Nommay evaluation

1. Venue
- Getting there: It was a short 45 minute long drive from Basel Airport. It still cannot beat Roubaix, but this is as easy as it gets. 4 points
- Sights&City: I booked a hotel in Montbeliard which is a lovely smaller city with a brilliant old town in the center. However, there weren't a single restaurant that was promised decent food, which is quite surprising, given that the French were supposed to be quite savvy when it comes to food.  3 points

2. Course
- Getting there: You couldn't see even a smaller junction without arrows showing your how to get to the course, I haven't seen such thorough signing policy every before, respect. 5 points
- Layout & getting around: The course was too stretched out so it was possible to wander around it without risking to get back to the finish on time. 4 points
- Skill level: It wouldn't have been a challenging course, however, the rain made it quite tricky, especially a few steep climbs and a long off-camber section. 5 points

3. Press services
- Distance from course: Quite close from the finish line, which was good. What wasn't good that sometimes security guards seemed to grant or deny access from you to certain areas. 3 points
- Internet - excellent internet connection, though there was a weird registration process. 4 points
- Handouts - Handouts were prompt and delivered by press staff. 5 points
- Staff - They were very helpful and kind, however, there were times when only an older gentleman was present, who didn't speak a single word in English. As much as I'm a huge fan of preserving one's national heritage, it might make sense to have people at the press center with proper language skills at all times. 4 points
- Catering - Impressive lunch and some biscuits during the day, it was adequate. 4 points

Overall score: 41/50 points - well done!

Niels Albert's Cyclo-cross World Cup race in Nommay, France

Niels Albert
Rank: 1
Time: 1:00:10

Katherine Compton's Cyclo-cross World Cup race in Nommay, France

Katherine Compton
Rank: 1
Time: 0:42:57

Albert 1st, Stybar 2nd, Nys 3rd

Compton 1st, Vos 2nd, Van Passen 3rd

Pre-race training

Foggy morning in Nommay

The weather is kind of funny here in Nommay: The sun's probably shining, but the fog is so thick, you can hardly see it, you can only assume it. The good thing, however, is that it's not raining and hopefully that will stay like that for the rest of the day.

UCI World Cup Cyclo-cross 09/10: Official training in Nommay, France

En route to Nommay

The day started at 4am: I had a flight to catch to Basel. This was the first time I've flown from London City Airport and was funny indeed, it's a tiny airport, even compared to the likes of Luton, it rather resembles to a hotel than to an airport. The plane was equally small, when entered the plane, I realized that there's not enough headroom for me so I stayed seated for the entire duration of the flight.

The Basel Airport is a confusing place as it's on the border of Switzerland and France, therefore before you can claim you luggage, you need to decide whether you want to enter France or Switzerland. I didn't see the point, as afterwards everbody got into the same hall to pick the luggages up. They arrived without a hitch, however, another choice was presented to us: we had to leave the terminal either to the French or the Swiss side. I had no idea on which side did I booked the rental car, so I went for the French side. Obviously, my car was waiting for me on the Swiss side, so I had to go through the border, again.

Google maps offered two routes to Montbeliard: a longer but fast option and a shorter but slower and, probably, nicer one. As I had time, I went for the latter and I didn't regret it: it was beautiful drive indeed.

Preparations for Nommay

My flight leaves tomorrow at 7.25am so I printed everything in advance. And that was the point when I realized that I had booked wrong dates at the hotel: instead of Sat and Sun nights, I had booked Sun and Mon nights. I rang the hotel and even though the receptionist's English wasn't easy to understand, they were very helpful and changed my booking. So, Nommay: here I come.

The weather forecast for the Nommay World Cup race

The weather forecast for the weekend doesn't look too good...