Jonathan had a clean start, but not a good first lap.  He drifted back thru the field till about 30th.  He was not involved in any accidents, just did not have a good lap.  The race is typically a dirt crit, and this year was the same.   The Czeck rider Stybar attacked as they went thru the start finish at the end of lap one, probably to set up Wellens who was very strong.  Rabo could not bring it back, despite two of the "workers" best efforts.  Its interesting to watch Nijs race.  You can tell he has the legs to ride away from the group when he pleases, but he always sits back and lets everyone with the early race jitters go to the front and drive it.  Inevitably they burn out (Mourey and Franzoi often this year) and he finds himself with fresh legs at 2 to go and lights it up for the win. 

In this race, his team could not pull back Stybar, and Fidea did some team blocking, and the net result was Nijs got 2nd.  He could have ridden away early on and caught Stybar, but his game is at a higher level then that.  He is focusing on the win, and the other riders, and trying to make a point. Cocky?  You betcha.  He has won plenty of World Cups.

So, Jonathan sort of dieseled his way thru the race, eventually getting up on the tail end of the constantly reforming lead group of 10-15.  The chase was very tactical allowing many riders to come back.  He seemed to recover for a couple laps in the 2nd chase, or tail end of the lead chase, and when it matter, with one or two to go, he found some legs and moved up and got himself into the lead selection.  On the last half lap, that broke up as well and he came in 11th.

11th feels like a bad result this year, since he has much higher expectations.  Personally, I think that is pretty good for the first one.  11th is good points, and he was coming around at the end.  He made alot out of what he had to work with on the day and 11th is a good result given that. 

Mid week he raced Nacht Van Woerden.  He got 6th in this neat night race on the sand.  He went directly from there to Tabor for the Saturday round 2 of the World Cup.  News is that it was snowing there this week, so it could be hard and fast or muddy and technical.  I am going to try to watch it live, but that did not work last weekend either, so not terribly confident.

Check out some new photos I posted today as well. 

Jerry

The first real cross-weekend of the season was this weekend.  JP had to race twice.  Saturday was the 'Grand Prix de la Région Wallonne'. He started good and jumped in the field in third place. He even took the hole shot onto the grass. Half way the group split in two. It was in the second group Jonathan stayed for the rest of the race. He led much of the pursuit and finished in 9 place.  His race fitness is getting better.

Sunday was in Ruddervoorde, the first Superprestige race of the season. All the big guys were there. Jonathan had a terrible start. He came through the first lap in 34th place. So he had to chase the whole race, but he showed his power and returned to "lucky" 13th.  Then, in the last lap, he had a flat tire so he sprinted in at 19th, just ahead of Trebon.  JP was totally wasted from the effort.  Thursday there is another chance for him in the cross in Ardooie so check back then.

Loads of photos from the race in the race album page. Some nice family shots from the team photo shoot day in the family album page.

I (Jerry) will be at Suckahbrook racing on JP's old Richie Sachs so look out for me.  No really, lookout, I will flat run you over.

Check out this load of pics from Kinky Tony, our intrepid Euro Correspondent.  More to follow I am sure.

Since the last update, JP has been a busy camper.  He raced Fitchburg, as reported here earlier.  However, he finally filled in a hole in his New Englandah resume by winning on top of Mount Wachuset!  He continues to surprise even me.

He traveled back and forth to Belgium a couple times this summer, and raced two blocks of US races.  He did the North Carolina crit series, concluding with the old Liberty Classic ($125k race) where he was 8th.  He had several top tens as well.  In fact he has hardly been out of the top ten in any race he has done this year.

Back in Belgium, he did the Tour of Liege (UCI 2.1) where he landed a 3rd and a 5th, in field sprints (see mountain top win above).

He returns to Belgium this weekend, only to return yet again for the Michigan UCI CROSS RACES!! Those are Sept. 22 and 23.  Then he does Cross Vegas on the 26th, and then to Seattle for a cross clinic he is hosting (28th and 29th).  Then back "home" to Belgium.

PHEW!  Ok - now that cross is almost upon us, we will be doing regular updates, and hopefully with more reports and photos from our new Belgian Correspondent "Kinky Tony" (you cant make this stuff up...)