Yeah, Vague is based mostly on M. Van der Poel, so he's around 19/20 at this point and aimed to be a serious contender for wins now and then. In Cyclo-Cross, it's common that riders are already impressive at relatively young age. Probabldy because endurance isnt so important, whilst acceleration plays a big role. Look at Albert, Boom or recently Van Aert as examples.

Actually, I read that Visconti did not abandon the race and finished. So it'd be cool if he could ride the U23 race too.

Looking forward to the next race since this will give a chance to Van Fleming and Welling for one or two mentions during the race and maybe they can get a decent result too. With Vague's weakness in flat hard riding, he'll probably just have a nice sunday stroll.

EDIT: U23 whizz-kids (love that word) are Vague, Shay Gormley, Lipawsky, Mazzarelli, Carlisle. At least those guys are U23 and finished relatively high in both races.

I guess a factor in real cyclo-cross is that riders do often switch to road, rather than stay in CX - such as Boom and Stybar. This helps to open up more opportunities for the younger riders to shine.

Sure, Visconti is welcome in the U23 race. Looks like it has switched from a walkover to a coin toss now. If any more join, I'll need a dice

There's the update on Max Power. Bad news and missing races. Hopefully the UCI will be supportive or it's going to be a major blow to his season.

Oh boy you blew that right back in my face, with a tough choice to face now
I'll think on it and tomorrow - alongside the Hertford preview - I'll release the UCI statement about Power's situation.

Also, some great post-race comments! Now we turn our direction towards the Hertford Classic, where we should see a (totally) different playing field!

You wanted Role Play. I have killed before so be thankful

Haha no it's great
He'll have his answer tomorrow. I'm already happy he didn't break anything. Crash didn't look too good

Sorry, I just posted in game thread but depending on profile my riders may ride in the U23 race.

Ah, can't post until tomorrow, anyway, Sylvain won't race Hertford (or the u23) so he can go to Australia to prepare.

But would it be possible for my other U23 riders to race? Pierre and maybe Acord I think.

Michael Bollinger will go to the Under 23 race.

@trek Give them a media post saying they're going to the U23 and I'll add them to the list. Full names will help, since I don't know who your riders are!

@Matt: Are you sure about sending Mazzarelli to the U23 Race in Netherlands? He has finished two times very high and is one of the best riders in the game. SportingNonsense asked for mid/low U23 riders to participate.

I can still change that of course
I know what SN said, indeed Matt said that it will just be a rest race and his expectations are not high at all because he's not in shape and even a bit jaded after the first 2 races

Any riders who are too good for the U23 race but turn up anyway will have a high probability of failing to finish

Goddamnit , how did that happen, not another crash in such an important race

Curious about the U23 race result actually, there is quite some interest on it.
SN, you could help me out a lot by sending me a list of riders who'll participate in that race so I can scratch them from the race tomorrow. I'd appreciate it

Preview coming up!

Preview is up, along with a statement regarding Max Power.
I'm not really too happy about the preview myself, though, poorly written. But I'm too tired today to really get into it, so sorry about that. Hope it's all right for you, though

I hope to do a better race report tomorrow, though.
Please do let me know if your rider isn't starting, because otherwise he'll just race in Hertford and he won't appear in the U23 race (reported by SN)

While I appreciate these initiatives, I do hope they won't become a weekly thing, though. The intention of the game is that every riders competes in the calendar.

Verboven and Guido would join the U23 rather then make the trip to the rain

Read the preview, going to spend a lot of time writing today, but you said that Pierre Lipawsky would be missed, Sylvain isn't racing, but Pierre is.

As far as I'm aware, these riders are entered into the U23 race:

Christian Schiltz	Luxembourg
Mustafa Moli	Namibia
Mohuti Sow	Botswana
Ketso Tembi	Botswana
Guido Visconti	Belgium
Michael Bollinger	Australia
Rudy Verboven	Belgium
Mario Guido	Italy

It's a one-off feature for me. I'd have done it a little later in the season if it wasn't for the forthcoming month of travel.

Hey, Ian,

Is there any sort of team ranking system? It would give an advantage to your team targeting something, etc.