Weekend Preview: Thank Goodness for Good Directions and Turnip Cross Lokeren
Ethias Cross Lokeren kicks off the 2021/22 European season on Saturday
Well folks, we did it—we made it through another cyclocross offseason. After the pandemic turned 2020 into like the longest year ever, this offseason may have felt a bit shorter than usual as most of us got to socialize a bit more, ride outside, and maybe even race a few times after missing all that last summer.
While North America will wait another week to say GO, as it were, European UCI ‘cross kicks off on Saturday at Ethias Cross Lokeren.
As it will be here in North America, this September will be different than usual in Europe as well. In previous years, Euros would typically have one race and then hop on planes to head to the U.S. for the World Cups. This year, there is a steady stream of four Ethias Cross races on four straight weekends and Superprestige Gieten on October 3 before World Cup Waterloo takes place on the second weekend in October.
While things generally sucked in 2020, the bizarro cyclocross schedule actually worked out okay for fans because with so many races canceled, the top riders were showing up at even the Ethias Cross and unclassified races and putting on a good show. This season, the more historic dynamic of the season starting for real in early October is more likely. In a way, these races may prove to be more of the preseason as riders such as World Champ Lucinda Brand finish up their seasons on the road before moving to the field.
Whatever the fields end up looking like, folks, cyclocross is BACK and more importantly, that means your Weekend Previews are BACK as well.
Now I just need to remember how to do these things…
Saturday - Rapencross Lokeren - Ethias Cross
Elite Women: 10:15 am
Elite Men: 11:30 am
Broadcast: GCN+ (U.S. and Canada)
Recent Results
Elite Women
2020: 1. Aniek van Alphen 2. Manon Bakker 3. Lucinda Brand
2018: 1. Sanne Cant
Elite Men
2020: 1. Eli Iserbyt 2. Toon Aerts 3. Laurens Sweeck
2018: 1. Daan Soete
Race Preview
While most of us have never been to Belgium, cyclocross manages to force us to become experts on Belgian cities and geography. Even if you know your Namurs from your Hammes, Lokeren might still be a bit of a mystery. That is most likely, as the race history shows, because the race is only taking place for the third time this year.
Lokeren is located in East Flanders, between Ghent and holiday-time favorite Sint-Niklaas. “Rapen” translates from Dutch as “turnip,” so folks, let’s get stoked for Turnip Cross. We can only hope there will be a giant novelty turnip to match the giant bunch of grapes that appears at Overijse.
Last year, Lokeren kicked off the 2020-21 season on September 26 after moving back two weekends from a scheduled race date of September 12. In the Women’s race, we got to know yet another young Dutch star as Aniek van Alphen scored the surprise win while Eli Iserbyt got his first of many victories over Toon Aerts to kick off the second season of the Sauce v. Lion battles.
While it was a treat to get to see Lucinda Brand race a full cyclocross schedule last year, fans will have to wait until World Cup Waterloo to see the Women’s rainbow stripes. Brand got selected to represent the Netherlands at Road Worlds in Leuven, Belgium on September 25, but she will be skipping the first-ever Women’s Paris-Roubaix to head to Waterloo and the home of one of her team’s title sponsors.
His debut Elite cyclocross season was not as spectacular as some had hoped, but Thibau Nys is low-key having a solid road campaign, and he will be racing in the U23 Men’s race at Road Worlds before heading, well, nowhere, and then getting ready for Superprestige Gieten on October 3. With Thibau also representing Trek, you can bet he will be making his Elite debut at World Cup Waterloo the following weekend.
I admittedly do not remember much slash anything about this race from last year, so I did a quick watch of the first lap, and not shockingly, Denise Betsema started the race with a giant lead. Betsema returns this year, but there will be no Brand to chase her down and make it a race. Yara Kastelijn, Manon “STATEMENT RACE” Bakker, defending champ Aniek van Alphen, and U23 World Champ Fem van Empel are among the top names on the start list for the women.
Speaking about the Women’s field, there have been some team changes in the offseason, although most of them appear to be a reshuffling of riders on the Roodhoft-owned Alpecin-Fenix, IKO-Crelan, and 777 teams. Maybe they just spun a giant novelty wheel or something.
Rider: Old Team ---> New Team
Statement Race Bakker: Credishop-Fristads ---> IKO-Crelan
Yara Kastelijn: Credishop-Fristads ---> IKO-Crelan
Aniek van Alphen: Credishop-Fristads ---> 777
Loes Sels: IKO-Crelan ---> Proximus - Alphamotorhomes
Maud Kaptheijs: Sauces ---> Deschacht - Group Hens - Containers Maes
Ellen Van Loy: Lions ---> Vondelmolen - De Ceuster Cycling Team
In the Men’s race, the start list is led by Toon Aerts of the Lions and Eli Iserbyt of the Sauces. The other supporting characters in the Lion / Sauce drama will be there as well--Michael Vanthourenhout, Laurens Sweeck, and Lars van der Haar.
