16 ounces. Or 473 mls. That’s your regular latte in the US of A. You can forget ordering a piccolo in the MidWest.

Points. Placings. Grid positions. It’s a numbers game and this close to the mega business end of racing you can overlook the bigger picture stuff if you get too bogged down in the minutia. Ultimately, it’s about pedalling as hard as you can, keeping it rubber side down, enjoying soaking up a bit of the madness and propagating the CX stoke back home, whether or not that delivers the numbers you would like at the finish line.

Race photos courtesy Bruce Buckley

Wisconsin’s wop wops got the nod to host the season opening World Cup in Trek HQ’s backyard this year. The updated course delivered one steep run-up, two off-camber descents, three flyovers, four bars (one secret) and a bazillion mosquitoes. Kinder temperatures meant minus one on the water sprinklers compared to 2017. Phew.

Waterloo is the first of two US World Cups with Iowa City aka Jinglecross next weekend, so a heap of the world’s biggest cross hitters are in town.

The head honchos of the UCI Cyclocross Commission recently announced a boost in the number of stops for the World Cup party, increasing from nine to 12 rounds next year and potentially up to 14 stopovers in the future. So, this double banger of American CX World Cups might just be here to stay, which has to be a good thing for CX Down Under given the improved accessibility from here to there compared to Europe. And that we all speak English. Kind of.

Thunderstorms made way to sunshine and the course dried out sharpish, although not totally in time for Friday’s C2 race which maintained a sponge like quality to the pedalling surface delivering you to the bottom of every flyover with limited momentum.

Hitting a new one minute PB on lap one (662W for the numbers fans) made way to a deep quad burn on lap two before gunning it on the closing laps to claw back a few places and shoot the line in position 21. It was a lesson in throttle control.

For Sunday’s big show, 41 riders from nine nations toed the line including two Aussie cousins and one Kiwi. There was also a Dutchwoman with an extensive palmares and some big numbers on the board: 3 times World Road Race Champion – in 2006, 2012 and 2013 – and 7 times World Cyclocross Champion – in 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. Yes, I got to race with Vos.

The field of fierce femmes got the green light as the marquee event and charged around six laps of the 3.1 kilometre circuit with a seductive 80 metres of ascent per ronde which made everyone her bitch.

After 54 minutes on the pedal sticks (with 14 minutes 36 seconds above 300W), I grabbed my best World Cup result of 33rd claiming 27 UCI points and 300 euros of prizemoney en route. Niner NZ beat Niner US which made the Waihi crew very happy.

And with only 28 seconds off a top 30, Jingles is gonna be all out to crack that goal before heading home to the Land of the Long White Cloud. See ya soon, Iowa!