With the Mid-Atlantic cyclocross season at an end and Nationals still a couple weeks away, we have been spending our time obsessing over the Euro-cross scene and Sven Nys in particular. Sven is something special. He is not only the fastest guy out there on most days but is also meticulous about how he attacks a course. On most days he seems to have every turn, hill, mud bog, dialed in and nails his line each lap. At this past Sunday’s World Cup race at Zolder, there was one feature, an uphill section with two-switchbacks, in which Nys’ strategy changed throughout the race. It’s fascinating to watch him figure out the puzzle and nail the feature by the final lap. It’s also fascinating to watch Niels Albert try a new line every lap with no apparent plan. In the end, Nys’ mastery of that feature gives him the gap over Albert that he takes advantage of to solo for the win. For your viewing pleasure, I’ve mashed it all together in a short video that is truly a 2 and a half minute masters class. It’s called #SVENNESS.
And what is #SVENNESS you ask? Although I do not speak or understand Dutch, I love the post-race interviews with the pros. Nys has one of those names that his competitors always seem to turn into one word. Sven Nys, Sven-Nys, SvenNess. And from that came #SVENNESS. I like to think of it as a state of being and something we can all use a little of in our racing and maybe even everyday lives. It’s cool, calculated, and killer: #SVENNESS.
Thanks for watching.
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Enjoy.
SVENNESS #1 from In The Crosshairs on Vimeo.
Video via Sporza
Music: Grimes
I disagree that Albert was experimenting; I think that on the last lap he wanted to ride it but lost traction and had to get off at an unplanned moment. imho Albert’s mistake was not taking the line into the grass where he’d get a little extra traction (I think his legs were probably also failing him a little – power covers a lot of mistakes); Albert also needed to stop pulling Sven around mid race
the other thing we should take from this is that these turns aren’t 6 feet wide to create technicality and that as riders riding isn’t always the fastest (you know we would have all taken whatever route we could ride the whole way). Patapsco race had uphill, off camber turns like this (not as long or wide).
What I found to be more impressive was the speed that Nys takes the off camber sweeping downhill. He attacked it full speed, in the drops and seemed to be in full control as the bike glided perfectly into that huge groove at the bottom of the hill. Any mortal being attempting SVENNESS on this downhill would likely be face down in the mud. Even Albert seemed to scrub off some speed going into that section.
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