what

Happens in four or five years when vanderpool’s on the road fulltime let’s say van embl’s on the road full-time like what is the what’s the shape of the cyclocross scene then like does it just kind of revert back to the mean where you have Specialists winning all the

Time and we kind of forget this ever happened yeah I mean it’s by then probably Spencer another phenomenon will have risen you know to it goes so fast nowadays that these young kids are coming all of sudden and uh they they’re there to dominate but you know now um

Let’s say there’s a huge difference with or without vpol and vanard and pitcock uh it’s it’s you know let’s just taking away the the the World Championships but all the other races it’s it’s day and night difference in terms of Spectators and uh and TV coverage so I mean let’s

Just hope that at least they they show up a few times you know I mean we we we would have to hope that and does this mean anything tell me if this means anything the men’s Junior race won by an Italian second place is a Dutch Rider

Third place is a Czech Rider there’s no belgians in the top 10 and it’s a lot more diverse from at least from a point of the country’s you’re trying to get under Johan’s skin here I see what you’re doing is this an opening up where

Scene or or does it just by the time they get to the senior level it’s just back to Belgian and Dutch I don’t know I mean it’s not it’s not good for Belgium that there’s nobody up there in the top in the Juniors um same thing goes for for the

Women’s uh for the women you know I don’t think there’s anybody in in the women also um that that is up there uh at least not in the Juniors and the under 23 so so yeah I mean it’s I think the future looks orange the future of cyc Closs looks

Orange a little bit French the French are better than I agree I agree the French I have to say the French that you know one of I watched I I I I saw a little news and I said I have I have to go watch this so the

Junior uh the junior World Championships uh man was was was heartbreaking for the French guy um he was in the lead um and he was together with the Italian guy who won and just after they passed the the the mechanical area he has a puncture

And it was the last lap so he had five minutes to the next to the next uh technical Zone um you he would have been first or second he finished fourth finally um but yeah I mean the French have the French have a few young guys who are who are really really

Good and they won the mix team relay which is kind of an unusual event where you you can what what did you say it was one from each so it’s a man and woman from the elite level the under 23 level the junior level and you can race them

In whatever order you want to race them which is pretty interesting format um like you were saying the British the British team the UK team had Zoe bad go first most teams had their Elite men go first so they’re kind of like purposely seeding time but they just hope you just

Hope Zoe can hold on as well as she can and then you make up time later well I think it made I mean it’s it’s an interesting event I mean I I still haven’t I still haven’t you know got my head around if it really makes sense because you know it’s a World

Championships but then you know everybody gets a World Championships Jersey but they can never wear it right they’re never goingon to wear the Jersey um because there are no more events like this so um but yeah was there was 10 countries uh the Netherlands decided not to participate

Which you know was great for the race um and I think the thinking behind the the it was quite smart actually because zoie backat is very strong she’s shown you know in the under 23 race that she was Head and Shoulders above everybody else so instead of having her ride with her

Pier she would be the one that needs to make the difference now she was chasing men and so she had to I think the difference there she because at the end of the day if it’s six Riders at the end it basically comes down on six times the

Time of because they go one lap full out right so let’s say if it’s 10 minutes a per lap uh the the the the elite guys do nine minutes the Juniors do 11 minutes it’s basically how fast everybody can go so if you can have one of those female

Riders with the man she will go faster than if she has to go on her own uh without anybody in front of her so um it was it was the after lap the Great Britain was 45 seconds down and they finally uh were sprinting for the

Victory after six Riders so I think it was a smart move and they lost because Cameron Mason great guy young Scottish Rider got beat by a French junior is that right yeah the guy the guy I just said who had the flat tire who uh apparently is very good

I mean he was amazing the the French Rider uh in in that in that relay so so yeah they came to the finish and um and finally the the junior beat uh Cameron Mason in in the Sprint um so you know these young guys man they’re

17 years old and they are on an unbelievable level I mean you could see that the pros were actually not able to take that much time out of the Juniors whatever they were like mixed up his name is auin auin sparfel we should remember that we’ll probably hear from

Him again I’ve been I’ve been kind of noticing this just generally racing the last five weeks across Road and cyclocross not a ton of Delta between really really young talented Riders and Veterans I mean you have like some like I don’t know if you saw like the alulu tour yesterday where um like

William William llef is that his name he’s a rider EXA that’s exactly how I said it like he like his vam number on that climb it’s only like an 11 minute climb it’s like world class numbers he putting out in February at 21 years old but he

