I was pleasantly surprised to wake up to this email today from my friends at Universal Sports!

"Hi Greg,

I wanted to let you know we will be broadcasting the Cyclo-Cross World Championships from Tabor, Czech Republic on-line January 31.  The broadcast will be showing the elite men’s and women’s races at 12 noon (ET), while the rest of the races will be offered on demand.  We are excited to offer the broadcast for this event again and hopefully highlight more Cyclo-Cross through the World Cup season.  Please help in any way you can to spread the word about the broadcast."

So you heard it! Spread the word! Click the picture to the left to head on over to the 'Cyclocross World Championships Dashboard' on Universal Sports.

Ah, the sound of switzerdeutsch. I haven't heard you in a long time...that sing-songy variant spoken in the German speaking Cantons of Switzerland. You'll hear it in this video and others posted by this guy). What a BRUTAL course. Wait until you see the logs these guys have to scale and the style used to dismount to successfully get your shoe out of the clips-and-straps.

Get ready for Worlds....

OK, now: you tell me. What brakes shaved speed for MORE folks who made the podium this weekend in Hoogerheide? TRP. That's who. My main man Lance from TRP compiled their team riders who ended up on the podium at this weekend's WK's and it is impressive...

Elite Men

1. Niels Albert, Belgium, TRP Brakes (EuroX Magnesium)
2. Zdenek Stybar, Czech Republic
3. Sven Nys, Belgium, TRP Brakes (EuroX Carbon)
   

1. Marianne Vos, Holland, TRP Brakes (EuroX Carbon)
2. Hanka Kupfernagel, Germany, TRP Brakes (EuroX Magnesium)
3. Katie Compton, USA, TRP Brakes (EuroX Magnesium)
   

Under 23 Men

1. Philip Walsleben, Germany, TRP Brakes (EuroX Carbon)
2. Christph Pfingsten Germany, TRP Brakes (CR950)
3. Pawel Szczepaniak, Poland

1. Tijmen Eising, Holland, TRP Brakes (EuroX Alloy)
2. Corne Van Kessel, Holland, TRP Brakes (EuroX Alloy)
3. Alexandre Billion, France

At the expense of an ad: What's stopping YOU?? That is pretty incredible.

The WK's are underway and the Belgians are PISSED thus far after the Juniors and U-23's no-showing on either podium. But, at least they look PRO. Note Bosman's tall-boy sock customization. At-a-boy, Bos! There's going to be HELL to pay if there's not the light blue tricolor on the podium tomorrow.

Photo ©: Cyclingnews.com

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Here it is folks! Confirmation! Universal Sports is definitively covering our beloved World Championships in Hoogerheide this weekend. SWEET!

From their representative:

Schedule with Video Links ( the video links will come up as soon as they are available the day of the event): http://www.universalsports.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23000&KEY=&SPID=13044&SPSID=105620

Cycling Channel Page: http://www.universalsports.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23000&KEY=&SPID=13044&SPSID=105618

"Unfortunately we can only say the event is VOD (video on demand). It
depends on how long it takes them to send the feed over to us as soon
as the event ends, so we can't say a specific time that it will happen. But it
should come up a couple hours after the event so still in the morning
time.

But sorry we can't be more specific with the time, if we had it live we
would definitely be able to give out a time. The best link to use is
this one. "

OK, CLEARLY 'cross is growing off the charts. I think we had double the amount of people here at tonight's clinic that we had last week. INCREDIBLE! Again we had children, pro 1-2's AND national champions in our midst, all honing their skills to completely rip it this season. In fact, I even think some confidence is brewing on how the gauntlet is going to be thrown down, especially on other cross hotbeds in our big Nation. I hear PDX is in the cross hairs of a few Boulder 'crossers:

Ha! Kidding Chris D and our 'cross brethren in Portland. But seriously, watch your backs.

HA!

Today we had so many folks, Dubba, Matt Pacocha and I had to break the main group into roughly 3 groups of 15-20 and focus on individuals. Today, we re-capped our skills from last week, then broke into these groups and went deeper into the nuances. We capped it off with start drills. I damn near killed myself demonstrating fdast starts by blowing the chain right off my bike! Ha!

But all said and done, I am in LOVE with watching folks fall in LOVE with this sport.

Digital celluloid:

Dubba's new toy.

Challenge White Sex file treads.

Kabush: careful when you remount cause I think Dubba stole your seat.

Velonews was on staff shooting photos and video.

Only a section of the people who came tonight...I need a fisheye!

Yup. This is about family. SO good! Can't wait for my boys to hup it up

Man, oh, man today is a day of re-casts of other folk's material, but I've gotta post this. Nice work Mat. Thanks for passing it to me today in your comment earlier! What is most impressive is the HD quality of the vid which loses very little in terms of quality when maximized. I'd like to know what kind of camera you are using. If we chalk Chance's vid up to artistic experimentation, Mat's is sort of like 'real time/real sound' from the event. Cool all around. Nice work Mat!

2008 Cyclocross World Championships Treviso Italy from Mat Barlow on Vimeo

So, Richard Groovy Groenendaal has had a busy month. His lady gave birth to their second baby, has announced his new team and lastly indicated he'll be working with a frame builder on some projects.

More importantly, our man indicated that his priorities are racing at the SP's, GVA's but more importantly the WK's. Further, he called out the rising scope of American 'cross and that the Euro's must come and hit teh WK here.

On CycloCross Info he says:

Now I can drive my own program. Thus my preference goes to Superprestige , GvA - and the World Cups. The World Cup belongs in America too. I think that we're obliged. Racing the World Cups in Europe has brought us all a lot of money. Now the sport is getting its feet on the ground in America and we can not be absent there any longer.

I am stoked Mr. G put some props out to US 'cross. The 3 silvers at Worlds this year must have been a wake up call. I'll be routing for him if we actually get the WK to come to Providence.

But, I digress...

Anywhoo, this looks like it hurt Bart-man. Can't say I haven't felt that type of crash before either. Surf City 2003 I am going into the final as series leader and had a crash just like this on wet pavement at like 30 mph and I still carry the scars and deep bruising on my hip to this day. Anyone reading this blog is invariably racing a bike and know exactly what the f I'm talking about.

Looks like Bart is going Jersey-style and whipping out the law suits. Broken wrist and a heap of pennies gone is what Bart is walking away from the Worlds with. The video coverage Sporza Belgium and other carriers in the region provide us (well, for us we get 'em weeks later on DVD...) is sick. I mean right up close with Sven and Erwin and gang so you can literally see how certain sections of a course are won by riding (Sven) or running (Erwin). In all sincerity, I have been 'crossing for the last 10 years and the videos and this level of detailed coverage have done so much for learning the nuances of technique, it is insane, so I am a huge proponent of continuing this but as you can see, this bump of the pylon into Bart's wheels was a galactic f-up. They've got to figure out something better than frigging pylons.

Anyway, here is a GREAT highlight reel to distract you while you eat lunch: