The 2010 Cyclocross World Championships are in the books, and what a weekend it was. There was great action from start to finish, including a few surprises and some new names to look out for. The home nation managed to pick up a pair of titles in the Junior and Elite Men races. Mean while two brothers from Poland shocked the Under 23 race and a young Dutch women continued her domination of the Elite Women’s field. In the end, the Netherlands came out on top with three medals; France, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Belgium all ended up with two medals; while Germany managed to pick up one. We made some great predictions, along with some pretty bad ones. Here’s a wrap of how we, and the riders we chose did:

Junior Men

1. David van der Pol (Netherlands) – The heavy favorite heading into the race, van der Pol finished a disappointing eighth. In fact, the predicted domination by the Netherlands failed to come to frutition as Emiel Dolfsma delivered their only medal (bronze).
2. Gert-Jan Bosman (Netherlands) – Bosman fought hard to finished sixth by the days end, far from our prediction though.
3. Vojtech Nipl (Czech Republic) – Nipl clearly didn’t have a great day as he finished 18th. In fact, he was the last Czech Rider to cross the line.

Under 23 Men

1. Tom Meeusen (Belgium) – Meeusen provided one of the biggest disappointments of the weekend with his fourth place finishing. While that’s a great result, Meeusen was never in contention for a medal, but was the top rider from Belgium. Hopefully he’ll have better luck next year.
2. Kacper Szczepaniak (Poland) – Kacper finished 20 seconds behind his brother, Pawel, in one of the most unbelievable races of the year. A Polish one-two was the last thing anyone expected, not to mention it was accomplished by a pair of brothers.
3. Jim Aernouts (Belgium) – Aernouts finished over three minutes back in 26th place and was the fourth Belgian across the line. Not too bad, but not what we expected.

Elite Women

1. Marianne Vos (Netherlands) – We got this one right, and so did Vos. The three-time world champ proved that once again she’s the best rider in the world and virtually untouchable. She bested the field by nearly one-minute in one of the most dominating performances of the year.
2. Katerina Nash (Czech Republic) – Nash was my surprise pick and I even thought about putting her on the top-step of the podium. Nash was in the mix during the entire race and although she was disappointed, here fourth place ride was nothing short of spectacular. It further proves that women’s racing in the US is just as good as in Europe.
3. Daphny Van den Brand (Netherlands) – Our third correct pick of the weekend (and last) saw Van den Brand end-cap the podium for the Netherlands. She really had no shot against Hanka Kupfernagel, but managed to hold off a surging Nash.

Elite Men

1. Sven Nys (Belgium) – Nys seemed to lack the technical skills he has become known for, and as a result he was never really in contention for the win. He managed to hold on to third rounding out the podium just behind fellow countryman, Klass Vantornout.
2. Zdenk Stybar (Czech Republic) – Stybar pulled out all the stops on his way to the rainbow stripes in his home country. It was a remarkable performance to say the least. The best part, Stybar still has at least a decade of racing a head of him.
3. Erwin Vervecken (Belgium) – This was perhaps more of a sentimental pick than anything else, but there was some logic behind it. Vervecken has shown remarkable form over the past few weeks and always manages to surprise when we least expect it. 16th wasn’t what we were hoping for, but it was a good result nonetheless.

Because we’re an American based site, here’s our prediction for the top Americans in each race:

• Junior Men: Cody Kaiser – Kaiser was the top American, finishing 33rd. This should have been a sign that the Americans would struggle in Tabor.
• U23 Men: Danny Summerhill – Zach McDonald managed to best the national champ by a mere seven seconds. However, both riders fell out of the top ten early. Summerhill ended up 29th.
• Elite Women: Amy Dombroski* – Compton started, but failed to finish. Dombroski ended up 14th, but was bested by her teammate Meredith Miller who wound up 12th.
• Elite Men: Jonathan Page – Page finished a distant 30th, and was the third American across the line. Tim Johnson showed remarkable poise and form, coming on strong in the last half of the race to finish 12th.

* Unless Katie Compton starts