Cross Worlds, full results (elite men)

[Dan Connelly]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross/2004/CXworlds04/?id=race4 17 David Derepas (France) 2.05

[Wade Summers]

"Dan Connelly" <d_j_c_o_n_n_e_l@i_e_e_e.o_r_g> wrote in message
news:Ay9Tb.8553$Jg2.4628@newssvr29.news.prodigy.com...
> http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross/2004/CXworlds04/?id=race4 17 David Derepas (France) 2.05
>

The big shocks are the Nys & Groenendaal dnfs and Pontoni's 4th.

Wade

[Richard Longwoo]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross/2004/CXworlds04/?id=emlivecomp

"Dan Connelly" <d_j_c_o_n_n_e_l@i_e_e_e.o_r_g> wrote in message
news:Ay9Tb.8553$Jg2.4628@newssvr29.news.prodigy.com...
> http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross/2004/CXworlds04/?id=race4 17 David Derepas (France) 2.05

[Tom Kunich]

"Wade Summers" <wadesummersSPAMSUCKS@cox.net> wrote in message
news:ST9Tb.14755$fZ6.57@lakeread06...
>
> "Dan Connelly" <d_j_c_o_n_n_e_l@i_e_e_e.o_r_g> wrote in message
> news:Ay9Tb.8553$Jg2.4628@newssvr29.news.prodigy.com...
> > http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross/2004/CXworlds04/?id=race4 17 David Derepas (France) 2.05
>
> The big shocks are the Nys & Groenendaal dnfs and Pontoni's 4th.

The biggest shock to me is the number of Belgians in the top 10. That is pitiful. I think that
Lafferty might be on to something when they are so overwhelmingly superior.

[Wade Summers]

"Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:eUdTb.7653$F23.6756@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> "Wade Summers" <wadesummersSPAMSUCKS@cox.net> wrote in message
> news:ST9Tb.14755$fZ6.57@lakeread06...
> >
> > "Dan Connelly" <d_j_c_o_n_n_e_l@i_e_e_e.o_r_g> wrote in message
> > news:Ay9Tb.8553$Jg2.4628@newssvr29.news.prodigy.com...
> > > http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross/2004/CXworlds04/?id=race4 17 David Derepas (France) 2.05
> >
> > The big shocks are the Nys & Groenendaal dnfs and Pontoni's 4th.
>
> The biggest shock to me is the number of Belgians in the top 10. That is pitiful. I think that
> Lafferty might be on to something when they are so overwhelmingly superior.
>

If its a shock then you haven't been following the results for cross for the past 2 or 3 years.
There are ALWAYS that many Belgians in the top 10 of any major race. If Vanoppen was racing, there
would have been another one.

Wade

[Tom Kunich]

"Wade Summers" <wadesummersSPAMSUCKS@cox.net> wrote in message
news:80eTb.16039$fZ6.3586@lakeread06...
>
> "Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:eUdTb.7653$F23.6756@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> > "Wade Summers" <wadesummersSPAMSUCKS@cox.net> wrote in message
> > news:ST9Tb.14755$fZ6.57@lakeread06...
> > >
> > > "Dan Connelly" <d_j_c_o_n_n_e_l@i_e_e_e.o_r_g> wrote in message
> > > news:Ay9Tb.8553$Jg2.4628@newssvr29.news.prodigy.com...
> > > > http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross/2004/CXworlds04/?id=race4 17 David Derepas (France) 2.05
> > >
> > > The big shocks are the Nys & Groenendaal dnfs and Pontoni's 4th.
> >
> > The biggest shock to me is the number of Belgians in the top 10. That is pitiful. I think that
> > Lafferty might be on to something when they are so overwhelmingly superior.
> >
>
> If its a shock then you haven't been following the results for cross for
the
> past 2 or 3 years. There are ALWAYS that many Belgians in the top 10 of
any
> major race. If Vanoppen was racing, there would have been another one.

No, what I mean is that the Belgians are so superior to everyone else there's pretty obviously
something going on. Now perhaps it is just one of those coincidences in which 6 superior athletes
all come from one neighborhood, but it is suspicious as hell to me.

Pontoni ain't exactly flypaper and he was sitting in the middle of a bunch of Belgians. Popsicle was
so far down you had to look for him in the also-ran results.

[Wade Summers]

"Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:4ugTb.7998$F23.285@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> No, what I mean is that the Belgians are so superior to everyone else there's pretty obviously
> something going on. Now perhaps it is just one of those coincidences in which 6 superior athletes
> all come from one neighborhood, but it is suspicious as hell to me.
>

With the risk of sounding naive, I do think a lot of it comes from the fact that cyclocross is
popular in Belgium. A greater % of the pool of talented athletes race bikes in Belgium. I think if
you took the American kids that show some talent like Driscoll, Lebas, White, Powers, Anthony, etc,
and based them in Belgium all season they would start getting some results. You wanna play baseball
with the best, you come here, you wanna race cross with the best you go to Belgium.

