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Looking Back: Hoogerheide World Championships

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Looking Back: Hoogerheide World Championships

Photos from this year's Cyclocross Worlds and the 2020 World Cup

Bill Schieken
Feb 14, 2023
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The last time I was at Hoogerheide was in 2020, before the World Championships in Switzerland. That was a good day of World Cup cyclocross racing that produced a few of my favorite race photos and was the foundation for how I approached this year’s event.

With the changes to the track a hotly discussed topic before last weekend’s World Championships, I thought it would be interesting to compare the 2020 and 2023 Hoogerheide races.

This first set of photos is to get the obvious out of the way: There were many more people at the venue on Sunday in 2023 than in 2020. Still a big crowd in 2020 but not this big. The green space you can see in the second photo about 2/3 of the way down on the right; that’s the same spot as what you see in the top image.

Wout and Mathieu over the three-way flyover late in their race. © 2023 Bill Schieken
The start of the men’s elite race in 2020. Good crowd but not a World Championship crowd. © 2020 Bill Schieken

I have more on the crowd size later in this post, but before I get back to that, I want to talk about one of the notable changes in the 2023 course: the layout of the off-camber after the stairs and before the finishing stretch. In 2020 it was a formidable obstacle with three separate ledges and a significant horizontal stretch. If you got it wrong, it could cost you your race. Here’s Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado getting it right before she didn’t in the last lap of the 2020 edition.

From left to right, Lucinda Brand, Alvarado and Evie Richards use different lines on the off-camber in 2020.

If you look at the same feature in 2023, it isn’t the same. There is no actual horizontal component to the feature. It’s more of a big “C” turn with one primary line. On the right of the photo below, you can see the grown-over ledges ridden in the picture above.

Andrew Strohmeyer and Bailey Groenendaal descend the off-camber during the 2023 Men’s U23 race. © 2023 Bill Schieken

This next photo may be my favorite from 2020. The light was excellent, and the vantage point was perfect for capturing the top of the staircase with the entire venue in the background. Unfortunately, this photo was impossible to take because of the track's layout in 2023. In 2020 there were separate barriers on the right before the big drop and on the right when the riders came up the stairs. For 2023, they used one barrier down the middle of these side-by-side sections, meaning you could no longer get in the middle, where the tv operator is standing on the left, to shoot this angle.

Michael Vanthourenhout and Toon Aerts lead van der Poel and Eli Iserbyt up the stairs early in the 2020 race. © 2020 Bill Schieken

I tried to mimic that background as best I could on the off-camber, but it didn’t have the same effect.

Mathieu leads Wout down the “off camber” with four laps to go. © 2023 Bill Schieken

If you watched the broadcast, you saw “drone alley.” It was a stretch of woods that did not allow spectators and was a perfect place for those fantastic FPV shots. That part of the course was reversed in 2020. Here’s 2020 Belgian National Champ Laurens Sweeck holding off Mathieu in this tricky uphill section. A section that allowed spectators to get up close, a perk they did not enjoy for most of the venue in 2023.

Laurens Sweeck leads van der Poel and Iserbyt in 2020. © 2020 Bill Schieken

And here’s Lars van der Haar leading the field on lap one, coming down that same chute in 2023 sans the spectators.

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Lars van der Haar leads on lap 1. © 2023 Bill Schieken

The Sunday crowd at this year’s World Championships dominated the media talking points, and rightfully so. It seemed to be a return to the heyday of cyclocross with a sea of spectators enjoying the races in person.

Mathieu and Wout, centerstage in the Hoogerheide amphitheater. © 2023 Bill Schieken

The question I keep asking myself is whether this is the result of a renewed interest in the sport at the highest level or purely the star power of Wout and Mathieu? My guess is it’s the latter. As insane as the crowds were on Sunday, Saturday paled in comparison. That’s not to say the crowds weren’t there. We can only dream of a crowd similar to what showed up on Saturday in Hoogerheide at any US cyclocross race. But it was notably fewer people on Saturday than Sunday.

If you look at the photo below, this is a classic example of a race promoter asking, “can you make it look like we had big crowds at our event?” So you work the angles and the framing to make it seem as crowded as possible.

The people indeed came out on Saturday, but they all brought a friend with them on Sunday. © 2023 Bill Schieken

See those purple and blue hats in the foreground of the photo above. The ones on the bottom edge belonged to a group of guys who thought I was taking their picture instead of shooting the race. I don’t blame them. To get the framing I was looking for, I was far away from the action.

Once I noticed them, I told them I’d take their photo but didn’t think they’d ever see it. I was wrong. Here you go, guys. You can see where Lucinda was riding in the photo above in the background.

