I set out at the start of the 2022-2023 cyclocross season, stating enthusiastically I would review every single ‘cross course with a broadcast available to me. At the time that was ambitious, but not unreachable. I did it the previous season, so why not this season?
What changed is that I was coaching more riders, and I was organising more racing, and I was also commentating on several races. This made the workload less manageable meaning many reviews got released very late. I kept going until a few weeks ago, but several changes in my personal life have cut down the available time even more meaning I just don’t have the time to fulfil my early season ambition.
In essence this has always been voluntary. No one has paid me for the roughly ninety thousand words I’ve written about cyclocross courses for the final two years. I always like to compare it to the famous American novel The Great Gatsby, which consists of somewhere in the neighbourhood of forty-five thousand words. Essentially I’ve written two short novels worth of text about ‘cross courses.
It can’t be left unsaid that this kind of writing has been a part of new opportunities opening up for me in the industry, so I’m not unhappy with my choice to continue doing it for as long as I could sustain it.
My review of the Hoogerheide World Championship will be the last one for the time being. Maybe I’ll bring back the format, or a variation on the format, for a future season. At the moment, though, I think it’s time to retire the format and leave room for the other things in my life.
Thanks to everyone for following along, and special thanks to the people behind Cyclocross Social and Cyclocross24 who provided me with a lot of inside information and the occasional obscure broadcast link.
See you on the other side!
jens dekker 
Thank you so much for past two years of reviews. It’s one of my favorite emails to receive. It has been very helpful as a cx promoter analyzing my own venues. Busy of luck in your future endeavors and I love your commentary!
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