Sven Nys is one of the most successful active cyclo-cross racer in these days. He started professional cycling in 1998 and it didn’t take  him long to win his first cyclo-cross overall World Cup title in the 99/00 season.

Since then he claimed six more, including the 08/09, won the Worlds in 2005 and million other races as well. Though he focuses on cyclo-cross, his off-road talents can be quite useful when he participates mountain bike races: his 9th places at the Beijing Olympics was pretty amazing.

Though this year, reigning World Champion, Niels Albert seems to be unbeatable, Nys isn’t far behind and will certainly will want his share of wins.

Sven Nys – Images by Balint Hamvas

I spent the lovely weekend in the Forest of Dean, where the Royal Dean Forest Cycling Club organized an enduro race.

I spent the Saturday in Coleford with some friends, we enjoyed the beautiful sights of Symonds Yat Rock and had a nice beer on next to the river while we enjoyed the magnificent sunset.

On Sunday, we got up rather early in the morning and it seemed that we wouldn’t get through the day without rain but fortunately, not a single drop left the clouds, which made the riders happy and the course rather dusty.

One lap was 10 miles long and the total distance varied between 1 and 4 laps, in order to cater everybody’s fitness level and willingness to suffer. More than 400 cyclists took part and it was nice to see that it attracted a wide range of riders, apparently, everybody managed to find a suitable distance as most faces where smiling when they arrived back to the finish area.

Though the U23s had only four races, one man, the German Philipp Walsleben dominated throughout the season.

He managed to win all four races and the only rider who seemed to be able to match his strength and prowess was French Aurelien Duval who finished 2nd all races, except for Pijnacker, where he finished 9th.

Duval had been expected to be the main challenger before the Worlds, but he finished at a disappointing 11th place, whilst Walsleben won the race and the World Champion title withouth any interference from the rest of the riders.

As both will remain in the U23 age group, it’s quite likely that we’ll see memorable races this year as well.

Philipp Walsleben and Aurelien Duval – Images by Balint Hamvas

Last week I started this series with Lars Boom, who was unable to defend his World Championship title he had won a year earlier.

The same happened to the 4-time World Champ rider, Hanka Kupfernagel. Her season probably couldn’t have started better though, a 2nd place in Kalmthout and two wins, one at Tabor and one at Pijnacker, but the arrival of American rival, Katherine Compton changed the situation and for the rest of the season, she was unable to clinch another victory.

However, since she managed to finish at 2nd places at all races for the rest of the season, she secured her overall World Cup title at the penultimate race of the World Cup at Roubaix. The performance she showed during the season implied that the main contestants of the World Championship title would be she and Compton.

A group of three riders, that consisted of Kupfernagel, Compton and Dutch Marianne Vos was at the front of the pack throughout the race and it became soon obvious that the winner be one of them. They rode together until only a couple hundred meters remained from the race, when Vos made her move and left her opponents standing still, winning the title.

Kupfernagel was rather shocked and could hardly hide her tears after the race and during the awards ceremony. Hopefull, she’ll have better luck this year.

Hanka Kupfernagel – Images by Balint Hamvas

Not so long ago, I created an account on twitter. Apart from the fact that these days one will not be taken seriously unless one sports a twitter account, it is also a rather useful tool if one wants to send bits of information frequently during World Cup races.

I also collated a list of professional cyclo-cross riders, who use twitter, so you can follow their tweets and know what’s up with them. The order represents roughly how actively they use their twitter account.

Dutch CX and MTB pro, Al Thijs
@thijsal

British CX pro, Helen Wyman
@CXhelen

British CX pro, Gabriella Day
@Gabby_Day

Czech U23 rider, Lukas Kloucek
@lukie1000

Junior CX racer from the Netherlands, Lars Van Der Haar
@larsvanderhaar

Danish CX champion, Joachim Parbo
@JoachimParbo

Reigning Women’s World Champion, Marianne Vos
@marianne_vos

Reigning Men’s World Champion, Niels Albert
@nielsalbert

Ex-World Champion, Lars Boom
@lars_boom

Sanne Cant from Belgium
@sannecant

World Cup and World Championships runner-up, Aurelien Duval
@aurelduv