It must suck to train and race all year, dreaming about a strong ride at ’cross worlds — maybe even a top 10! — and then watch the Belgian national team gobble up the first seven spots like a beered-up fanboy snarfing down frites.
And if it sucked to race for those final three top-10 places, it sucked even more to watch.
• Video for those who can bear to watch it
Zdenek Stybar and Radomir Simunek fell out of contention faster than a Mexican national fleeing Alabama. And they were the only contenders in the dunes of Koksijde. Everyone else? Bums, with a one-way ticket to Palookaville.
They aren’t, of course. Bums, that is. But damme if that ain’t how it looked on TV. I don’t recall even seeing a non-Belgian after the first couple of go-rounds, unless you count the finish, where one of the course’s 22 cameras kept tallying the body count.
Between sit-down interviews with the top seven, who were showered off and chillin’ in their post-race kit, Sporza would occasionally cut back to the line to show the poor shlubs finishing two or three days down on freshly minted world champ Niels Albert.
The first non-Belgian (Simunek) crossed more than a minute behind the last Belgian (Sven Nys, who groused afterward that this may have been his last worlds).
I know how he feels. There’s more action in the GOP pestilential contest. Well, more mud, anyway.
Mad Blog Media 
It should be different next year, right?
I mean with all that “home field advantage” that the Flemish giants had we can surely do the same here. Right?
All we need are eight strong riders….or less sand pits for miles.
It will need to be an exciting race next year (assuming they stream it live from the USA) to keep me awake since with the time difference it will be in the evening in Italy when it happens. Even at three in the afternoon it was very easy to fall asleep during this parade of the Belgians. Reminds of the old film where they showed Marino Basso getting outsprinted at the Giro time after time. “Those Belgians…those Belgians…”
One country taking the top seven places in a world championship … that has to be a world record in and of itself, yeah? I mean, what could come close? I’ve heard of maybe three Kenyans in a marathon top ten. The US of A has to deal with Australia and South Africa in surfing. Maybe there’s a world championship bass fishing event that closed out all red, white, and blue.
Watching it made my legs hurt, and thinking about it makes my head hurt.