Wade

[Howard Kveck]

In article <80eTb.16039$fZ6.3586@lakeread06>,
"Wade Summers" <wadesummersSPAMSUCKS@cox.net> wrote:

> "Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:eUdTb.7653$F23.6756@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net...

> > The biggest shock to me is the number of Belgians in the top 10. That is pitiful. I think that
> > Lafferty might be on to something when they are so overwhelmingly superior.
> >
>
> If its a shock then you haven't been following the results for cross for the past 2 or 3 years.
> There are ALWAYS that many Belgians in the top 10 of any major race. If Vanoppen was racing, there
> would have been another one.
>
> Wade

At Hoogstraten (Super Prestige race) a week ago, there were eight Belgians in the top ten. And in
the previous three World Cup events, there were six Belgians. The German event was their worst
showing, with only two guys up there.

--
tanx, Howard

"We're not laughing -at- you, we're laughing -with- you..) "But... I'm not
laughing???" Happiness

remove YOUR SHOES to reply, ok?

[Howard Kveck]

In article <4ugTb.7998$F23.285@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net>,
"Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo.com> wrote:

> "Wade Summers" <wadesummersSPAMSUCKS@cox.net> wrote in message
> news:80eTb.16039$fZ6.3586@lakeread06...
> >
> > "Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> > news:eUdTb.7653$F23.6756@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> > > "Wade Summers" <wadesummersSPAMSUCKS@cox.net> wrote in message
> > > news:ST9Tb.14755$fZ6.57@lakeread06...
> > > >
> > > > "Dan Connelly" <d_j_c_o_n_n_e_l@i_e_e_e.o_r_g> wrote in message
> > > > news:Ay9Tb.8553$Jg2.4628@newssvr29.news.prodigy.com...
> > > > > http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross/2004/CXworlds04/?id=race4 17 David Derepas (France) 2.05
> > > >
> > > > The big shocks are the Nys & Groenendaal dnfs and Pontoni's 4th.
> > >
> > > The biggest shock to me is the number of Belgians in the top 10. That is pitiful. I think that
> > > Lafferty might be on to something when they are so overwhelmingly superior.
> > >
> >
> > If its a shock then you haven't been following the results for cross for
> the
> > past 2 or 3 years. There are ALWAYS that many Belgians in the top 10 of
> any
> > major race. If Vanoppen was racing, there would have been another one.
>
> No, what I mean is that the Belgians are so superior to everyone else there's pretty obviously
> something going on. Now perhaps it is just one of those coincidences in which 6 superior athletes
> all come from one neighborhood, but it is suspicious as hell to me.

Cross seems to be incredibly popular in Belgium; a look at the number of events they have listed
on Cyclingnews would bear that out: <http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross.php?id=cross/cross03-04> (http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross.php?id=cross/cross03-04)
But based on what I've read,it seems like the Belgians make an effort to keep the people who are
doing 'cross in it. You sure can't say the US has encouraged anyone to stay in 'cross. I think
the steady high level of the competition there has to help make them all better.

--
tanx, Howard

"We're not laughing -at- you, we're laughing -with- you..) "But... I'm not
laughing???" Happiness

remove YOUR SHOES to reply, ok?

[Davide Tosi]

"Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo.com> wrote:

>Pontoni ain't exactly flypaper and he was sitting in the middle of a bunch of Belgians. Popsicle
>was so far down you had to look for him in the also-ran results.

Pontoni is 37 years old and considering that he even had a major mechanical problem that forced him
to change the bike exactly when Wellens and Mario attacked, I think that the Friuli veteran really
did as much as he could.

The real reason for Flemish dominance in x-country is that only there you can still find young first
rate cyclists dedicating themselves to this specialty.

[A.Lee]

On Sun, 01 Feb 2004 20:29:22 -0500, Wade Summers wrote:

>
> "Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:4ugTb.7998$F23.285@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net...
>> No, what I mean is that the Belgians are so superior to everyone else there's pretty obviously
>> something going on. Now perhaps it is just one of those coincidences in which 6 superior athletes
>> all come from one neighborhood, but it is suspicious as hell to me.
>>
>
> With the risk of sounding naive, I do think a lot of it comes from the fact that cyclocross is
> popular in Belgium. A greater % of the pool of talented athletes race bikes in Belgium. I think if
> you took the American kids that show some talent like Driscoll, Lebas, White, Powers, Anthony,
> etc, and based them in Belgium all season they would start getting some results. You wanna play
> baseball with the best, you come here, you wanna race cross with the best you go to Belgium.

