Sven Nys disagrees with statements that gravel will replace cyclocross in near future: "There are huge audiences along the course and enough sponsors interested in the sport"
CyclocrossFriday, 11 October 2024 at 06:00
Jan Bakelants caused quite a stir last week by stating that gravel will marginalize cyclocross. Sven Nys, manager of team Baloise - Trek Lions naturally didn't quite like to read those statements.
Nys presented his cyclocross team lineup for 2024/25 winter, lead by Nys' son Thibau and Lucinda Brand, this Wednesday. In a subsequent interview with Wielerflits, the two-time world champion responded to Bakelants' suggestion that the advent of gravel will overshadow cyclocross in not so far future.
"Cyclo-crossing is a spectator sport. Gravel is a hands-on sport. Gravel is an added value for cycling in general. But it is absolutely not the case that gravel will take the place of cyclo-crossing. In less than 100 years!"
Nys also has no doubts about the rather unbalanced economic model of cyclocross. "There are still enough companies that are interested in our sport," he assures, maybe more himself than the interviewer.
"There is 90 percent live visibility on television. In certain periods, there are huge audiences along the course. Everyone wins. Of course, the top athletes in our sport are not always present at the moment, so that gives a somewhat distorted picture. But who can tell me that in 10 years' time there will not be real top crossers who traditionally cross from the beginning of October to the end of February?"
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Cyclocross is good offseason training and perhaps a way to break into road cycling. It's much like cross country running and then running on the track. Gold medals in track mean more and pay more than cross country.
Cyclocross is a better spectator sport. I don’t see gravel replacing that.
Both are fun to participate in (at a very recreational level in my case), but gravel probably seems a lot more accessible to many people.
My expectation and hope is that they will complement each other rather than compete. Especially because the seasons are mostly different.
Cyclocross is a short one hour event with all aspects covered by TV and has a lot of variety in terms of races and conditions(sand, snow, rain , mud, rocks, running). It is already established and has its superstars. Gravel is too long for it to be interesting to a layman. and besides they are nothing alike.
“Gravel is too long for it to be interesting to a layman.”
Imagine watching the entire Unbound race if it was televised. That would be a snoozer even for a fan.
Road cycling is also too long to be of interest to the layman that’s why coverage often only starts halfway through.
For fans however, it can be made interesting if decent knowledgeable presenters are employed, they have troves of desirable information, facts and stories to pad in the action gaps, sadly, not that many channels seem to care about choosing them well. These days I prefer just keeping an eye on preliminaries with live text coverage, allows me to get on with stuff whilst any action builds up.
They should as they tend to more attract road riders not quite good enough and those too worried about road racing (and training) so basically adding participants on the one hand and keeping others in a new loop.
Agree with abstractengineer too.
No mention of the beer at cyclocross races yet. Oopps.
Imagine if they served hot wine or chocolate.