In #SVENNESS 2.4 we recap the first UCI World Cup race of the season, which took place at Valkenburg. The ep focuses on race management in the early moments, a tricky descent, disc brakes, power sections and bad luck. But more than anything #SVENNESS 2.4 focuses on the arrival of Lars van der Haar. We know he’s the fastest off the blocks and can finish among the best in the world, but can he win?
As always, #SVENNESS is brought to you by Skills, Drills and Bellyaches: A Cyclocross Primer. If you are looking to improve your cyclocross skills, or know somebody who is, this is the perfect book. Comes in one size fits all for easy gift giving opportunities. Check it out at cyclocrossbook.com.
Race footage is via Sporza sporza.be/cm/sporza/wielrennen/veldrijden
Music by Phenomenal Handclap Band: phenomenalhandclapband.com/
Thanks for watching.
#SVENNESS 2.4 from In The Crosshairs on Vimeo.
These videos are so awesome! Thanks much for putting them together.
Love the Svenness vids and the expert commentary! Entertaining & instructive.
Van der Haar (on the hoods) beat Walsleben (in the drops) in a sprint finish at the Tabor World Cup yesterday – rules are meant to be broken!
Totally. Here was my tweet as it happened:
“Tops beats drops!!!! Tops beats drops!!! Holy cow LvdH is strong. #vanderholenchilada #tabor”
This was great. Thanks for putting the commentary together.
I’m gonna have to get the HD coverage of that race. It would be real interesting to review where Lvdh is braking compared to the other riders without disks. He’s only a data point of one person, so it probably a bit bold to draw conclusions about his disk brake advantage. Especially since he is clearly further ahead in his fitness right now than the other riders minus maybe Nys and Powels.
But if there is a difference in brake timing on the descent, it might indicate where the advantage in disc seems to be. My guess is pre-emptive scrubbing makes faster lines but in this case I’m thinking he was faster because he wasn’t braking. That would be true regardless of the brake mechanism. Curiously too, front wheel not spinning on the runup whereas the other riders wheels are. Either he intentionally stops it, the disks are rubbing, or his hub isn’t broken in. Its exciting to see how this will be adopted at the World Cup level. I’m on board for the first gen hydraulics and working on getting a bike setup now. To me the biggest advantage is the closed system it provides, and being a small rider, tight bends don’t change the cable friction.
One other small note. I’m a step through kind of guy when possible so I appreciated the FM clip. In a long run in like that dismount there is no specific advantage to not stepping through because you can’t pedal from the point where you disengage on the right to when you dismount. In other situations where you can pedal right up to the barriers it is a disadvantage in speed but very stable and easy to time.
On dismounts, I stay away from step-thru’s simply because it’s so hard to insure release of the other foot from the pedals, whereas a step-behind allows me to pivot my hips at release just a bit. I have absolutely zero desire to eat-it into some concrete steps OR a woodedn barrier.