The boys. © 2023 Bill Schieken

The point of all this is to note the amount of space available on Saturday during the women’s elite race versus Sunday’s men’s race. As I talked about on last week’s Media Pit podcast, I think the UCI should revamp the cyclocross world championships schedule and put the men’s and women’s elite races on Sunday and the other four on Saturday. That would mean the men and women at the top of the sport would race in front of the biggest crowd. Nobody has to decide if they want to see the men’s or women’s race if they have only one day to attend. That the U23 women raced in front of a larger crowd than the elite women seems a little strange.

All of that aside, the Sunday crowd was massive. No framing tricks were necessary to show the scope, although finding the best angles to showcase the enormity of it all was still fun.

Wout and Mathieu center stage as the tension starts to rise. © 2023 Bill Schieken
If you look at the spectators, you can see the line where they are watching the race in front of them instead of watching it on the big screen behind them. © 2023 Bill Schieken
Two seconds before van der Poel wins his fifth elite cyclocross world championship. © 2023 Bill Schieken

As great as the Wout v Mathieu battle was to watch, It’s exciting to know another generational rivalry is just getting started. Fem van Empel v Puck Pieterse is still in its opening chapters. Throw Shirin van Anrooij into the mix, and we may get the true “big three” match-up we’ve all been waiting for on the men’s side.

Fem and Puck at the planks. The decision to ride vs. run was a big topic before the racing started. It ended up not playing into the outcome. © 2023 Bill Schieken
Shirin van Anrooij had time to enjoy her women’s U23 championship. It’s one thing to be considered a heavy favorite, it’s another to live up to the hype. Shirin did both. © 2023 Bill Schieken
Possibly the longest sustained wheelie to finish any world championship. Good job, Puck. © 2023 Bill Schieken
Fem van Empel is a bike racing phenom. Let’s hope we see her back for more cyclocross in the years to come. © 2023 Bill Schieken

Looking at other highlights from the weekend, Isabella and Ava Holmgren going first and second in the women’s junior race was one for the history books. The best finish for Canada at a cyclocross world championships and a capper to a memorable season for the Holmgren family and the Stimulus Orbea squad.

Isabella is the junior world champ, Ava is the elite Canadian national and junior Pan-American champion. That’s a nice season’s work.

Ava Holmgren leads Isabella Holmgren down the drop early in the junior women’s championship race. © 2023 Bill Schieken
Isabella with a gap and two laps to bring it home. © 2023 Bill Schieken
A panoramic view of the stage as Oh Canada plays over the loudspeakers. © 2023 Bill Schieken

Speaking of Canada, the viral moment of worlds had to be Michael van den Ham dislocating his finger and casually resetting it during the first lap of the elite men’s race. Always an accommodating guy, MvdH was kind enough to do this right in front of us.

When I showed Michael this photo of his ring finger, his first reaction was, “oh, I didn’t realize it was that bad!” © 2023 Bill Schieken
You see riders who crash do this all the time with their handlebars to get them straightened. Same idea here. © 2023 Bill Schieken

Another memory I have from 2020 at Hoogerheide was the disappointment of Thibau Nys in finishing third. However, he put that race far behind him with his performance on Saturday.

Nys is in complete control over the planks and on the way to victory in the Men’s U23 championship race. © 2023 Bill Schieken

It was nice to see him take the victory this time and the pride Sven Nys could not contain in his son’s accomplishment.

Sven Nys greets his son right after the finish. © 2023 Bill Schieken

From disappointment to joy was never more evident than the podium shots from 2020 on the right and 2023 on the left.

Thibau on the podium with his second cyclocross world championship medal vs. an introspective Thibau three years earlier. © Bill Schieken

Finally, a few more random shots. When I looked through my photos for this post, I saw the picture below. In my initial review, two weeks ago, this was a throwaway. I’m glad I took a second look. I like the late afternoon light and the effect the tire marks have on the framing.

Wout and Mathieu at the base of the staircase for the final time. © 2023 Bill Schieken

And finally, getting photo credentials for the world championships can sometimes be challenging. The organization has limited photo vests and wants to ensure everyone receiving one has a legitimate reason to be there. Never have I seen a more deserving media credential than the one given to the man below. I shot a roll of film during Sunday’s races and thought I was old school. However, this guy is taking it to a whole new level. If you know who he is or where his paintings are displayed, please leave a comment and let me know.

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Dave McCamant
Feb 14Liked by Bill Schieken

omg- that picture at the end of your post of Wout and Mathieu approaching the stairs mid dismount!!!!! Wow. Wow. The light and the framing are just incredible. You should think about going pro. :)

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1 reply by Bill Schieken
Geoffrey Tiercelin
Feb 14

The painter is actually one of you fellow Americans on the ground this day : Rick Potestio. From what I understand he is the founder of Cyclo-cross Crussade in Portland, OR. And his work is truly amazing !

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