Jonathan Page

I watched the world cyclocross championships on cycling.tv yesterday. What a great race! Crashes all over the place and a ton of bad luck for the favorites, especially Wellens and Nys. The one guy who seemed to avoid the nastiness was Page, who capitalized and got a close silver. I was screaming for him toward the end, but Vervecken was just a bit stronger. No shame for Page, he made Vervecken suffer for his win. I really felt sorry for Wellens, who was nearly taken out of the race after a moto bumped a barricade into him on a fast section, taking him and Nys down. I thought he was out, but he got back up and fought to a brilliant 4th. I felt sorry that is until he said this:

"Even though I had the best legs of the season I couldn't do much more than what I did. The jersey went to the wrong person, he shouldn't have won it even though he's a teammate. He deserves to be on the podium but the other guys don't."

I can understand his frustration, but what a sore loser! In such a situation just shut the heck up. Whoever is on the podium is on the podium. That's racing, unless you are accusing someone of cheating.

Nys on the other hand just gave up after his 3rd crash. His dismal performaces at worlds continue. But what about Page! US CX is on the map. And a world cup race in the US next year. You think there will be a "Lance effect" in cyclocross? I think unlikely.