Press Release:
One-time Worlds participant to wait until 48 hours before race.
Alexander Revell won’t make his decision on contesting the UCI Cyclocross World Championships until 48 hours before the race starts. The elite men’s event will take place on February 2 in Hoogerheide, the Netherlands.
Over the last year, the New Zealand cyclocross national champion and one-time worlds participant has shifted his focus to the ground, highlighted in 2013 by a few months’ work digging out tree roots and gravel, and breaking up concrete around the house of a family member. Nonetheless, Revell looked in good form when he beat fellow Kiwi Angus Edmond at the end of December in the midst of a brief, month-long block of ‘cross events which began in Poland on December 1 at the Bryksy Cross and concluded on January 1, 2014 at the GP Sven Nys. With the cyclo-cross world championships so far from home, Revell has been able to hold off on his decision to race Worlds a little longer.
“The main challenge for Revell, much like that of Zdenek Stybar, is that he lives only twenty thousand kilometres from the circuit where the world championships will take place,” his coach said at a press conference on Tuesday. “The final decision belongs only to himself, according to the weather, whether he can get out of bed in time and other criteria such as the closing date for entries being January 24th which is over a week before the event.”
Revell’s main goals this season will be to be able to continue to ride his bike once again. He is aiming to peak at the local club races, with priority on a social coffee ride on Friday mornings with friends. He finished sixth in the 2013 edition, but was in the lead group until a he ordered a latte instead of an espresso and couldn’t make up the gap.
