Took a trip over to this years world champs which were on in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium initially to see Sven Nys at his last World champs race and then to have the cherry on the cake by having Ireland represented by David Conroy in U16 and David Montgomery in U23 certainly made it a special event.
I'm sure you've all seen reports so I wont go into details but both lads did amazing, When I saw young Davids face on lap 1 I thought "Oh s**t" he looked shook.... or hurting or the typical feeling you have on the first lap of a cx race (Where you question your sanity and think your gonna die), but then on lap two it was clear to see he was having the time of his life, the lad is a legend.
Sunday Morning saw the U23 riders line up with David M gridded near the rear of the bunch, Dave is a truly fantastic rider, to see him ride sections that most of those around him were running was inspirational, he rode rings around the US/AUS/Swiss to name but a few to take a fair number of positions before having to pull out on lap 3 due to his back giving out which he had hurt on practice the day before. Amazing performance if short and certainly one to get back to this level again.
The U23 finish was one for the books Dutch lad thought he one only to realise he had one lap left
Oh dear Ended up being won by a Belgian.lol
Overall a fantastic experience, If I was to try and describe it briefly... try to imagine music festival and replace the main acts with a Cyclocross race, Belgians are great crack.
Trip topped of by having Irish riders there to Race,
Top job Cycling Ireland and all involved in getting them there.
