Riders collapsed into the grass from heat exhaustion after the finish of Friday’s race at the Trek CXC Cup due to temperatures that climbed over 30 degrees Celsius. The unseasonably warm weather took a toll on both the men’s and women’s fields, knocking out several riders, including World Champion Sanne Cant (Beobank-Corendon.)
“For me, it was too hot to race,” Cant told Cyclingnews Friday. “The second lap I became dizzy, and I crashed three times, and the last time it was a really hard fall on my head, so I had to stop with a big headache.”
High temperatures also affected the World Cup in Iowa City a week earlier, and many riders came to Wisconsin hoping the forecasted rain would soften up the dry parcours and cool things down. Despite thundershowers, Thursday night temperatures stayed steadily in the 30-32 degree Celsius range.
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By Friday, most riders were racing with cages and bottles on their bikes and showing up at the start line with ice vests and improvised ice socks. Sunday’s World Cup in Waterloo included a sprinkler section, which riders could ride through to get some relief before they headed up Factory Hill. Organizers in Waterloo also provided plentiful water around the course for the 8,000 spectators they were expecting to come watch the race.
“Cyclocross in this kind of weather is almost like a different sport,” said Elle Anderson (Cycling.be-Alphamotorhomes). “The preparation is different and the warm-up is different. The whole strategy of racing in high temperatures just feels so different from normal cyclocross racing and has a lot of staying cool and managing your energy. Personally, I feel like I can’t go into the red as much because there is always that risk of heat stroke.”
Katie Compton (KFC Racing-Trek) won Friday by a comfortable margin but said the heat added an element of unpredictability to the racing.
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