@Ian Butler: Hehe, that's the plan but I'm sure there'll be other big belgian talents coming up once Nys and Albert retire.
@The Hobbit: Thank you The Hobbit. Try again and again... that's the vital stuff of my gameplay stories.
@sutty68: Thank you sutty68. After some time, he'll be more happy about the podium rather than the lost victory but it's natural that young guys like him are disappointed at such a close outcome.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Bpost Bank Trofee – Oostmalle Sven Nys completes Bpost Bank Trofee domination
Cannondale: Visconti
Temperature: 7°
The last race for me in this season: I thought it’d be tough to motivate myself for this race after the podium and close missing out of the win on the previous race but once I was at the start line, I couldn’t wait to take this race on.
Sven Nys triumphed here in his last race of the season and by taking Oostmalle, he also confirmed thereby his overall victory of Bpost Bank Trofee 2012/2013. Surely a bit of a consolation prize for him after missing out on the World Cup and Superprestige classification and merely coming in third at the World Championships. But we know Sven Nys, the CX-Superstar will surely come back one way or another.
There’s been some lovely atmosphere around Oostmalle before. While the first few laps offered some solid racing in a big group, there was a eventually split and I was lucky enough for once to be on the top side of things. I even tried to make a push for things once more but I didn’t achieve much by early attacking.
Instead, I had to watch how Nys and the other guys dropped one after another. The racing got more intense the closer to the finish it got. Something that’s not always the case with Cyclocross. In any case, Nys really paced hard over those hills and one by one they couldn’t follow. His victory today was a testimony of his strength, while my 10th place is a solid end to my first professional CX season.
Bpost Bank Trofee - Oostmalle
Rank
Name
Team
Time
1
Sven Nys
Crelan- Euphony
3h23'28
2
Niels Albert
BKCP - Powerplus
+ 34
3
Zdenek Stybar
Czech
s.t.
4
Kevin Pauwels
Sunweb - Napoleon Games
s.t.
5
Tom Meeusen
Telenet - Fidea
s.t.
6
Philipp Walsleben
BKCP - Powerplus
+ 1'57
7
Bart Wellens
Telenet - Fidea
s.t.
8
Francis Mourey
FDJ - BigMat
+ 2'49
9
Lars Van Der Haar
Rabobank Giant Offroad
s.t.
10
Raphael Visconti
Cannondale Cyclocross World
s.t.
Spoiler
11
Lars Boom
Rabobank Giant Offroad
+ 6'53
12
Roy Van Heeswijk
Orange Babies
s.t.
13
Xandro Meurisse
Baboco
+ 7'28
14
Klaas Vantornout
Sunweb - Napoleon Games
+ 12'15
15
John Gadret
Ag2r - La Mondiale
+ 12'47
16
Zdenek Mlynar
Czech
+ 13'21
17
Bart Aernouts
AA Drink - Leontien.nl
s.t.
18
Martin Zlamalik
Crelan- Euphony
+ 14'00
19
Wietse Bosmans
BKCP - Powerplus
s.t.
20
Mariusz Gil
Kwadro - Stannah
s.t.
21
Bart Verschueren
Crelan- Euphony
s.t.
22
Marcel Meisen
BKCP - Powerplus
s.t.
23
Sven Vanthourenhout
Crelan- Euphony
+ 15'13
24
Angelo De Clerq
Sunweb - Napoleon Games
s.t.
25
Radomir Simunek
Kwadro - Stannah
s.t.
26
Martin Bina
Cycklo Team Tabor
s.t.
27
Dieter Vanthourenhout
BKCP - Powerplus
s.t.
28
Jemer Jubbega
Rabobank Giant Offroad
s.t.
29
Vincent Baestaens
Crelan- Euphony
s.t.
30
Julien Taramarcz
BMC Mountainbike Racing Team
s.t.
31
Thijs Al
Telenet - Fidea
s.t.
32
Jiri Polnicky
Sunweb - Napoleon Games
s.t.
33
Eddy Van Ijzerdoorn
Orange Babies
s.t.
34
Ian Field
Hargroves
s.t.
35
Gerben De Knegt
Orange Babies
+ 16'08
36
Joeri Adams
Telenet - Fidea
+ 16'37
37
Aurélien Duval
UV Aube
s.t.
