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SpudFireOP•

A short piece on the BBC about the history of the CX World Championships for women. I still find it crazy that it wasn't until 2000 that a womens event was held.

My favourite part of the article is the caption for the final image "Vos (seen here en route to cyclocross world gold in 2022)". All you can see is a bit of Vos' helmet peeking out behind Lucinda Brand.

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epi_counts•

They've updated the Vos pic now!

What's also a bit crazy is how fast women's cyclocross has developed since 2000. Now it's pretty much equal to the men's side (apart from viewers, but still pretty close): separate junior / U23 and elite World Championship races like the men, same prize money, same teams, same TV exposure (unless you live in the Netherlands where for reasons beyond me the NOS is showing the men's race live but not the women's this weekend?).

Still issues in the wider sport, of course (which this NOS video explaining cyclocross touches on), but the development over the last 23 years has been pretty amazing. Just need to find a way to grow it outside Flanders.

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neverabadidea•

As mentioned in the article, we’re finally at the point where cross has always existed for the younger racers. They grew up knowing that cross is a viable discipline for women, much different from even a decade ago. Helen Wyman has spoken about cobbling together sponsors to get to race…and she was one of the elites! I’m so happy for the change for the better.

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kyle_c123•

It's quite a story, right enough. 'The Flyover' on YouTube did a video on Daphny van den Brand last year. It was away before my time following the sport, road or cross - I only knew of Hanka Kupfernagel, who won the first women's CX WC, from the Hankaberg at the Thuringen Tour.

The Flyover's channel is well worth browsing through.

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omnomnomnium•

Great piece of trivia in here is that Daphny vdB wanted to be a mountain biker, but her hay fever prevented her from competing in the spring and summer - so she chose cyclocross!

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