The Belgian selection for the cyclo-cross Europeans is out. Zeddam, in the Netherlands, on 7 and 8 November. Eight elite men: Gerben Kuypers, Witse Meeussen, Jente Michels, Thibau Nys, Laurens Sweeck, Niels Vandeputte, Michael Vanthourenhout, Joran Wyseure. Three elite women: Julie Brouwers, Alicia Franck, Sterre Vervloet. Plus the under-23s, the juniors and four substitutes. Angelo De Clercq has made his list.
I read it twice, in the garage, between the road bike and the gravel bike. I wasn’t expecting anything, to be fair. But you always read a list to the end, just in case.
I do have a file, mind you. One cross, I have done, in February, in the woods behind the square in Lasne, with the club. It was freezing. I have the segment: the roots climb, four minutes twelve, bike on my shoulder for half of it. Take off the half on foot, take off the gloves I took off in the middle, take off a walker’s dog that didn’t know where to stand: that leaves three minutes and a bit, and a climb the eight on the list probably swallow on the bike, in a fraction of that, without a dog.
So no. The sums are quickly done. There are eight of them, I am the ninth, in street shoes, and not even a substitute. The substitutes are Kay De Bruyckere, Wout Janssen, Toon Vandebosch and Victor Van de Putte. I have nothing to say against that, I would have picked them too.
What I am left with is the planning. On the weekend of the 7th and 8th, the Sunday ride leaves at nine, so twenty past nine for me. I plan to be home earlier, no stop at the top, so as not to miss anything from Zeddam. The club does not know yet.
At the café, I showed the list to the table. Nobody asked me why I wasn’t on it. It was almost insulting.
It’s true, we checked: DirectVelo.