38
Enrico Franzoi
Selle Italia - Guercotti
s.t.
39
Micki Van Empel
Crelan- Euphony
s.t.
40
Vladimir Kyzivat
Czech
s.t.
41
Niels Wubben
Rabobank Giant Offroad
s.t.
42
Rob Peeters
Telenet - Fidea
s.t.
43
Steve Chainel
FDJ - BigMat
s.t.
44
Arnold Jeannesson
FDJ - BigMat
s.t.
45
Paul Voss
Stevens Racing Team
s.t.
46
Gianni Vermeersch
BKCP - Powerplus
s.t.
47
Mike Teunissen
Rabobank Giant Offroad
s.t.
48
Davy Commeyne
Crelan- Euphony
s.t.
49
Gert-Jan Bosman
Rabobank Giant Offroad
s.t.
50
David Van Der Poel
BKCP - Powerplus
s.t.
51
Tom Van Den Bosch
Hargroves
s.t.
52
Stijn Huys
Orange Babies
s.t.
53
Sascha Weber
Stevens Racing Team
s.t.
54
Arnaud Grand
Telenet - Fidea
s.t.
55
Patrick Van Leeuwen
Orange Babies
s.t.
56
Thijs Van Amerongen
AA Drink - Leontien.nl
s.t.
57
Rafael Visinelli
Selle Italia - Guercotti
+ 18'35
Bpost Final Classification
Rank
Name
Time Gap
1
Sven Nys
00:00:00
2
Niels Albert
00:02:50
3
Zdenek Stybar
00:05:17
4
Kevin Pauwels
00:06:14
5
Tom Meeusen
00:08:17
6
Philipp Walsleben
00:10:37
7
Raphael Visconti
00:14:12
8
Lars Van Der Haar
00:14:45
9
Francis Mourey
00:15:26
10
Bart Wellens
00:16:36
Spoiler
11
Rob Peeters
00:18:34
12
Mike Teunissen
00:18:40
13
Bart Aernouts
00:19:15
14
Julien Taramarcz
00:19:34
15
Roy Van Heeswijk
00:19:39
16
Klaas Vantornout
00:20:09
17
Radomir Simunek
00:21:33
18
Martin Bina
00:21:37
19
Thijs Al
00:21:42
20
Radek Polnicky
00:21:42
So that's it for the season. I won't be participating in the Cannondale Road Season 2013 and rather train and develop my quality as a rider more. I'm as of yet not sure when I'll return to racing. It'll be either way Cyclo-Cross Season 2013/2014, which is unlikely though. Far more realistic is a little trip to the New England CX-Scene in Autumn. Race organizers in the USA have dropped quite some interesting prospects concerning the cyclocross scene overseas. Plus, Cannondale would certainly like to see another competitive rider of theirs on the trails. There's also a possibility you'll only see me on the road in 2014.
It was a surprisingly long, successful CX-season for me. I am still too young to keep pushing my body like that. I'll need to grow and develop. I need to learn mechanics, build up muscles, gain power output and endurance... I also need to finish school, I'm still only 19 years old after all. My mum advised as much. If it were only up to my dad, I'd be climbing straight for 8 hours per day.
Europe’s Cyclo-Cross Season 2012/2013 was full of surprises. Especially in the first half of the season, many good riders could snatch a unique, big amount of victories from the usual suspects. However, over time Sven Nys, Niels Albert, Zdenek Stybar & Co. returned to dominating the scene in their usual manner.
The World Cup was a close competition to watch. Sven Nys and Niels Albert were always in a head-to-head fight, however in the last race Kevin Pauwels sneaked between those two with his victory at Hoogerheide.
Superprestige 2012/2013 also belong to Ex-World Champion Niels Albert. The Belgian came back with a true domination by winning the last two races in Hoogstraten and Middelkerke. This was especially remarkable since Albert didn’t score much in the Superprestige season so far at that point. Until Hoogstraten he had only once achieved a podium rank this season in any Superprestige race. He surely made a comeback there.
Bpost Bank Trofee was nothing but a true show of strength by Sven Nys. Especially with his performance at Koppenberg, he delivered a unique, rememerable performance. He put everybody in their place and most co-favourites lost over 5 minutes on him that day. The harsh conditions and the tough terrain of Koppenberg once more showed that when push comes to shovel, Sven Nys is always the best bet. The CX-Superstar always defended his lead and finished his Bpost Bank Trofee streak with a win at Oostmalle.
