February 04, 2013 (Louisville,Kentucky) – Patience, strength and a little luck all contributed to Sven Nys (Belgium) winning his second cyclo-cross world championship gold medal. Canada’s Geoff Kabush, the reigning National champ, was the top Canuck in 24th at four minutes and six seconds behind Nys.

The Main Event
The fourth and final race of the day in Louisville was the Elite Men’s contest and it was the event everyone was waiting for. The crowds had swelled to an estimated 10,000 by the time the race started and European broadcasters were describing the scene as even noisier than CX races in Europe.

Before the race, Canada’s Mike Garrigan described the course as fantastic, telling the juniors: “This is pretty much to a tee, what it’s like riding in Europe. It’s heavy conditions, there’s technical off-camber sections, there’s technical climbs, there’s everything”.

After the race fellow Canuck, Craig Richey, had similar thoughts, saying, “Louisville was the most European course I have ever raced in North America, part of that was definitely the conditions where slippery mud on top of frozen ground made for interesting run vs. ride choices which are common in Europe but rarely happen in North American racing. The crowd was smaller in Louisville but the race atmosphere was on par or better than any race I have done in Europe.”

Jeremy Powers was the top North American to line up at the start on the 2nd row while Kabush was ranked just over 20 places behind him. The front of the race was filled with the Belgian and Dutch elite.

It was no surprise to see a wall of Belgian blue and Dutch orange at the front on the first lap as the race was once again dominated by the Euro racers. Yet there were some early surprises. After a brief appearance at the front by Martin Bina of the Czech Republic, Frenchman Francis Mourey took the lead and built up a 20-second advantage. The Belgian squad then worked patiently to reel him in as Nys, Vantornout and Kevin Pauwels soon made contact with Mourey.

The French rider’s brave attack showed how motivated Mourey was but Nys and his teammates were not concerned by his presence in the group. After the race Nys said: “The key for me was waiting for the second part of the race where I am normally the strongest. You saw that all season. For me it was, ”try to stay calm, don’t make any mistakes, and wait until Mourey was making some mistakes.” Meanwhile defending champ, Niels Albert (Belgium), had missed the break and would finish 8th overall.

Nys in Charge
Nys’ opportunity to show his strength came at the end of the sixth lap when Pauwels had a mechanical and Mourey faded. The Belgian stronman and his teammate Vantornout pulled away and stayed away. On the final lap Vantornout stumbled on the limestone steps and was not able to regain contact. “It was very close on the last lap, I was making a few little faults. I was very close today, and I am lucky that I have my Belgium champion jersey, and my season was already very good from the beginning to the end, and also today.”

Nys was able to get a gap on the final lap as Vantornout, the reigning Belgian National Champ, made a few small mistakes. Following at around 20s was Lars Van Der Har of the Netherlands who finished third earning a bronze medal at his first CX World championships as a pro. As for the luck, Nys said that he flatted 200 meters from the bike pits. Had he flatted after them, his race would have been over.

The young Van der Haar struggled with the fast pace after the start but rode a very strong and determined second half to pull himself up to the bronze medal. “I thought, ‘I have to believe in myself the whole race.’ I found a new pace, and I felt really good. I felt I had the power and the technical as well, so I didn’t make as many mistakes and was able to come back.”

The Canadian team fielded a talented group of three men but were unable to place anyone higher than Kabush’s 24th. Richey finished two laps down and Garrigan was four laps down.

The men’s elite race was moved from Sunday to Saturday but the change did not bother Kabush a bit. He was happy to race a day early: “I was excited for it. To move it up; get it over with. No more sitting around. And it obviously looks like it was a good call as we saw that the park was flooded today.”

The BC rider was happy to have ridden the Cyclo-cross World Championship for the first time and was satisfied with his result. “I fought hard to the end. I ended up 24th but it was just a pretty incredible opportunity to get to race in front of a crowd like that at cyclo-cross worlds. I’ve been to so many mountain bike worlds but never had the chance to make it to cyclo-cross with my schedule, so I was pretty excited to be able to fit it in. It was a great weekend and a lot of fun being with the whole cyclo-cross community.”

Garrigan described his race this way. “In hindsight, the race itself was one of my poorest performaces to date, But somehow I still enjoyed every minute of it. I had little pressure to perform and was just proud of myself for qualifying for the event and thankful to those who have supported me along the way. Lining up beside such phenominal riders is a great feeling.”

For Richey, it looked like this, “I had a good battle with Summerhill [USA] and a Luxembourg rider all race which made for really fun racing. I had a pretty crazy crash on the 6th lap and slid to the bottom of one of the steep hills on my stomach and then had to scramble back up the course to retrieve my bike which hadn’t come down the hill with me.

“That cost a fair amount of time and had I not crashed I think finishing on the lead lap was a possibility. With that being said I think just about everyone in the elite race crashed or had a close call.”

All in all, it was an epic CX Worlds, historic and hopefully a taste of more to come.

Full results HERE.