It seems that Dutch National Cyclocross Champion Mathieu van der Poel isn’t slowing down much at all now that his cyclocross season has come to an end. Competing in the Sunshine Cup mountain bike stage race in Cyprus, van der Poel took a 10th place finish in the opening round then followed that up with a victory, as shown in his Tweet, below, and 4th and 3rd place finishes in the final stages to end up 4th overall in the general classification.
It seems the Dutchman has grown fond of mountain bike racing rather quickly.
The most beautiful 2 hours I’ve ever spend on a bike so far (and the hardest)
In love with Cyprus and the mtb sport! pic.twitter.com/oRAsOvvleY— Mathieuvanderpoel (@mathieuvdpoel) February 26, 2016
Belgian press is reporting that Lars Boom may be looking to return to his roots and race cyclocross for Telenet-Fidea under Sven Nys. In an interview with Nys, the former World Champion said that Boom’s name is one that is on his short list of riders to consider for his team’s roster.
File photo of Lars Boom at Zolder this past December. Could we see him return to cyclocross under Sven Nys? © Bart Hazen
When asked why he thought Boom might want to make the move, Sven told Het Nieuwsblad Sports in part that “[Boom] has two kids and is away from home more than he’d like to be. And as a cyclocrosser he can be there for his family. Also the risks that you take as a road racer are starting to wear on him. Nowadays the road racing is very “nervous” with so many crashes because everyone wants to ride in the front. But most of all, his passion for the cross has been reignited. And rightly so since [cyclocross] is a fine world to hang out in. He’s not yet signed to our team but we definitely have interest. He is also a class act and commercially very interesting for a sponsor.”
Boom abandoning the road to focus on cyclocross would by many accounts be an exciting development for the sport.
In the spirit of “cyclocross never ends,” last month saw what looked to be an epic Tortour multi-day cyclocross gravel stage race in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Participants raced the 202 km route with 3,230 meters of climbing through challenging winter conditions.
The 3 day event went from February 12th to the 14th, taking riders across the the Swiss Central Plateau. There was a 13km prologue, a 99km stage and a final 90 km stage.
You can check out what the racers faced in this video from Focus Bikes, below and learn more about the event here in case you and some buddies want to take it on next year.
Not to be outdone by a stage race in Switzerland or a World Cup in Vegas, the Norcal.cx and Squid Bikes crew hosted a night cyclocross race in tandem with a bike show last weekend. Attendees at NAHBS 2016 gathered to some miss-and-out heat racing on cyclocross bikes in the sand of Sacramento.
Have a look at a bit of video and photographs of the “racing” below:
