Video #1 is some very cool aerial footage from this past Sunday's Bay Area Super Prestige race at CanddleStick Point. What a awesome day for mini helicopter camera action it turned out to be. If you ever wanted to know how Cross racers looked to the seagulls flying over head watch this video below!
Video #2 is the 2011 Plzen World Cup Cyclocross race from the Czech Republic.
Nice to see American racer Katie Compton(Rabobank-Giant Offroad) ride away solo to the Women's Elite Victory. Compton is looking very fit to start the World Cup season, and appears to be the very best female Cross racer in the world today. Also you can see Katrina Nash(Luna) take a slide out in one of the slick corners on course. Slips and falls can happen to even the best technical riders in the group, of which Nash clearly is one of the best female bike handlers on the planet. Watch Nash over the board section and you can see her smoothness and Cross skills equate to speed very clearly.
The Men's race is very much worth a watch! The start is a mess as a cameraman is blocking Neils Albert( BKCP-Powerplus) as the start lights are set in motion.
2/3's of the front row get a clear start while Albert is set back.
His facial expressions are worth a second look as he goes from handsome world class Cross racing stud waiting for the start, to pissed off Belgium boy ready to fight any UCI official who he could find right away! Ha!
Check out how steep that staircase run up is... makes the legs hurt just watching!
Lastly, watch Sven Nys(Landbouwkrediet-KDL) answer some furious attacks from Zdenck Stybar(Quick Step-Innergetic) and out maneuver the reigning world champion into the final corners with some bar banging moves to get a clean run into the uphill sprint finish and the win! Nys is a pure bad ass when it comes to finishing races off, and this is what it takes to top Stybar when he is on form & racing Cross in his home country in front of thousands of his homeland fans!
Video #3 is the 2011 Tabor World Cup Cyclocross race from the Czech Republic.
Katrina Nash maybe a Czech citizen, but she lives and races often in the NCNCA region. She was the Women's Elite District Cross Champion in the NCNCA last year when the Districts were held in Reno! Ha!
So it is nice to watch this clip below and see the talented Czech/American win the World Cup race in Tabor. Watch at the beginning of the clip as Nash and Daphny van den Brand(AA Drink-Leontien.nl) do some bumping and elbow jostling as they fight for a line in a tight section of course. If your not bumping and trading paint...your not racing!
In the end Nash just rides away from the other Elite Women toward a very popular victory in Tabor.
The Elite Men's race is very fast, and you can see the pace is non stop full gas. One thing that stands out is Zdenck Stybar having bike trouble, but also having the best legs in the group. Stybar just looked super strong on course and his 2 bike changes set him back and opened the door for race
winner Kevin Pauwels(Sunweb-Revor).
Watch as Stybar accelerates up some of the sections of course near the end of the race, and it just appears as if he has incredible power to spare up the rolling hills. It really is amazing to watch the very best riders surge up hills and make them look tame, when you know a common racer would struggle on that exact section of course.
Stybar is on form right now, and I do look for Stybar to continue to have outstanding rides the next month or so, as long as he stays healthy.