The probably 4 best Cyclo-Cross riders in the world each achieved 3 victories in the big classifications. While they have scored multiple victories in smaller races, we shall only include the prestitiguos ones. Niels Albert and Lars Van der Haar both scored their Elite Tour victories in the time-frame of nearly a month. Lars Van der Haar really impressed in December by winning Roubaix, Essen and Loenhout. Albert did it in similar fashion at the end of the season in February. Sven Nys and Zdenek Stybar had their victories over a larger period though. While the Czech surely had his highlight in January by becoming for the third time World Champion, he often times disappointed in the earlier races and thus lost chances for the overall victories. With him likely becoming more focused onto road cycling, Stybar will turn into more of a guest star in future years.
As a conclusion of the season, the UCI has compiled a list of some great shots. I am included in them as well (... what a great, great honour for me ).
See you soon,
Raphael
Great images along the way, fantastic memories…
… which one’s your favourite?
Find it out in the spoiler!
Spoiler
Bpost Ronse: My second race and this guy crashes ahead of me.
World Cup Plzen: Lay me a bed there.
Bpost Koppenberg: Tough climbs, foggy view for Mourey. Make me suffer like one of your french boys.
Superprestige Zonhoven: …and then, it didn’t rain. For once.
World Cup Kokijde: Sea of folks.
Superprestige Gieten: Make room, I’m coming through.
World Cup Roubaix: Lars Van der Haar making a statement for the future in Roubaix’s Velodrome.
I wasn’t the smartest kid on the block but somehow I managed to get my degree eventually with some good old learning. I nearly forgot how to make my brain hurt. Seems like all these kilometers in the legs don’t help much once you have to take care of some calculations.
When I was finished, I spend some time with the guys and girls, until I headed out. Not for holiday mind you. They all were saying, “oh yeah, you’ll do some cycling there and here and over there, in Spain, Italy and Turkey…”
But it’s not holiday for me. They may have felt like their big day of tests and degrees was work. For me, work was just about to start.
Visiting America
I came to America in hopes of some decent enough training opportunities in the Rocky Mountains. Ride some Gran Fondos, take on some serious elevation and complete fantastic mileage through the mountains. I’ll ride for hours and hours without a soul to spare. There were mountains all around me, build with some tough roads, while wild nature welcomed me. I had saddle sore and my legs hurt every day. I kept pushing myself. I fell from my bike out of exhaustion and I crashed into barriers countless times by improving my downhill skills. It was sort of a graduation gift from my parents.
While smashing down those walls and mountains, I met some friendly faces. Girls on the bike have a certain allure of course. I spent for the first time large parts of weeks without my family, but that new found freedom certainly had a welcome feel to it once you got used to it. Making out with girls may not be the same as winning a race, but since I haven’t really collected any wins as Merckx or Vos, I thought I might as well do that thing right…
Eventually, spending so many summer months here, I think I have improved. But when Autumn came, and after all that training, I felt rather exhausted for the CX-season in Europe.
I was in talks before with some local CX riders and some race organizers. The guys on my Cannondale team (Johnson, Trebon, Driscoll) do most of their racing on US soil. I thought about it before, but I had to make sure.
When the CX season was about to start in the US, I decided to visit an event in Las Vegas. While my father, who came to visit, was a bit irritated by the (sometimes) amateurish approach, I liked the open feel towards it. After the race I called the guys at Cannondale and we decided I’d race some more CX races here, while mostly honing my road skills.
The boys always go for a full weekend, thus they ride two times the same course on the weekend. I have been mostly training on the road and I have been training hard. When I came down from the Rockies, I felt in great shape but I was already tired. It may sound wrong, but consider this my weekend stroll. It was an opportunity to compete on a great level, while also finding time for relaxation.
The racing had a nice twist to it though and when I returned to Europe, I got something back that I may have seemed about to lose already at my young age: The Joy of Cycling.
Las Vegas
Las Vegas can be more than just a glittery city full of addicts and one-arm bandits. There’s some great, wide roads and vivid landscape to race. It’s also hot as hell. Fortunately, on this September day it wasn’t too hot. I helped my guys on the front of the race, while going slower in the second half. Driscoll and Johnson did a great run for Cannondale and both achieved a Top 5 ranking. The winner was Jonathan Page.
