yes, that's true, shower after taking off those plasters stings like hell.
i just saw groenendaal and deknegt in harderwijk having those tape on their lower back(where i would put one of my normal warming plasters), several stripes taped to a kind of *. i thought this is for warming.

Yes... it takes me a while for each photograph, to select them, resize them, load them up on the internet, but here are more:


The Superprestige Ruddervoorde - PRO RACE:


In this race our WW-forum-member simon participated. I met him the day before in his hotel and was very honoured to have met such a highly talented and friendly swiss rider! He performed well on Sunday, and was almost the best swiss rider (during the race he was always in the group of Christian Heule), although he still suffered from a crash the week before. Congratz again simon and hope you winter season will be very succesfull!

This is simon and me after the race:




Before I forget I'll give the race results allready. Bart Wellens won after outsprinting World Champ Sven Nys:

1. Bart Wellens (Vorselaar/Fidea) 57:16;
2. Sven Nys; 3. Wim Jacobs 0:09; 4. Gerben de Knegt (Ned) 0:13; 5. Erwin Vervecken 0:29; 6. Bart Aernouts 0:35; 7. Petr Dlask (Tsj) 0:43; 8. Sven Vanthourenhout 0:45; 9. Tom Vannoppen 0:52; 10. Radomir Simunek (Tsj) 1:10; 11. Camiel van den Bergh (Ned); 12. Tim Van Nuffel; 13. Jan Verstraeten; 14. Davy Commeyne; 15. David Willemsens 1:18; 16. Enrico Franzoi (Ita) 1:33; 17. Kamil Ausbuher (Tsj) 1:38; 18. Christian Heule (Zwi) 1:44; 19. Jonathan Page (USA); 20. Simon Zahner (Zwi); 21. Peter Van Santvliet 2:02; 22. Richard Groenendaal (Ned) 2:13; 23. Wilant van Gils (Ned) 2:28; 24. Martin Zlamalik (Tsj) 2:35; 25. John Gadret (Fra) 2:44; 26. Björn Rondelez; 27. Maarten Nijland (Ned) 2:53; 28. Al Thijs (Ned); 29. David Derepas (Fra); 30. Arne Daelmans 3:06; 31. Jeremy Powers (USA) 3:20; 32. Frederik Penne 3:25; 33. Klaas Vantornout 3:35; 34. David Seco (Spa); 35. David Meys 4:00; 36. Mariusz Gil (Pol); 37. Dariusz Gil (Pol) 4:09; 38. Isaac Suarez (Spa) 4:10; 39. Françis Mourey (RFra) 4:12; 40. Nico Clarysse 4:49; 41. Ondrej Zelinka (Tsj) 5:40; 42. Jorn Van der Veken; 43. Leon Brouwer (Ned); 44. Jo Naert; 45. Freddy De Meester


A picture from the first lap, Wim Jacobs with Tom Vannoppen. Fidea Team rides mostly white painted Ridley Crosswind bikes this year, with 4ZA carbon wheels and Shimano and Pro Pilot components. Remark the hughe crowd in the sunny Ruddervoorde:



Just behind is former world champion Bart Wellens of Fidea:



Followed by actual world champ (and belgian champ) Sven Nys:



And here is Simon Zahner:



...

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Second lap... Gerben de Knegt from the Netherlands powered away.

Here Bart Wellens leads the pack less than 10 seconds behind. In his trace local Sven Vanthourenhout (he's living the village next to Ruddervoorde), Sven Nys and Erwin Vervecken are following:



Wellens as he corners. Sven Vanthourenhout with his tongue out, showing how hot it is... not really cyclocross weather!



Erwin Vervecken... isn't his front brake touching his tubular?



American champ Jonathan Page with Simon Zahner behind:



Weight weenie Simon:





Yes it's him!



...

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Their was a little artificial hill... here is Wellens coming down with Vanthourenhout and Nys. These 3 launched a powerfull attack, but Vanthourenhout had to let them go.

BTW Vanthourenhout immediately went to the hospital after the race... to become father!



Simon on the same place of the course:



A view as he powers along:



Sven Nys is leading now:



... followed by Wellens and Vanthourenhout:



And Simon still going strong.



Italian champion Enrico Franzoi:




... (more pics will follow)

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great pics

if only the races here in new england could be that dry!

what bike is Jonathan Page on? It doesn't look like his usual Cervelo/HotTubes?

Brilliant photo essay and race report Casran

_________________
Success is how far you you bounce back up after being knocked down

A picture from the first lap, Wim Jacobs with Tom Vannoppen. Fidea Team rides mostly white painted Ridley Crosswind bikes this year, with 4ZA carbon wheels and Shimano and Pro Pilot components. Remark the hughe crowd in the sunny Ruddervoorde:


Don't you mean ridley X-night?

again, really nice pics!yes, cyclocross can be very attractive in weather like this...
they don't ride ridley crosswond(that's the better all-aluminium one, the other is called crossbow), and they don't ride ridley x-night(it is said that they broke several x-nights, i had no problems with mine so far and really hope not to damage one...), they use the ridley supercross, scandium frame with carbon seatstays. i don't like carbon stays at alu frames, so last year i chose crosswind, then i got one x-night, and this year three of them. i never really thought about the supercross, but if my frames start to brake, i will have changed really fast to supercross frames...

"and this year three of them"


I should wish I've 1 bike like you;)

yeah, i'm very glad to have bikes like that, but in the season 2000/2001, when i went to my first world championships(tabor), i had three different bikes(1 had a smaller frame size, the other two different stem length, 9 and 8 speed mixed and that kind of stuff). for the world championships i got two empellas, finally i had for the first time in my life two equal bikes...
keep in mind that i don't have to buy all that material by myself, i would not have enough money to build 1 bike like that and still pay my car to go to the good races in belgium and the netherlands...

@ Simon , Do you work as a Part-timer or do you study? Or do you you a full -time pro?

Great Pics! very well done.

Simon: how did you see the race? could you tell us something what you experienced?

i work at my girlfriend's father, in summer a bit more than in winter. over the whole year that would give something like 15 hours a week. i couldn't do my training like i do now if i would work more because one also needs recovery time. but i also couldn't pay my life if i would work less...so it's kind of a compromise. the strategy is to get better and better, work less, train more, get more money with cycling...i made the "matura", that's a longer school in switzerland after that you can go to university and study. i would like to study some day, maybe journalism, but at the moment i want to concentrate 100% on my sport.
what about you guys?

simon, 2 questions about your bikes. Are you using spooky brakes? Also, what is that cable hanger you're using on the front, is it attached to the stem? Does that work better than steerer tube hangers?

yes, these are spooky carbon brakes.
the cable hanger: they're from tektro(www.shop4cross.de has them), you just have to tune them a bit to fit the ritchey stem(that you still can clamp the bar enough). i like it more because the cable has less corners than with steerer tube hangers. second problem is that i don't need spacers with this frame and with a steerer tube hanger you have 5 mm for the hanger and it's better a spacer between hanger and stem, so i would be 1 cm too high at least.
originally ridley uses this hanger also for the rear brake, but in one of casran's pics you see my construction that is more durable and the cable makes a nicer bow around the seat clamp. just took a 7 mm steel tube, bent it, cut two threads into it(for the seatpost clamp and the brake cable adjusting screw(another plus of my construction).