Wow, what a weird season this is. The last world cup, at least in the traditional European location, has ended. And when is the next one? Guesses? September 27-29. That’s a single week shy of THREE MONTHS! WTH? Is that really the best they could do? The world champs is the last week of August, and there are the usual national champs, but most of those are actually happening this weekend.
How weird it will be for all those who didn’t make the Olympics (which is most). Do they go back to doing local races? Do they jump on some road races? Do you start training from scratch again? I don’t recall, even in Olympic years of ever having such a gap.
I do see one single “plus” to this goofy season. Maybe, just maybe, the European racers will be so starved for racing that they will ALL make the trip to North America. Typically a bunch of racers just skip those races, which sucks for us North American fans that would love to see them all in person.
But, if you blew off races all year because of the Olympics, then you certainly don’t care about the overall title, so why bother with those last 2?
Either way, I look forward to next year, when all the teams have been changed around, new Under 23 racers become Elite, and the schedule is consistent enough that the overall title becomes a real battle again.
How weird it will be for all those who didn’t make the Olympics (which is most). Do they go back to doing local races? Do they jump on some road races? Do you start training from scratch again? I don’t recall, even in Olympic years of ever having such a gap.
I do see one single “plus” to this goofy season. Maybe, just maybe, the European racers will be so starved for racing that they will ALL make the trip to North America. Typically a bunch of racers just skip those races, which sucks for us North American fans that would love to see them all in person.
But, if you blew off races all year because of the Olympics, then you certainly don’t care about the overall title, so why bother with those last 2?
Either way, I look forward to next year, when all the teams have been changed around, new Under 23 racers become Elite, and the schedule is consistent enough that the overall title becomes a real battle again.
