What the hell bikex, why do yo hate us Austrians so much?! Great rider though.

Interesting idea, but so much to read, will definitely try to catch up this weekend

Nicky Van Drenthe would like to ride for Koga if thats okay being dutch

I've already send out a PM but just to make it clear for everyone: I'm not accepting names which translate into "cow molester" or silly names like Manneken Frietjes. Sorry but like I said before this is an attempt at a serious role-playing game so those names have no place here.

Will start with a race, a few riders and maybe even a team to follow.



Place (nation, city): Geraardsbergen, BE

Technical information: [enter a number between 1 - 5, with 1 being very low / nothing and 5 being very high
Technicality: 4
Sand: 3
Uphill: 5
Length of 1 lap: 4
Cobbled sections: 5
Final sprint (length of the final straight road): 2

Other information: The feared Muur van Geraardsbergen was cut from the Ronde van Vlaanderen, but returns as a cyclocross in this GP De Muur. The start is halfway the Vesten, so the riders immediatly start with an uphill cobbled section (but this won't be the worst they'll get, *evil laughter* ). We leave the main road just before the Muur, as we go into the field where a few ups and downs on narrow roads make the start very important. Evantualy we go up quite a bit again, as we end up at the start of the Kapelmuur. It's all the way to the top again, after which we leave the road again and go down again in a very technical descent in the woods. Someone with steering skills can really make a gap here. We end up all the way down in the centre of Geraardsbergen again, where an artificial sand section has been created. This sand section isn't incredibly hard, but it does take away all the speed from the descent. Worse sand riders will practicaly stand still as they turn left on the Vesten towards the finish again. The uphill cobble sprint finish will be quite unique and only the storngest will be able to participate in it!

Ollfardh - calendar is full already, but keep it in mind for next season, because it looks like a great cross

Too bad, I really would've liked that cross


Name: Rudy Verboven
Nationality (region): BE (Flanders)
Date of Birth: 22/10/1993
Height: 1m85
Weight: 69
Specialty: On-road/hard surface sections
Weakness: Ice Ice Baby
Biography: After his many crashes in his first season as road cyclist (see numerous examples in EPIC ), Euskaltel management urged Rudy to train on his bike handling skills. Rudy wanted to take part in a few cyclocrosses during the winter, and Euskaltel management agreed, although they could not find any support riders as volunteer, meaning Rudy would have to find a different team for a short while.

Rudy grew up with cyclists such as Johan Museeuw, Frank Vandenbroucke, and more recently Tom Boonen and Philippe Gilbert, to look up to. Easy to see he loves the classics, but during cold winter days, he followed cyclocross on TV very passionately as well. In his first season he was picked up by Euskaltel, to strenghten their classics squad. Despite a few good results, there were numerous crashes as well.

(this will be my "good" rider)

Stats: [Choose between: very low, low, medium, high, very high]
Bike Handling (technical): low
Sand: low
Uphill: very high
Cobblestones: very high
Sprinting: very high
Explosiveness: high
Flat (TT/riding hard): very high
Power: high
Running: low
Snow/Ice: very low
Jumping: low

I actually thought of the Geraardsbergencross as well, but couldn't find a good descent (forgot about the woods). At least another RvV classic is in.

Mine might not be 100% realistic

Name: Kimi Hakinnen
Nationality (region): Finland
Date of Birth: 07/05/1986
Height: 1m82
Weight: 72
Specialty: Ice
Weakness: Speed
Biography: Born and raised in Northern Finland, this rider knows how to ride on ice. He obviously has great bike handling skills to accomplish this, but misses strenght and explosiveness to get far in the faster races. Nevertheless, a strong winter will make him very competitive.

Stats: [Choose between: very low, low, medium, high, very high]
Bike Handling (technical): high
Sand: low
Uphill: low
Cobblestones: medium
Sprinting: low
Explosiveness: very low
Flat (TT/riding hard): medium
Power: low
Running: low
Snow/Ice: very high
Jumping: low

I've already mentioned that. It doesn't matter, they're raced in the heat.



It even makes me consider ( if this is a success ) to maybe even make a double program: winter program October - February and winter (southern hemisphere) June - September.
That's still a small idea, though.

This looks interesting. When is the deadline for signing up?

Are you fucking kidding me

One could argue that the Kuhschänder from Austria is actually more realistic than a whole Cyclo-Cross squadron of riders from New Zealand, Afghanistan and England.

What's wrong with him, Jes?

as I mentioned, NZ high performance have a very ambitious plan in this reformed world of cyclocross, and NZ probably has better forests, mud, ice, hills, and undulations than some countries like the U.S, maybe, who hosted the WC last year.
It's a new dawn, why you be so stubborn?
EDIT: Ok, the whole team of world beaters/future world beaters is unrealistic, but a few is ok, and at the moment there is only 4, and probably only one more or not even that.

Nice to see that you, as an Austrian, agree with me that the Kuhschänder is realistic.

But nvm I see why Ian doesn't want to have those names in the game, so I'd like to rename my riders:
Martin Kuhschänder -> Martin Hirscher
Manneken Frietjes -> Milan Vermeulen

Wait, what?! Why not just call me straight up a Nazi.

(Ian said he'd like it to be realistic. There are hardly any riders in Great Britain in CX, none on top level in NZ and certainly no one in Afghanistan. I have nothing against two-three riders, but making too many of "exotic" nations greatly hurts the known national balance in CX imo. But hey, not my game, just my 2 cents)

@Bikex: Well, what can I say? We Austrian love our cows.

Ok, I take that back. Just accept that we are here.
And there is the potential with better funding and advertising (NZ High Performance new initiative in this world) New Zealand winter, especially at altitude, is directly suitable for CX. We just don't have someone with lots of money who cares. You can say we only have 4.5million people, but we are the top rugby team, up there at cricket, good at rowing, good at track cycling because that discipline and those (and more) sports (and now also football and road) is what NZHP care about. Not CX. But this is a fantasy world (NZHP gives a rat's) while also being realistic (potential). It's like if Frrome (road trained by GB, who care) was brought up riding for Kenya, never living in GB. He wouldn't be as good. If you've met a true kiwi (not being cocky about our nation) you'll see why we're good without being rich of having a huge pool of people to pick from. Well, the reason which doesn't involve scabbing the Pacific island's best rugby players.

https://pcmdaily.c...st_1002566

Here. Exact same idea. Exact.


Edit:
To be clear, nothing wrong with the rider, just extreme coincidence