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Bpost Bank Trofee #8 – Sluitingsprijs, Oostmalle

balint — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 17:12:45 +0000

It’s over. 32 races, from Herne Hill to Oostmalle. In between, I have travelled over 23 000 miles, have shot over 45 000 frames and have had a lot of fun.

The race today had a fitting name: Sluitingsprijs – Closing race. Though the racing was fierce, the atmosphere was friendly and everybody was talking about holiday plans and having a cheeky drink and other normal things pro cyclists don’t do during the season.

The Sluitingsprijs is always the place to celebrate retiring riders. Last year Daphny van den Brand finished her career here, this year another Dutch rider, Gerben de Knegt donned the skinsuit for the last time. I’ve always liked the lanky Dutch, I’ll miss him from the races.

Though the season ended, there is still a lot of work left to be done on the Cyclocross 2012/13 book. I’ll have a lot more time to focus on it.

I would like to thank all my readers for coming back and checking out my photos and buying the books. Thank you for the kind comments here, on Facebook and on Twitter.

The season is over but I’ll continue to blog about the book and do expect a few hidden gems from the archives, too.

Pre-order the Cyclocross 2012/13 Book now ->

Cyclocross 2012/2013 – The book

balint — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 22:59:32 +0000

PRE-ORDER THE BOOK NOW FOR £29.99 >>>

It’s that time of the year. It’s been a great season. I covered over 30 races this year, I have travelled over 22 000 miles, I got up at 4am all too often to capture the great, poignant or painful moments of the season. The end of the season is very close now and my new book about the season will be available soon. It is a very exciting project – just as it was last year and I am aiming to make an even better book this time. I received a lot of good feedback about the 2011/2012 book and I have used all this feedback to enhance this year’s edition further.

Why am I producing a book? Because I love large photo albums with great photos and good stories. While I let you be the judge whether the photos are great, I will strive to bring the best of my work in one, large-format, coffee table book, so when you want to look back on the past season, my book would take you back to all those exciting moments.

The format and the concept will largely remain the same: a big, colourful book about the 2012/2013 European cyclocross season, spread over 200 pages. If you are a regular visitor on my site, you know what to expect, if not, have a browse.

The book will contain a delicate mixture of action shots and shots that attempt to catch the atmosphere of the venue, that show the passion of the fans and the rough beauty of this sport. Because I love cyclocross. I hope you do, too.

In the coming weeks, I will share further details about the book and there will be sample chapters available, too.

One more thing. This book, as all the previous ones, are self-published, and therefore every copy you buy helps me to keep this going, to keep on bringing you great photos during the season, week in week out. PRE-ORDER THE BOOK NOW FOR £29.99 >>>.

To entice you further, if you order the book before it goes to print on the 21st April, you will get a access to an exclusive gallery where you can download three of my photos in full resolution with rights for personal use (so you can print it out as many times as you want it but you can’t use it for any commercial or editorial purposes).

The cover of the book

Bpost Bank Trofee #7 – Krawatencross, Lille

balint — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 17:18:37 +0000

Leisurely. This word sums up best today for me. After a chillingly early start, we arrived at Lille (the Belgian one) at 11am, just in time for the U23 race – but there was no hurry. It was all casual.

I had a similar feeling last year: after the Worlds, the edge is somehow lost. The races still matter and the riders ride hard but something is missing. Not that there is anything wrong with it, it’s just different from the normal rhythm of the races.

I really like the course at the Lilse Bergen, it is adjacent to a lake and it goes through the woods. While it’s not spectacular as cross country venue can be in the Alps, it was a nice change from the usual mudfest between two bored cows.

The end of the season draws closer and closer – with only three more races to go, the finish is really close now. And that means that the new book will be ready soon. But more on that a bit later…

2013 Cyclocross World Championships, Louisville, KY

balint — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 08:36:48 +0000

Well, the longest day ever. It’s Sunday morning and I have finally finished editing the photos. Yesterday was so manic and so busy that what we normally do over the course of two days had to be squeezed into just one. So many photos and so many stories but they have to come a bit later. A few photos for now and I’ll come back with a wrap-up as soon as managed to catch some sleep.

