CX World Championships Women U23 – Preview
The Course
It’s World Championships time, the USA are hosting this event this year and will once again be taking in some of the best cyclocross riders in the world, in the town of Fayetteville, Arkansas. This isn’t an unknown route, Fayetteville has had a World Cup race already this year and the route the riders will face will be 95% the same, with the exception of a slightly longer transition zone.
What’s it like? Nothing like the classical Belgian track which are usually packed with technical features, and frequently with grueling climbs, gruesome mud sections or heavy sand sections. Here you don’t find much of that, it is in fact an extremely fast track, built on a grassy park this course is very wide from one end to the other and only the rain can make it a race that is easy to create and establish differences, as it happened back in September, however it doesn’t appear to be the case this week.
Now, there will be plenty of riders doing recon of the track, and these cold February nights in Arkansas go deep into the freezing temperatures, so I believe that during these recons (and races) the track will gain some ruts in some of the downhill corners so it won’t be a perfectly smooth ride, but nevertheless it will be a race where strategy counts, going over the red too early is hardly a good idea as there are many sections where slipstreaming is beneficial and the hardest sections (named “The Climb” and “The mound”) are quite long, so it’s really important to save up the legs in order to be as fresh as possible for those features in every lap. Non-tight corners, wide fields and 1 running section (if everything goes to normal) make it a rather weird race, but one that should see exciting competition.
The Startlist
| 1.Fem van Empel | 2.Shirin van Anrooij | 3.Puck Pieterse | 4.Line Burquier |
| 5.Amandine Fouquenet | 6.Harriet Harnden | 7.Kiona Crabbe | 8.Gaia Realini |
| 9.Lucia Bramati | 10.Carlotta Borello | 11.Nicole Fede | 12.Asia Zontone |
| 13.Nicole Pesse | 14.Christiane Bilodeau | 15.Katelyn Walcroft | 16.Kelly Lawson |
| 17.Madigan Munro | 18.Katie Clouse | 19.Lizzy Gunsalus | 20.Lauren Zoerner |
| 21.Bridget Tooley | 22.Cassidy Hickey | 23.Ellie Mitchell | 24.Kristyna Zemanova |
| 25.Lydia Pinto | 26.Marie Schreiber | 27.Judith Krahl | 28.Clea Seidel |
| 29.Tereza Kurnicka |
The Favourites
This is a race that is taking in a field that will almost be surprising, as the main favourites are frequently in the fight for the wins in the Elite women’s race all throughout the year, and include wins in the World Cup. The author of those is number 1 exactly Fem van Empel, winner in Val di Sole and Flamanville at only 19, she is incredibly consistent and fully capable of taking the rainbow jersey again (yes, she is also reigning U23 world champion). Puck Pieterse was runner-up in Flamanville, she hasn’t actually won this season but has finished 2nd 4 different times in the World Cup. And the other Dutch, the last one actually, is Shirin van Anrooij who is the reigning European champion where she beat, you guessed it, the previous two names.
These 3 were half of Hoogerheide’s Top6 (another one of those women was Kata Blanka Vas who could, but decided not to be here). The win is there, but there are chances of someone sneaking in the podium with some luck, and prestigious spots in the Top5 to fill up and who will be in contention there?
In the Europeans you had the French Line Burquier and Amandine Fouquenet, both are very talented and have had Top10 results in the World Cup this year. You have Marie Schreiber, Luxemboug’s representative and (U23) national champion, Gaia Realini representing Italy and Kristyna Zemanova, the Toi Toi Cup winner at the tender age of 18. Needless to say that unreal talents will be at the start, the home nation also brings in Madigan Munro and Katie Clouse.
Prediction Time
1st– Fem van Empel
2nd– Puck Pieterse
3rd– Shirin van Anrooij
4th– Line Burquier
5th– Kristyna Zemanova
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