Being my second time at the cyclocross world championships I knew what to expect and I was also expecting more from myself. To summarise how last year went, many of the best riders in the world said it was one of the hardest courses ever in 10 years. My race last year felt about the same, incredible hard and not very good personally. This year, I was hungry for a good ride, not a good result necessarily but just a good ride personally.
The mud of last year’s cyclocross world championships proved to be too much for me.
Friday
Today was the first day we would see the course. The course was open on Thursday, but we didn’t feel the need to go 4 days in a row when we could get enough of a look of the course on Friday. We left late this day for the 2-4pm training time so it was a relaxed morning for the Aussie team. Turning up to the course, one thing became clear quickly, it was going to be a very cold race. Bogense is a small town located on the north coast of a small part of Denmark so there is no protection from the wind. With a combination of this harsh wind and the cold temperature, it was not going to be toasty. The Aussie team rugged up in lots of layers to go ride a few laps of the course. Due to the low temperatures, the ground was actually really hard and frozen which made the course rough with every bump and the corners were incredible slippery and took some serious care to get around without losing grip. Either way we got around and all commented on how fast we thought the course would be. There were only a few technical sections that were nothing to be afraid of compared to other races like Namur, and there were many long straights to unleash some power and gain some speed. We finished our practice (doing about 5 or 6 laps) and got cleaned up and drove home. Being the day before a race for the Under 23 riders (Nick and I) we had the standard spaghetti bolognaise for dinner.
Saturday
An early morning for us as we needed to be out at the course and ready to do some final course practice at 9:30am. A quick breakfast and a sleepy goodbye from Chris and Tia (who woke up just to see us depart) and we were off to THE race. No surprises, it was still cold and windy. One nice change we found was on the course. After yesterday’s icy and bumpy ride, it seemed that the ground had warmed up and softened as the corners had more grip (not much though, it was still muddy) and the straights weren’t as bumpy. This was a welcome change for me as now I was more comfortable with the course and there was no section where I was really nervous. My excitement levels were rising to an extreme high. I put my headphones on, played my playlist and warmed up to get in the best mindset possible to ride my best race.
Getting a bit hot and sweaty while warming up for the race, better to be overheating than freezing at a cross race.
Twenty minutes before the start, I finish warming up, put on my helmet and other kit, bump fists with my mechanics and head for the start line. Before it is time for the call up onto the start line, everyone rides up and down the start straight to keep warm. This is when it starts to become real, both sides of the straight are covered with spectators in all sorts of outfits and bright colours, and young kids holding out their hands for high-fives. As they begin the call up I assume my position by waiting for about 5 minutes until my name gets called to line up at the back. At UCI cyclocross races, you get a 3-minute call, 2-minute call, 1-minute and 30 seconds before the start. At the 2-minute call, that is when everyone takes their zipper pants off exposing their legs to the cold as late as possible. 1-minute before the start and everyone’s jackets are coming off leaving just our skinsuits to keep us warm. Out of all the races I have done, this minute was the most cold and longest minutes I have had to endure. Shaking with nervousness and very mild hypothermia they call 30 seconds to go. This time is even worse as they play a heartbeat sound over the speakers which I have no clue what the purpose of it is other than to make the riders even more nervous. The lights go green and it is on! And I mean properly on, this start was quicker than any other I have done but quickly we reach the first corner and all the brakes lock up and everyone carefully navigates the corner without causing a crash on the first corner (this is a first for under 23 races). Our thoughts on the course being a fast one were correct. The leaders were doing laps in just under six minutes which for cyclocross is fast. Courses are usually about 7-9 minutes, seven being pretty short.
I’m not exactly sure what to say about my race but I will leave it to the end of this as I think it would be a better conclusion than me talking about how I spent Sunday. Hopefully by the time I get to the end I can think of something good to say.
Sunday
Showing the Aussies some love out on course. What we lack in numbers, we make up for in spirit.
Today was about supporting the Australian elite men Chris Aitken ad Garry Millburn. The guys arrived with plenty of time before they even needed to do course practice. So, for a while we watched the women’s under 23 race while sitting warm in a camper joking about. I met some old friends who I watched the elite race at last years world champs with. We set off to find somewhere to heckle the Australian boys and have a few beers. We were creating an atmosphere by being overly loud cheering guys on as they practiced, not even raced, but what else were we to do. With some smack talking and banter we entertained ourselves for two hours while staying in one spot to reserve our prime position on the course. The race finally started, and we waited in anticipation for them to come into sight. With the crowd’s cheers slowly getting louder we knew they were getting close and by the time they were upon us the cheers were deafening and it was pointless for ourselves to cheer as no one would hear us but that didn’t stop us. Once the top riders came past the noise died down but not for us. With Garry and Chris coming by 30-40 seconds after first place, we were yelling at the top of our lungs and losing our voice to cheer these guys on. It might not seem like spectators can do anything to make riders go faster but being a rider myself, I can tell you first hand that when you hear someone cheering you on, you get a little energy boost to just give it a bit more and it is one of the best feelings. With Mathieu riding laps in 5:30 there is not much the Australians can do to stay ahead of getting lapped by him, so they were pulled from the race three quarters of the way through. Just like that, another world championships were over.
My Race
Back to my race. I’m not going to sugar coat it and say I did great when people ask me how I did. When I get asked that, I normally avoid saying the exact result I got because it is usually never something to boast about. I got 62nd out of 63 riders, that was my result at world champs. It doesn’t sound very good but, in my opinion,, it doesn’t have to sound good. I know I rode as hard as I possibly could, I didn’t crash or have a mechanical and I felt stronger than I had at most other races. I am just not good enough to keep up with the fastest and finish a world championship and that’s fine. Overall, I am super happy with how I went. After a disappointment last year, knowing I could do better, I came out this year and left nothing behind. 62nd in under 23 is what that got me.
Declan Prosser - Cycling 