While the Sauces and Lions will provide the drama on the course until Wout, Mathieu, and Pidders return in November or December, the IserBEEF continues on the Sauces with Sweeck entering the last year of his contract. After some reports of Sweeck flirting with leaving the team this season, it appears he will be back doing whatever it is Laurens Sweeck does while hopefully—for us—causing some inter-team beef that makes our jobs that much more fun.
There were not quite as many team changes for the Men this offseason. The Lions snagged U23 World Champion Pim Ronhaar from the Sauces in a quest to add a supporting rider for Aerts, but with his results in the Elite races consistently in the teens last season, Ronhaar seemingly has a lot further to go when compared to U23 Worlds runner-up Ryan Kamp, whom the Sauces retained.
Also of note, maybe, is the Containers squad that includes Daan the Maan Soete, Vincent Baestaens, and Tom Meeusen picked up Deschacht, a plastics manufacturing company, as a sponsor. The Plastics - Excavators - Containers? IDK.
The Course
After Belgium dealt with pretty severe restrictions on public activities due to the COVID pandemic, the Belgies will be BACK at cyclocross races this fall. While crowds were already down from PEAK SVEN prior to the pandemic and thus they will likely be even smaller this year, it will be good to see some folks braving the Belgian winter to drink beer and eat frites at races this fall.
The Lokeren course is … IDK, a course. A good amount of the layout appears to be in the woods, and there is a hill in the center of the course the riders will traverse twice each lap.
Optional Weekend Soundtrack
New this year, we will be providing you with an optional soundtrack to get hyped for the coming weekend of cyclocross racing. To kick things off, we’re taking a country turn with a double feature of turnip-related songs in honor of Turnip Cross.
First up is Good Directions by Billy Currington. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to listen to the whole thing for the payoff.
If pop country isn’t your scene, then maybe 5 Acres of Turnips by the Pistol Annies is more your speed.
Rider I Want to Write About
Anna Kay
Thus far in this preview, we’ve already talked about Manon Bakker, Fem van Empel, and Aniek van Alphen, and we haven’t even gotten to Inge van der Heijden, Puck Pieterse, and Shirin van Anrooij. All Dutch riders and all U23 last season.
Throw in Lucinda Brand, Ceylin Alvarado, Denise Betsema, Annemarie Worst, and Yara Kastelijn, and on a given day you could probably pull off an all-Dutch top 10. All of this is to say, it really is the Oranje versus the World right now, and Team Rest of the World is looking for riders to take their respective games to the next level.
American Clara Honsinger did just that, turning heads and Namur and Dendermonde and scoring a 4th-place finish at Oostende Worlds. Kind of going in the other direction was Great Britain’s Anna Kay.
Kay stood out in 2019/20 thanks to her aggressive riding style, barrier-hopping ability, and frankly, her results. That season, Kay finished 3rd at World Cup Bern early in the season, then took 2nd at Bredene, 3rd at Essen, 2nd at U23 Euros, 3rd at Otegem, and finally 3rd at the U23 World Championships in Switzerland.
Moving to the Star Casino team at the start of last season, Kay was expected to compete with Marion Norbert Riberolle as the team’s star rider. However, the results Kay put up in 2019/20 did not materialize in 2020/21. Her best finishes before a disappointing 8th at U23 Worlds were a 5th at RobotCross and 4th at Gullegem, both of which had pretty weak fields.
After Worlds, Kay put together a nice little run in the few February races that took place, hopefully giving her some momentum heading into the current season. Kay finished 4th at Eeklo, beating out Elite Worlds silver medalist Annemarie Worst and Sanne Cant, and then finished 5th at Sint-Niklaas ahead of Manon Bakker.
Kay graduates to the Elites this year, and she is one of the few riders Team Rest of the World has to look at to break the Dutch hegemony in the Elite Women’s field. Kay is a fast starter in races, and hopefully she can carry her success from the end of last year into a fast start at the beginning of the 2021/22 campaign.
Gimmick Watch!
Launching the Bulletin at the beginning of December definitely made Gimmick Watch! easy as we had several months of The Media Pit podcast to allow memes and ideas to simmer and reach maturation. All-in-all, I was quite pleased with the work Is LaUrEnS sWeEcK eLiTe, Sanne Watch, and Is Lars van der Haar BACK? did for the Bulletin previews.
With domestic racing getting added to the mix beginning next week, there are twice as many opportunities, but at the same time, Gimmick Watch! cannot be forced, and so for now, we’ll be floating some trial balloons and bouncing ideas off the wall until we get a good set of gimmicks that sticks.
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