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'Cross-world's preview: Muddy, meandering course will demand strength
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It should come as no surprise to find out that the course for this weekend’s UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Hooglede, Belgium, is going to be muddy. Just how muddy is the big question.
Located between the towns of Hooglede and Gits in southwestern Flanders, the 2007 world’s course is not new. It was the site of a World Cup mud-fest in 2006, with this year’s elite men’s favorite, Sven Nys, winning ahead of Erwin Vervecken. The soupy mud made for long laps — more than 10 minutes for the elite men. And while this year’s lap may be a bit shorter distance-wise, the mud will be heavier and thicker.
At first glance the Hooglede-Gits course is more complicated than a Rubik’s cube. It doubles and even triples back on itself in the main infield, a soccer field/running track. Racers enter the course off a small paved climb, then take a left turn, descending a mellow but likely to be rutted dirt track into the infield for the first time. Riders head under a manmade bridge, turn right and curve through the infield. A combination of left and right turns takes riders by the double-sided pit for the first time and toward the outer reaches of the course.
A rise and subsequent false flat, both of which may be unrideable by Sunday, bring riders to the first ugly drop-in. The short, steep, slightly off-camber descent shoots riders into another field. The course jogs right, then left, then right again before heading up a set of stairs. After re-mounting the riders drop down another steep, treacherous chute. The next half-minute provides a carbon copy of the previous minute, with a couple turns, run-up, and puckering drop.
Next is what will be the most difficult and decisive part of the course. Upon making a 90-degree right turn at the far end of the course, it’s up a drawn-out, slow, muddy climb that many, if not most, may end up running. A steep bridge over a stone wall caps the ascent. The descent offers a brief recovery, but as riders head through a set of buildings there’s another right-angle turn that leads into a manmade 30-meter sandbox. After the sandbox riders get another short rest as they cruise back towards the infield on pavement.
Some 90-degree turns later they head back out the way they just came in, up a small bump and into some woods. Another 180 and the course bombs down and then right up a small hummock that if muddy will become a real problem on both sides. Coming off the hummock riders hit a 180-degree turn with a lot of speed, and the corner will be greasy with mud. After another staircase run-up, this time onto a bridge, the riders head into the last minute of the lap. Even here a stretch of rutty mud will tap out a rider’s skills and strength before racers get onto the start/finish stretch of pavement.
With temperatures dipping below freezing at night and rising during the day, the course seems likely to soften as the weekend progresses and the weather grows warmer. And after the juniors and U-23s have churned out their races on Saturday, the elites will face the two-wheeled equivalent of a tractor pull on Sunday. Speeds will be low, strength at a premium, and good fortune a must.