USGP Sun Prairie
5 days later I dropped a visit to the USGP Sun Prairie. It’s a race with some steep climbs and a nice lake. I watched the first race mildly interested, took a swim with a local girl in the nearby lake and stayed up a little bit too long. I was quite smitten the next day when I had to race. But I still performed, I was feeling great. I achieved a Top 5 alongside Johnson, while the victory went to Troy Wells.
NEPCX Coulcester
Some clouds over the circuit made for familiar temperature in Coulcester. It’s the start of the NEPCX and here in New England, there’s some great competition and the love and passion for CX can be really seen. Some local journalists even approached me for an interview and asked me for differences between the US and European scene. Well, I ended up telling them my life-story. Chitter-chatter. I spend some good time on the front but had trouble getting up there. Keiichi Tsujiura of Japan won the race and surprised certainly everybody here. Seems like I wasn’t the only foreigner around these parts.
NEPCX Providence
I have to hand it to you: Providence must have been one of the most beautiful courses I ever rid. It’s just flawlessly designed. Some snow and a wonderful forest accompany the road, which leads under a bridge and through a tunnel. Quite some challenge as well. I ended up talking with one of the race organizers after the race and I told him that I loved it and that I may end up supporting it later on. We’ll see how it goes but I promised to return. Oh, and the race itself was quite generous to me as well: I took third place and I have to admit that I come into better shape by the day. The weariness of training slowly diminishes, while my legs luckily feel all the roads I have dared to take on.
NEPCX Warwick
It’s December now and the NEPCX in Warwick turned out to be my last race in the US. After this race I said goodbye to many faces I have met and whom I came to appreciate. It was a hilly course and I had quite some fun riding it. I also showed some of that attacking that granted me a place at Cannondale in the first place. However, I crashed into one of the barriers. Through that, the others came back and in the final lap, I supported my teammate Ryan Trebon. He eventually came out on top and took the race. I wanted to stay for celebrations but my flight back to Rome was early in the morning in New York.
Some more images of my long "vacation" in the US.
Spoiler
As I was at the airport, I thought: It was time to find out how just by how much I improved over the last year.
“Rome is really a race that should suit me well. It was unfortunate that I missed out on it last year due to being sick back then but I am happy to return to European CX particularly here. It has some tough sections and at least one decisive climb. I know the course though, I rode it often times in training.”
“I hope to deliver a good race in front of my home crowd. Certainly I am fresher than the other competitors, but they have the race practice on their side.”
“Yes, I enjoyed my time in the USA. I learned a lot of things and I’m grateful that Cannondale allowed me this extensive training trip. No, I don’t have jet lag fortunately.”
“It looks like Lars Van der Haar is the man to beat as of late. He has won how many World Cup races this season? Two, Three, Four? [Journalists answers] Ah okay, Three. Well, it looks like he’s in splendid form and I’ll try to keep him from winning the fourth [laughs].”
“… I don’t know how I feel. I can smile. That’s enough for now.”
- Raphael Visconti, Press Conference
Of course I received some media attention, but it barely was a fluke once the racing started. I was motivated and feeling great throughout the race. I made several attempts in the earlier laps to break loose. Meeusen, Pauwels and Nys tried as well. Thijs van Amerongen was eventually the guy who managed to keep up the longest. It came a bit out of nowhere, but he really deserved this victory.
But there was plenty of action going around behind there. I expected the laps to be a bit more selective, but they weren’t actually that tough. Or maybe I was just in great shape. In any case, when we hit the final lap, I was looking to gain ground on the others. It didn’t work though, but I still had power left when we hit the last turns. Pauwels and Albert were ahead of me in the finish, but I was fighting to keep at them.
I was coming from behind. I was taking advantage of some slipstream. I was really grinding my teeth here. The home crowd cheered for me… It was close. On the last meters, I couldn’t look anymore. My eyes were falling out, I had to close them for good. When I opened them again, I was there, they were there. All the same, but I won the sprint and came in second!
At that point then, the home crowd got really loud, and really happy. But my father hugged me so tight I could barely hear them through his clothes. I was just smiling all over the place.
