I feel like we generated an adequate amount of hype for the arrival of Woutmas 2020 that took place Thanksgiving weekend. With 2020 officially the YEAR OF WOUT, it was hard to not get excited for Van Aert’s return to cyclocross at Kortrijk on Saturday and Tabor on Sunday.
I obviously have my thoughts on Woutmas, but I figured that Bill might want to chime in as well and offer his own take on the celebration of all things Woutness. While we were getting ready to launch the CXHairs Bulletin, Bill and I took some time to swap emails with our respective takes on Woutmas.
Featured image: Yefrifotos
Zach
Well Bill, the calendar said Thanksgiving, but in the cyclocross world, it was Woutmas. Like any good kid waiting for Santa Cross, I was up at the crack of dawn to watch Lucinda Brand lay waste to the Elite Women’s field and Wout van Aert make his 2020 cyclocross debut. I hate getting up early on weekends, so that just shows you how stoked I was for this weekend’s races.
I’d say this year marked the second Woutmas, with last year representing the first when the People’s Champ came back from his Tour injury and finished fifth at Azencross. As I wrote last week, I think we had higher expectations for Woutmas 2020 than we did last year; we were expecting the PS5 instead of just being happy Santa remembered to stop at our cyclocross house.
The year 2020 proved to be the YEAR OF WOUT on the road, and I think it’s safe to say we were expecting Wout to come in on form that suggested he might maybe sorta kinda challenge MvdP every once in a while.
It’s against that backdrop that I’d say Woutmas was … kind of disappointing? I mean, two third-place finishes while riding off the second and third row are nice results, and Wout at least tried to make his move in both the races, but he kind of ran out of gas in the end at both Kortrijk and Tabor. Folks might say, well, give him time to get on form, but he’s coming off a career-best road season, not a potentially career-ending injury! Maybe it’s a bit greedy, but I was probably looking for him to win one of those races.
IDK if I see the Mother Duck Wout we saw over the weekend threatening MvdP’s supremacy. To throw some MATH at you, MvdP started on the third row at Tabor last year and won; Wout started on the third row and finished third. Advantage, Van der Poel, for sure.
Bill
Zach, thanks for the note. I, too, was excited for Woutmas, but growing up in a Jewish family my excitement for the season is somewhat tempered and my expectations are kept low. In that vein, for me, Wout performed as I expected. Remember last year when Mathieu predicted fifth place for Wout in his return and that’s what he got (I think I have that right, if not, it’s a good story nonetheless). Around third to fifth was where I thought Wout would slot in amidst a squadron of flying Sauces. He’ll do better, but he has to get his cross legs under him and he’s in no rush.
Wout comes into this season with even less to prove than last year. After his 2019 injury, he wanted to show that he was still a viable bike racer. It wasn’t as much about being good at cyclocross but more about, hey guys, I’m still here, and I’m still fast, and I’ll be back on the road next year, suckers. I think that for this year, he’s just out there racing bikes. It’s more similar to when Stybar would come back and mess with Sven’s head. Styby didn’t care, but it meant everything to Sven.
Along those same lines, we all know that Wout’s rival is Mathieu. The cyclocross gods anointed this rivalry years ago and blessed it with holy beef. But there seems to be some confusion amongst the rank and file. Eli also seems to believe he’s in a rivalry with Wout. But I don’t think anyone informed Wout, who is just doing his thing.
Eli evidently has something to prove against the three-time world champ who is stealing all the headlines even when he’s not winning. The problem is that Eli is so concerned with the former World Champ that he lost sight of his own teammates. By the time he wrests control back from the other Sauces, Wout may be leaving all of them in the dust. If Eli really wants to get Wout’s attention at this point, I would suggest doing it the old fashioned way by releasing a dis track.
-Bill
Zach
I wonder what Kevin Pauwels is up to these days. I really hope Eli consults him when he works on that dis track.
I was really hoping you were going to open the Eli Pandora’s box, and I was not disappointed. As you mentioned, Eli came into the weekend looking to be the Grinch who stole Woutmas. And to his credit, here we are talking about Eli in a post about Wout. But we’re not talking about how great he raced on Saturday and how he nearly won a World Cup on Sunday; we’re … kind of talking about how irrelevant he was.
Now that I think about it, the Grinch analogy is perfect. Eli is sitting on top of Mt. Krumpit saying, “Pooh pooh Wout who?” while down below in Woutville, Wout is admiring his Flandrien award and sitting in his large palace (I assume he owns a large palace) daydreaming about beating MvdP at Flanders next spring. And all the good Whos of cyclocross nation are singing songs of joy and celebrating Woutmas, even if he came away with two thirds on the weekend.
That analogy is probably terrible and whatever, I am still kind of grateful for Eli. In this world of Another Generic Belgian, Eli’s attitude at least makes him … different. At the same time, I feel sorry for the dude. He’s the Grinch, and since this isn’t Jingle Cross, everyone kind of ignores the Grinch and goes on to celebrate despite the Grinch.
Eli’s desire to send a message this weekend did, I think, give us some good insight into what’s going on within the Sauce hierarchy. With the bigger of the two races on Sunday, I was expecting the Sauces to pull some team tactics on Wout on Saturday and maybe give Mikey V or Sweeck the chance at the win. Toon obviously threw a wrench in those plans when he gifted Mikey V his massive early lead, but even if Vanthourenhout hadn’t flatted, it kind of felt like Eli would try to reel him back in. In the end, it was good to see Eli race with some purpose for the first time since Euros. IDK, he is a bit cute when feisty.
As a not-road guy, I have been doing my best to follow the Sauces team tactics and make sense of the team pecking order. To be honest, I really wish they had one of those all-access video series going like the Lions do. The Dutch would be a stretch, but maybe we could get a sense of how things work based on who gets to ride shotgun or who gets first dibs at top bunk.
When Mikey V again got a big lead on Sunday, it was kind of the ultimate test of the Sauces hierarchy. The IserBEEF started literally because Laurens Sweeck dragged a group back to Iserbyt at Jingle Cross last year. I feel like if there was equality among the Sauces, Iserbyt would have sat in on Toon’s wheel and let Mikey V roll on his way. What we learned when Iserbyt bridged across to his teammate is that either a. Eli is the alpha dog and has carte blanche to do what he wants or b. He REALLY wanted to be the Grinch who stole Woutmas. Also, c. Eli is a prick. I think most fans were like bwomp bwomp go Mikey V when Eli fell flat, but as you mentioned, I don’t think it would have mattered even if Eli won because the weekend was still going to be all about Wout.
You are the preeminent expert in Sauce-ology, what do you think is going on in the Sauce team huddle? And what do you make of Mikey V? Is he a Wannabe or is he making a Topper play?
Bill
Zach-
You have me downright giddy with your Grinch That Stole Woutmas analogy. I feel like we should just end it there. As far as the taste profile of the latest sauces and how they will match with a healthy serving of beef, I think we’re going to have to wait until after the Boom.
A proud citizen of Woutville,
-Bill
Minor quibble re tactics/etiquette - at Tabor it looked impossible to pass anywhere except the paved sections. If the front rider attacked and the person behind couldn't close the gap, the attacker escaped from the whole group.
Vanthourenhout used that well to build his lead. Iserbyt also used that well - fair move to attack and bridge to his teammate without bringing anyone else along. That ensured a Pauwels 1-2.
Agree about the internicine feuding though. If only Sweeck, MV and Iserbyt could work together.