Yep, you've got it there.The cross racing scene in Belgium(and the Netherlands to a slightly lesser
extent) is huge.We've had 2nd level Belgium racers enter our National Series in the UK, and they've
made our best look slow.To see the enthusiasm, you have to go there and see it.Local races,with
useless riders like me entering, are watched by over 1000 spectators.UCI races regularly get 50000
spectators, where we in the UK struggle to get 500 come to watch our National series. I went to a
midweek evening race in October, in a small town.They had over 100 sponsors of the race listed in
the race programme - the biking/racing ethic gets to everyone there. Alan
--
To reply by e-mail, change the 'minus' to 'plus'. http://www.dvatc.co.uk (http://www.dvatc.co.uk/) - Off-road cycling in the
North Midlands.

[Tom Kunich]

"Wade Summers" <wadesummersSPAMSUCKS@cox.net> wrote in message
news:PJhTb.16073$fZ6.2359@lakeread06...
>
> With the risk of sounding naive, I do think a lot of it comes from the
fact
> that cyclocross is popular in Belgium. A greater % of the pool of talented athletes race bikes in
> Belgium. I think if you took the American kids that show some talent like Driscoll, Lebas, White,
> Powers, Anthony, etc, and based them in Belgium all season they would start getting some results.
You
> wanna play baseball with the best, you come here, you wanna race cross
with
> the best you go to Belgium.

That might be, but here we have a huge talent pool of baseball players while over there in Belgim
they probably have fewer cyclocrossers than here. But the level is so high that it comes down to
damned BUNCH sprints. Here there's 5 minutes between first and second.

[Tom Kunich]

"Davide Tosi" <davide.tosi@comune.re.it> wrote in message
news:401eb648.119972767@news.cis.dfn.de...
> "Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> >Pontoni ain't exactly flypaper and he was sitting in the middle of a
bunch
> >of Belgians. Popsicle was so far down you had to look for him in the also-ran results.
>
> Pontoni is 37 years old and considering that he even had a major
mechanical
> problem that forced him to change the bike exactly when Wellens and Mario attacked, I think that
> the Friuli veteran really did as much as he could.
>
> The real reason for Flemish dominance in x-country is that only there you can still find young
> first rate cyclists dedicating themselves to this specialty.

Now that is something worth considering and make me feel better about 6 Belgians in the top 10.

[Wade Summers]

"Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:KWCTb.10017$uM2.8305@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> "Wade Summers" <wadesummersSPAMSUCKS@cox.net> wrote in message
> news:PJhTb.16073$fZ6.2359@lakeread06...
> >
> > With the risk of sounding naive, I do think a lot of it comes from the
> fact
> > that cyclocross is popular in Belgium. A greater % of the pool of
talented
> > athletes race bikes in Belgium. I think if you took the American kids
that
> > show some talent like Driscoll, Lebas, White, Powers, Anthony, etc, and based them in Belgium
> > all season they would start getting some results.
> You
> > wanna play baseball with the best, you come here, you wanna race cross
> with
> > the best you go to Belgium.
>
> That might be, but here we have a huge talent pool of baseball players
while
> over there in Belgim they probably have fewer cyclocrossers than here. But the level is so high
> that it comes down to damned BUNCH sprints. Here there's 5 minutes between first and second.
>
>

The US may have more licensed racers (although I'm not so sure) but there is definitely a larger
percentage of talented athletes choosing cycling in Belgium than there is here or in many other
countries. And I think a larger
% of bike racers stick with and focus on cyclocross in Belgium. Page and
Gullikson would be the 2 Americans that I would say have cross as their priority. And Gully only
focused on the domestic scene this year. 2... Page is the only one trying to make a living with
cross. A race in Belgium might have 40-50 guys in the Elite race, 25 of them Belgians and I bet 20
have cross as their priority.

How many Euro cross races have you seen this year? I have at least 8 races from this season on dvd,
World Cups, Superprestige, Cat1s, none have finished in a bunch sprint. World Cup 1 in Turin Italy
was on a dry fast course and had a lot of pack riding but in the end it came down to a 2 up sprint.
Most races all come down to a guy here, 2 guys there, a group of 3 or 4, etc. Often minutes apart.
Don't make **** up.

Wade

[Dan Connelly]

Wade Summers wrote:
> The US may have more licensed racers (although I'm not so sure)
In assessing the talent pool, masters don't count.

Dan

[Kurgan Gringion]

"Dan Connelly" <d_j_c_o_n_n_e_l@i_e_e_e.o_r_g> wrote in message
news:IvFTb.21020$yp6.15486@newssvr25.news.prodigy.com...
> Wade Summers wrote:
> > The US may have more licensed racers (although I'm not so sure)
>
> In assessing the talent pool, masters don't count.

Dumbass -

You left out the "Fattie" part.