"These changes take back cyclo-cross to a regional viewpoint": US organizer criticises Flanders Classics approach

As I reflect on the Tomas Van Den Spiegel interviews on WielerFlits and CyclingFlash last week, it would be easy to channel my inner Hans Vandeweghe. Say what you will about the De Morgen writer, many think he’s always uber-critical of our sport. But give him credit, he always speaks honestly. And so I think that achieving a certain 'Hans-like' state of mind is required so I can be critical but honest. Only then can I reflect on the state of the most important series in cyclo-cross and some of the points presented by Van Den Spiegel on this website.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Tomas, and think that some Flanders Classics ideas could bring some overdue updates. And let’s be fair minded, they’re in a tough spot. It’s obvious Flanders Classics is often caught in the push-pull political whirlpool of their UCI masters. So with the first World Cup in the history books, let’s reflect on the big guy from Flanders Classics thoughts from last week.

Calendar Woes and Globalization Dreams
How did we go from the dream of globalization and “let’s take cyclo-cross to New York City” to a calendar that is compressed into a December-centric jumble with six Belgian rounds? It feels like the mad effort to entice to the party the Holy Trinity - Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock - has backfired into a Holy Mess.

One only needs to look at other sports to see a logical World Cup series, be it figure skating, alpine skiing, biathlon and others, spans an entire season. While we’re teased with non-traditional cross countries in the future, we’re currently seeing nothing more than a rehash of the same Belgian events changing classement affiliation but presenting the same show.

I may have been called a Madman for bringing a World Cup to Las Vegas in September, but at least it could be called an effort to expand the geography and scheduling of the sport’s marquee series. I used to talk boldly of the dream of a World Cup series that started in September in Australia at the tail end of their winter, swung through the USA and landed back in the motherland by mid-October. Seems like a quaint notion today.

TV and the Pay Wall from Hell
The 'kopman' of cross from Flanders Classics has been reading his own press releases, I think. The defense of paywalled cyclo-cross seems to be that a younger audience wants to view our sport in a new way, with more content and interactive features and that us old-timers are living in the past with our linear viewing habits. And furthermore, we’re told, we need to live with the fact that now we have to pay the price for what is in reality the same product we always got. Yes, it’s a new world in the media landscape. And yes, producing content, especially enhanced content, costs more. But we’re not receiving enhanced content.

What we’re presented on the Flanders Classic produced programs, and others, aside from an occasional drone point of view camera, is the same content from a generation ago. A case in point, the split screen, used in other sports since the 70’s, has yet to be discovered by cyclo-cross TV directors. And how about that weekly staple, the long lingering camera shot as the winner crosses the line and makes his way to the Flash Interview tent? In most races a battle for the final corner and the sprint to the line by the second and third place finishers goes unseen by the paying viewer. None of this seems like innovation, and it hardly seems likely to attract the much-desired younger viewer.

Those of us who live outside of the Belgian Bubble and don’t have the luxury of listening to Paul Herygers and Ruben Van Gucht are dependent upon a paywall landscape that forces mediocre commentators on paying customers. Hardly Van Den Spiegel’s problem but still notable as the globalization dream remains the topic.

We listen to endless droning by British super-fans and ex-racers while the events on the field of play pass them by. We don’t receive the benefit of Sporza’s unique gift to our sport - the man in the material zone talking with managers, reporting which riders come in with a flat ("Oh, that’s why he dropped off the lead group") or what the latest team rumblings are. Yes, we got our single question in English during the Flash Interview, so guess we should be content with that advancement.

Name one innovation that has come with the paywall era we have entered? The podium selfie? The elements Van Den Spiegel talks about - highlights, behind-the-scenes content, and interactive formats - are not being produced with our pay-to-watch payments, but instead by the teams themselves or by social media content creators, sites like Wielerflits, and others. What are those payments we make getting us except the same quality of race coverage we had in the era of Wellens, Albert and Nys Senior?

The Future Fair
Cyclo-cross has been called a Flemish Fair, and we’re certainly in a period when the domination by a single region has never been bigger. I used to say, endlessly some would complain, that globalization would come to our sport when Belgian teams acquired sponsors from outside the region who would demand global reach.

We saw only last week Wout Van Aert, two-time winner of my World Cup CrossVegas, stating big-time racing should return to the USA. Certainly, the focus of those comments was road racing but the point remains clear: it’s time for powers that be to push beyond the shores of Europe whether the Olympics are part of our future or not.

And in keeping with my promise of critical but honest comments, I’ll close with a strong endorsement of Van Den Spiegel’s message: “If we don't want to just race in Flanders by 2040, we have to make changes.” But we cannot allow those changes to be blunders that stymie our sport and take back to a regional viewpoint.

About the Commentator
Brook Watts retired to a life in Mexico after a career of race organization in the USA including bringing the first World Cup to America, CrossVegas. In addition Watts directed World Cup Waterloo and initiated the efforts behind the Fayetteville World Championships. But none of those accomplishments compare to his recurring role in DNA Nys.

While he now spends his time in sunny Mexico he can always be found this time of year awake at the earliest morning hours on Saturday and Sunday watching his beloved cyclo-cross from behind the paywall.