"We seem to have picked the perfect week" - Val di Sole organizers rejoice as snow falls in time for World Cup race

The World Cup race today in Val di Sole will provide quite the spectacle in cyclocross and the skies have blessed the race organizers with the snow they were hoping for. This comes as a relief as this week saw a very different landscape in the Alps. 

“There was some doubt when a lot of rain fell last Friday and all the snow was suddenly gone, but on Saturday we were helped again by the weather gods - with a thick layer of snow," Flanders Classics' Chris Mannaerts told Sporza. The company is in charge of organizing the Italian event and with the snow being it's obvious feature and reason for that location, a race without it would be a disappointment. This Friday rain fell on the course and cause a lot of it to melt. Organizers then had to hope for a weather change this Saturday but luckily that was the case. 

"The weather here remains constant now. There won't be much snow anymore, but the snow that has fallen will certainly not melt anymore. We seem to have picked the perfect week," he states. Whilst the men's race will feature most of the seasoned pros and have a battle for the cup classification, the women's field is highly degraded, only with a few top riders making the trip - most opted to take the weekend off racing, to take some time to rest and/or train for the upcoming months. 

"We draw up a plan in advance for every cross. Normally, that route remains 100% the same when we actually start building, but with a snow cross we always have to improvise a little more. If we encounter an ice spot on the original route, we try to reroute the route so as not to take any risks. Falling on ice is always harder than falling on mud," he explains. The route has had slight changes this year.