Looking Back: Hoogerheide World Championships
Photos from this year's Cyclocross Worlds and the 2020 World Cup
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.
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.
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.
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.
I tried to mimic that background as best I could on the off-camber, but it didn’t have the same effect.
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.
And here’s Lars van der Haar leading the field on lap one, coming down that same chute in 2023 sans the spectators.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It was nice to see him take the victory this time and the pride Sven Nys could not contain in his son’s accomplishment.
From disappointment to joy was never more evident than the podium shots from 2020 on the right and 2023 on the left.
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.
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.
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. :)
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 !