Our CX season comes to a conclusion with the Cyclocross World Championships this past weekend in Hoogerheide, Netherlands.
What an exciting weekend and an incredible atmosphere with 50,000 spectators on Sunday. Cross was definitely there.
3 of our junior boys (AJ August, Ben Stokes, and David Thompson) were selected for the USA team and had a great chance to cap off the season with a great result. Unfortunately, those dreams basically got crushed in the first 10 seconds, with a major crash right at the start involving both AJ August and David Thompson. They got up off the pavement and soldiered on, posting some of the fastest lap times there. Proving their resilience and peak form they had, going into this final race. Ben Stokes escaped the crash and was in 14th place after lap one with some TV time. David was in the 51st spot after the first lap and managed to move up all the way to 16th place. AJ was 69th after lap one, running to pit 1 for a bike exchange, P22 at the end. Ben P29 at the end of an incredible day, but we got left wondering what could have been…
I am incredibly proud of all these young athletes and how far they have come and who they have become. As the Belgian National Coach, Sven Vanthourenhout said, “Champions are not only the ones who always win races. […] Champion is a state of mind.”
photos: @thepenultimatestage & @teka.photography on IG