LEFTY Cross Worlds??

[Jerry]

Maybe next year they will have a lefties only race, but this year, all the NORMAL people will have
to put up with this affirmative action bull#$%@...

I seriously can't believe they HAD to put the pits backwards. That is so wrong. Have you ever tried
taking a bike lefty? You have to dismount/remount lefty. Why would you DO that? I seriously can't
believe this.

on the first couple laps if its muddy.

J

From cyclo-cross.info (good site, BTW, has English side)

WK Pont-Château: Material posts [Pits] cause trouble !

At the World Championships in Pont-Château, the Belgian riders are not happy with the fact that in
the material posts [poor translation - talking about the PITS], the bike has to be hand over on
the left side

Among the Belgian pro's, it's only Sven Vanthourenhout who takes the bike at his left side. So, no
problem for him. The other Belgians are clearly not happy with this situation. Sven Nys thinks that
accidents might happen. Bart Wellens says to take the bike from the right side anyway. "If I will
get disqualified by doing so, things might run out of hand than." says a furious worldchampion.

According to Plaisance, the French coach, there is nothing to discuss. "Since last year, everybody
knew how the material posts would be situated here. All riders have had enough time to practice.
Besides, for a real champion, this is not a hard obstacle to take."

Yves Crombeen - 01-29-2004

 

[Van Hoorebeeck]

The Belgians have protested. Lefty Nys too. The French organizers call this protest a "Belgian
joke", "they've known it for a year".

 

[Wayne]

"the NORMAL people will have to put up with this affirmative action bull#$%@..."

So who were the French course designers thinking of (surely not Vanthourenhout) when they made this
decision? Are a # of the French riders right-siders (Magnien is, isnt he?)?

If you look at the map it looks like the only way this could be fixed would be to reverse the
direction of the course. As it stands it looks like the pit bisects the course and is double sided.
Without reversing the course it looks like there are only a couple of places to put the pits on the
traditional side and they're quite close to each other. So you're stuck with only 1 pit or 2 close
together which everybody would ***** about as well.