Helen Wyman (Kona-FSA) was the first rider into the first corner in Sunday’s cyclocross World Cup race in Kalmthout, Belgium. Sadly for the British champion though, this was as good as the afternoon was to get as a spectacular crash early in that first lap cost her several positions. The winding nature of the snowy course, coupled with an untimely puncture, meant that she was unable to ride the rest of the race to the best of her abilities and she slumped to unlucky 13th place.
“I came here after a week off the bike ill,” she explained. “I thought maybe that was my bad luck over and my legs weren’t bad for the race. I guess I was fresh, that’s about all you could say for my preparation. I had a good start, one of best so far this season; then I hit a rut, hit the floor and I guess my hopes of good result were left there on that corner.
With the Kalmthout course one of the twistiest in the circuit, there are few passing places and so making her way back the front was no easy matter.
“At any other venue, it’s not that hard to come back,” she said, “but here it’s just single track and then a road section where everyone’s giving it full gas. I was patient in coming back through, but I was caught so far back in the field. And when it looked like I’d be able to get back to something like a respectable result, I got a flat and had to start all the work again.”
2010/11 has been one of Wyman’s best seasons to date, with the 29-year-old taking the biggest victories of her career to date at the Koppenbergcross, just outside her new hometown of Oudenaarde. She followed this ten days later with a win in arguably the muddiest race of the season so far: the Jaarmaarktcross in Niel.
Sixth place in the fist World Cup race at the UCI headquarters in Aigle, Switzerland, and fifth in the second at Plzen, Czech Republic were the kind of results Wyman expects to get; the Kalmthout result is her worst of the year by far.
“13th isn’t good, and I’m disappointed with it,” she admitted. “I haven’t been out of the top 10 all season, and in most events I’ve been challenging for a much higher position. I certainly didn’t think I’d be battling for that kind of result so I’m a bit gutted.
“In the whole race, I didn’t get to put in one lap full gas,” she added, “and that is one of the most frustrating things. It’s a World Cup and I was just stuck. I don’t really know how to sum up that feeling. It’s more annoying as it was my mistake that made me crash.”
With another World Cup race following soon, in Heusden-Zolder on December 26th, Wyman feels she needs to get herself back in the saddle to exorcise the demons of Kalmthout.
She also has the incentive of the Gazet van Antwerpen (GvA) Trofee, where she currently sits in third place, just 3 points behind leader Sanne Van Paassen (Brainwash). A good result in the Loenhout Azencross on December 29th could see Wyman take the lead from the Dutchwoman with just the races in Lille and Oostmalle in February remaining.
“A good training week is called for to ride away the frustration from today,” she concluded. “I’ll go away and lick my wounds, as I have a few from the crash, and I’ll come back stronger next week.”