Written by: Colin Batchelor

Have a look in the mirror, like what you see right? Good, now wouldn’t you look better holding a beer? Now wouldn’t you look a lot better holding a beer at a bike race? Now wouldn’t you look just so amazing holding a beer, at a bike race, with tens of thousands of bike crazy fans all holding beers and going crazy? You would? OK, so get you self over to Holland at the end of the month, 31st January and 1st February are the dates for the Cyclo Cross worlds.

The cross worlds are like no other, first of all they’re the shortest, they’re all packed into one tight crazy weekend at the end of January. The track worlds go on for five days and the road is stretched out for a good week. But the cross worlds it’s in and out in just two days. So all the madness, shouting and general craziness that happens at the road worlds is condensed into just two days, you have two days to cram in a weeks worth of beer, two days to cram in a weeks worth of shouting, eating bad food and parting with people you’ve never met, can’t understand, but are now you’re best friends. In short those two days are so intense that come Monday you will, if you survive, be unsure if you actually dreamed it. But no, no dream, no matter how weird will ever be like at weekend at the cross.

What makes a great bike race? Well the riders for a start, evenly matched and giving no quarter, intent on destroying each other on the road to victory is a good place to start. But, have a look at the Olympic road races, both great races, both won by brilliant riders in displays of tactical mastery and control. But was there something missing? Yep, no crowds, just imagine how you’d have felt on the climb, on your own, in the rain, hoping the Chinese cop doesn’t start waving his gun at you again, kind of spoil the race wouldn’t it? Now imagine being there, wet or dry amongst 50, 80 or 100 thousand fans all shouting as if their lives depended on it, starts to feel a little more like fun eh?
Well that’s the beauty of the cross worlds, it’ll be wet, it’ll be cold, but when you get the worlds best riders fighting it out in the middle of 80 thousand beer fuelled fans there is no better place to be.

Now like all bike races location is all important. The course needs to be tough enough to make it a hard race, to give the riders something to fight against other then their opponents, yet it also needs to be easy enough to make the racing close. But at cross the country is perhaps even more important than the type of course and the ideal country for a cross race is of course, Belgium. Well this year the race is in Holland, well I say Holland, it’s so close to the Belgian border that you can shout across to Mum for extra mayo if your Frits start running dry.
You see the Belgians, as I’m sure you know, embrace bike racing like, well like you and I do. They are five star crazy for it. But you’re average Belgian bike fan isn’t just a fan, oh no. He (or she) is a full on expert and lets be honest here, not a Monday morning water cooler kind of expert, oh no. They have a deep knowledge of tactics, form, ability and training that makes you think it must be on the school curriculum. They will know riders personally, their local town or village will hold bike races at which they will inevitably help out. Here cyclists are front page news, have their own TV shows and are household names. Here every rider will have a fan club and it is at cross that those fan clubs find their reason to exist.

So the cross worlds is a weekend of affirmation, a weekend of celebration and a weekend of consumption, conspicuous consumption of beer, of frits and indeed of anything that in all honesty cyclists should avoid.

Sadly things aren’t what they used to be, like Alpe d’Huez with it’s crash barriers, cyclo cross has had to pay heed to the health and safety police, so sadly the days where your average cross race would have part of the course running through the beer tent are a thing of the past. Still, if the riders won;t come to you and your beer, you should take your beer and go to them, spend two days in the mud with the Dutch and the Belgians, spend two days destroying a years good healthy living, spend two day at the cross worlds.

File Photo by: CorVos Pro