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biarittz
@tonyme, @Ramsaye, @Doctor_Cake & @blowfish were lucky enough to head over to Koksijde to watch the second round of the UIC cyclocross world cup.
Contrast to the UK, the weather was amaze - blue sky, warm & dry as a bone - so the course - always extreme and guaranteed spectacle - was super quick grasstrack and super sketchy ankle deep sand.
We'd been to Koksijde last year but this was Tony's first foray into 'proper' cross and it was good to see his mind blown by the scale of the event, the facilities - chips, beer, sausage, an curiously intimate open air toilets - and the passion of the crowd. And the heckling.
There was a strong GBR line up for the womens race with Helen Wyman, Nicki Harris, Gabriella Durrin and Hannah Payton mixing it up with the Elite Europeans and a strong US contingent.
Helen appeared to have an awful start but clawed her way back up to ninth place, four places behind Nicki who put in a cracking ride. Gabriella also placed well in 14th with just missing out on the points in 30th.
The elite mens race was won by Wout Van Aert who soloed the victory pretty much from the starting gun, lapping up to 38th of 54 places and several points takers. Kevin Pauwels followed him home with Mathieu van der Poel making up the third spot.
US champ Jeremy Powers looked strong and finished 17th, just two slots behind Sven Nys with a back gridded UK champ Ian Field coming in 24th after finishing the first lap in 40th place.
The next round is held - for the first time EVAR - in the UK, Milton Keynes, so please get yourselves up / down there and support our riders battle it out with the best in the world and make it an event to remember.