Jasmin Achermann’s mum

Geoff Proctor and Marc Gullickson chat before the juniors’ race at the cyclocross World Championships in Louisville, Kentucky

Mathieu van der Poel rides almost all the way up the limestone climb

There must have been an enormous amount of pressure on Owen Logan, who, based on his form during the season, was supposed to perform really well. Though he missed the podium, he’s still the biggest promise of American cross.

Marianne Vos won yet another rainbow jersey, her sixth in the cross discipline

Messy business: Katerina Nash had a mechanical problem in the finishing straight, the front mech dropped the chain and she had more than 50 meters to cover…

… but Lucie Chainel-Lefevre exploited her mechanical and grabbed the third place.

Hope she didn’t catch the cold by the end of the day

Wietse Bosmans started strong

Mike Teunissen and Wout van Aert chased Bosmans but they didn’t seem to be able to bridge the gap.

Teunissen closed the gap on Bosmans, overtook him and never looked back. Bosmans seemed demoralised that the rainbow jersey seemed to elude him once again.

Worth googling the video of this bit of the medal ceremony: Pat McQuaid was thoroughly boo-ed

Mathieu van der Poel rocks the coolest haircut

Maxx Chance hits the deck in Louisville – animgif

balint — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 23:10:31 +0000

2013 Cyclocross World Championships, Louisville – Friday

balint — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 23:59:55 +0000

Mathieu van der Poel rides up the Limestone section in Louisville

balint — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 23:17:06 +0000

There is a tricky ascent on the World Championships course in Louisville. It’s called the Limestone as there are three lines of limestone that makes it much harder for the riders to ride up. Add some mud or snow and it’s nearly unrideable. Well, for most but not for Mathieu van der Poel. He managed ride it up on more than one occasion – below you can see one of is attempts.

2013 Cyclocross World Championships, Louisville – Thursday

balint — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 22:51:27 +0000

Looking back on Nikki Harris’ season

balint — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 14:59:51 +0000

The only thing worse than being defeated in a fair and square race is not having the chance to race at all and that is exactly what has happened to Nikki Harris. She was one of the great surprises of this season. She’s been around for but she started to shine this year. She started winning races and she started to consistently beat big names.

It was great to see her getting faster and faster and I was sad to hear that she would have to miss the Worlds because a knee injury. On the flight last night I went through my archives and I put together a short gallery with ten photos of her season. Enjoy.

The first win came early, in Ruddervoorde.

Another win in the exceptionally muddy fields of Niel

The first World Cup podium for Nikki in Plzen

Nikki wins my favourite race, the Asper-Gavere Superprestige.

Nikki steps further on a World Cup podium, a second place in Koksijde

Second in Overijse, my other favourite course.

Riding the sunny but muddy race in Baal.

The pinnacle of her season: Nikki is about to win the Nationals in Bradford.

The snowy Hoogerheide – the knee problems were apparent by then.

World Cup #8 – Hoogerheide

balint — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 02:39:28 +0000

In terms of the outcome, it was the most interesting race of the season and in terms of energy, I’m on my last reserves. After having had battled the roads of Belgium and France for over six hours yesterday and then trying to get around with a train in the snow-stricken England drained me completely, even though I had the best support crew in the world who provided me with chat and the best cakes and cookies of the world.

To make matters worse (in a sense), I’m flying to the US for almost two weeks on Wednesday, so there are a mountain of things that need to be sorted before I leave. So apologies, but I couldn’t write a proper report or captions. On the upside, in a little more than 24 hours I’ll be on my way to Houston. I’ll spend a few days there with friends of mine and then I’ll be flying up to Cincinnati to cover the Cincinnati Kings International. Then a short lull before the biggest show of the year: the World Championships in Louisville. Can’t wait – see you there!