Eli Iserbyt spoke to Sporza ahead of Sunday’s Koppenbergcross. Many cyclocross riders are not keen on the Koppenberg, and he says he has little understanding for that. “I find it a sophism to say the Koppenberg is difficult,” he said. And later: “That’s nonsense. Train and perform.”
Right. I have the segment. Not the cross one, the road one, the day before the Ronde (the Tour of Flanders), with the sportive riders. Three times. All three times I did it on foot, cleats slipping on the cobbles, bike in my hand and a guy in front of me zigzagging while walking, which I would not have thought possible.
So I do my column. Take off the backpack. Take off the guy who zigzags. Take off the fact that I was on foot, which, I admit, counts in the calculation. What is left is a forty-seven-year-old man at the top of the Koppenberg, and that man can discuss the word “sophism”.
What made me think was something else. Iserbyt says the course ten years ago was completely different and that now you hit the Koppenberg cold, straight from the start. According to him, some riders already know at the top that their cross is over. That I know. On a Sunday, I know at the café at twenty past nine that my ride is over. We set off anyway.
And then there is the other sentence: “The intention has to be there, otherwise there is no need to start.” I have had the intention for three editions. It is the rest that follows on foot.
Thibau Nys makes his (re)entry on Sunday, on that very hill. Paul Herygers thinks he will aim for the top step straight away. I’m not saying I’d do better, mind you. I’m saying we can talk about the climb. The descent, less so.
At the café, we argued about intention till noon, and nobody suggested going to have a look on site.
It’s true, we checked: Sporza.
