Welcome back to the GCN Racing News Show – this week we have the Dutch National Headwind Championships, the latest round of the Brico cross from Essen, the Car Park Cannonball from Christchurch in New Zealand, plus all the other major news in pro cycling.

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They don’t have many hills, the Dutch, but they do have a lot of wind. Even so, the Dutch headwind championships have no fixed date, instead, it’s 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 about as exposed as you can get, on a day when flights and sailings were cancelled due to wind gusts of 127kph. Nutters! There are three key rules to the Dutch Headwind Champs. Number 1, wind speed must be at least 7 Beaufort, which is over 50kph, number 2, competitors have to ride 8.5km’s into that wind, and number three, they have to do so on a standard Dutch town bike.

On to the mud, 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. In the women’s event, Maud Kaptheijns took her first victory in over a year, 14 seconds ahead of Lucinda Brand. Brand would get her own back the following day, though, at the 81st edition of the Vlaamse Druivencross, which is described as the mother of all cross races.

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21 Comments

  1. 28 kmh on at least 50 kmh headwind is equivalent to riding with no wind at 78 kmh! That's sprinting speed beyond elite!! And for almost 20 minutes!? Something's wrong here…..

  2. De Panne Beach Endurance… Racing on a beach with rigid MTB bikes (why not cyclocross bikes, or even better, fat bikes?) and the winner sports a V-brake (rim brake) set-up. Who said the V-brakes are dead? Disk brakes are dead, long live the V-brakes!

  3. Woo I made it onto a GCN video! The Carpark Cannonball is harder than it sounds. There was not much straight riding. The mtb's had a big advantage being able to take the inside line. It's all fun for a good cause!

  4. It was brutal but it was also amazing to be able to take part. They only allow 300 of US loonies to take part. 😉 I have actually done a video in English of my experience. So, for those of you wanting to see more from their armchairs in front of the fireplace, here you go: https://youtu.be/Nzu5sWtKAhs (Non commercial video.)

  5. Check out this for an uphill short distance urban race. It happens on one of Lisbon’s steepest streets, with cobblestones, tram tracks and the gaps for the funicular cables. 270m and 17% average gradient. Record time is at 35seconds… by a mountainbiker 🙂
    https://youtu.be/3y02g3GvsW8

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