Was up there with with Simon Yates and with uh with Rafa Micah I mean those guys are top timers in the tour yeah any other Loose Ends guys before I I do have a couple things on the horizon for we do and the move that I’ll share with you but I just don’t

Want to cut you off if you had any other magic from your observations yeah I have one name uh I want to talk about it’s the the guy who won the 123 World Championships Dutch guy uh Tibor Del Gro um he’s already raced quite a few

Races uh in in the on the elite level uh he’s also part of the same team as mat Vanderpool Alpin um but amazing Rider uh there’s there’s I don’t know there’s something there’s something about his pedaling style that that that tells me this is going to be a special guy um I was

Actually you know communicating a little bit with the with one of the one of the guys of of Alpin from the management and I said you know this guy it’s like he pedals through the mud he doesn’t pushes through the mud he pedals through the mud like smoothly you know instead of

Mashing everyone tends to mash in the mud exactly exactly and uh then then he told me that uh this guy has amazing amazing out power output and that uh he he thinks he will be really good on the road also so Tibor Del Gro Italian sounding name but the guy’s Dutch um

Yeah really Lov that that guy uh see see how he dominated the race my uh my loose end is I should have said this up top if you’re if you’re listening to this and thinking that all sounds great how the heck do I watch this since there’s no G in anymore flow

Bikes is your friend if you live in the US or in North America if you live in Canada United States flow bikes is your friend if you live in Europe up you have no worries you have Discovery plus Euros sport it’s easy over there over here

Flow bikes has picked up a lot of the coverage technically it’s supposed to be on some Max it’s supposed to be rolling out something to replace gcn they’ve been pretty bad I think their Communications internal Communications are that they’re shooting for mid-February to have like a viable

Product but in the meantime you can just use a VPN from Canada fire up flow bikes and you can watch like almost the entire calendar so um that that’s the place to be if you really want to watch races right now I’m glad you brought that up we we have been

Getting a lot of messages about that what do I do what you’ve been getting them too yeah yeah um okay well cool here’s what’s on the horizon for we do that might interest you a couple of things um Perry rube a dream fake just sporting event to see for pretty

Much everyone that loves cycling right we put together a travel package you can go join Johan he’ll be your director as if you’re a teammate you know on his team guiding you through the the through that event George will be there and you have a special guest as well fre time

Winner uh the lion of Flanders as they call him Yan mu will be joining us the three days so you know he will share all the time with us he will give tips ride the gr Fondo with the with the weo team and then uh be with our with

All of our guests the day of the race where we have the VIP experience from start to finish so this year we send a car for him yeah sorry we send a car for him or we pick him up we we’re gonna pick him up yeah but what an experience I mean

Wow it’s something that it’s it’s something I really recommend uh because you know it’s it’s a mix of you know riding the race yourself uh then seeing the guys do it the day after and and in the me in the meantime you know we uh we give all the

Information we share lots of stories lots of laughs uh good food and good wine so it’s the whole package I definitely recommended it’s on our website we do. team in the Travel section very cool you can send an inquiry there if you’re interested there

Are by the way by the way uh JB there are only three spots left three remaining spots that’s it experience of a lifetime check it out we do. teamtravel and also you were just talking about this this Italian kid who won the the the Juniors another name

That goes into the upand comers we just did the upand comer show that is worth checking out if you haven’t listened to it it it it makes your whole experience of watching racing so much better when you’re familiar with more names uh so our annual show up incomers where Johan

Gives us all those names to to watch for I have to say sorry to interrupt JB you know I mean unfortunately we were limited on time you know I was was only no we weren’t you and I weren’t I know I know I I’m trying to be

Nice uh so I only could give eight names but there’s at least two or three more actually Spencer and I talked about one of them uh I didn’t have the time to talk about him but you know he won the he won a race the day after day yeah we talked on Monday

Night on oppos scene I had him on my list but I didn’t I didn’t get the time to talk about him but uh but yeah the upand comer show uh is is very interesting for people who want to yeah learn about new names uh to watch for

The future and then the move is back tomorrow for the season preview this is where we’re mostly going to look at the spring the spring efforts so looking forward to that I hope I hope you’ve done the research Yan I know you so we’re going to be back very very

Quickly uh thank you everyone for tuning in we appreciate it I know there’s a lot of places to get your news and information about bike racing uh we really appreciate you uh uh tuning in take time to to like it share it subscribe pass it on to your friends if

They you think they’ll enjoy any of these stories send the link to him and we would greatly appreciate that I always appreciate you guys Johan Spencer you do such a great job uh of going so deep on stuff we’re all learning from it so thank you and we’ll all talk soon

Okay thanks thanks for having us [Applause] JB