Better later than never, as the saying goes. I had to return my rental car last night by 10pm, so I just didn’t have the time to post a blog post about yesterday’s race in Nommay. Which was a good one, for many reasons. First, it was fascinating to see how Katie Compton and Kaitie Keogh, supposedly dazed by jet lag, just ruled the women’s race and finished on the first two steps of the podium. The difference between Compton’s race yesterday and four year’s ago, when she was forced by an asthma attack to abandon the race, couldn’t have been starker.
The other thing that I really enjoyed was the crowd. I don’t know why it’s always the French, but they run an awful lot at their cyclocross races. The way the courses are laid out probably helps, because you can easily run from one spot to another, cheer on the riders and then walk back to the first spot or maybe even run to a third one, if you feel a bit adventurous. It’s not something I see really in Belgium or the Netherlands and it helps a great deal to bring a great atmosphere to the race, even there might be fewer spectators than at the average race in Flanders.
This weekend will be the final round of the World Cup in Hoogerheide, the final race before the Worlds in two weeks’ time!
Don’t forget to check out the Kickstarter campaign for the 2017/2018 Cyclocross Album!
