Here’s a video of the television coverage of the elite men’s finish at last weekend’s World Cup race in Pijnacker, Netherlands. Lars Boom finally got a 2008 World Cup win, and Niels Albert looked strong as well, with Sven Nys settling for third, just ahead of Bart Wellens.

There are also some great photos from the race over at Belgium Knee Warmers.

And in semi-related news, yesterday the New York Times ran an article about cyclocross, written by Michael Barry.

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In addition to the highlights clip I posted earlier, I also found a couple of interesting amateur videos from the UCI Cyclocross World Cup event in Tabor, Czech Republic.

First is this one of some crazies on the barriers, operating what appears to be a hand-cranked air-raid siren.

Next is this one of the sand pit, illustrating how fast the pros can move through pretty long stretches of sand.

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Hot off the YouTube: highlights from today’s World Cup cyclocross race in Tabor, Czech Republic, won by Niels Albert.

Sven Nys crashes at about 1:00 on this video. He ended up in 4th place, 11″ back.

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This nice compilation of Bart Wellens/Sven Nys moments was posted a couple of weeks ago on YouTube. I’ve seen most of these clips before, but it’s well put together, and gets big points for using the Johnny Cash cover of Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt as a soundtrack.

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I recently came across these two well-produced compilation videos posted on YouTube by the unfortunately-named “FacePubes.” They have some great footage from 2007-08 European Cyclocross races (mostly taken from Sporza TV), and include a lot of mud, some hairy crashes, and of course a whole bunch of Sven Nys.

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I finally got around to watching my recording of this year’s Paris-Roubaix. PR is always an incredibly exciting race, with its storied history and agonizingly difficult terrain, and this year was no exception. Sure, the much-predicted rain didn’t come through, Tom Boonen shocked almost no one by winning again, and George Hincapie’s equipment failed less spectacularly than usual, but it was still great.

And of course I was struck again by how much more this race has in common with a cyclocross race than a typical Pro Tour road race. There aren’t any hills to speak of, much less run-ups, and the distance is about 10 times greater than most people cover in a one-hour cross race, but the road surfaces on some of Paris-Roubaix’s pave sections make a lot of cross courses look like a velodrome.

I wanted to post a video of this year’s race that captures how demanding this race is, but there’s not a lot out there that does it justice. The video that actually does the best job may be this one, which captures some of the teams doing pre-race reconnaissance on the notorious Trench of Arenberg pave section.

Note: This video starts off with some still images, which I’m not a big fan of on YouTube (it’s a site for videos, people), but it switches to video after a few seconds, so stick with it.

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 OK kids. It’s finally here. The full Sporza TV telecast of the Elite Men’s race at the 2008 Cyclocross World Championships in Treviso, Italy on January 27, 2008. Knock yourselves out.

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I still haven’t been able to find a video of the complete telecast of the 2008 Cyclocross World Championships in Treviso, Italy, but I do have this one of the last five minutes.

The quality is a little sketchy, but it has some great moments, including some nice aerial views of the course and the huge crowds. I’ve got to say that I would prefer the original television commentary to the new soundtrack (”The Final Countdown” by Europe, I’m sorry to report), but hey, I didn’t post the video, so that’s not my choice to make.

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The full (about an hour and fifteen minutes) Sporza TV coverage of the men’s elite race at the 2007 Cyclocross World Championships in Hooglede-Gits, Belgium on January 27-28, 2007.

Favorites Sven Nys and Bart Wellens are taken out by a plastic traffic barricade that is knocked onto the course by a camera motorcycle, opening the door for defending champion Erwin Vervecken to win after a dramatic final lap.

And here’s the women’s elite race. Maryline Salvetat of France take the gold but American Katie Compton surprises everyone by grabbing the silver.

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