Lotto CrossCup – Hannut 22/01/2023
England Senior Men – Race Report

The team met at St Pancras, London for a lunchtime departure to Brussels on Eurostar then on to Leuven where we stayed overnight before transporting to the race venue in Hannut.
11.00am Sunday morning the team boarded the bus with very grey skies and 1 deg C temperatures and a forecast later in the day for snow.

The 35 mins journey to Hannut soon proved the forecast to be right as the grey skies turned to a thick grey/white colour with low visibility and the odd flurry of snow evident and a very cold wind prevalent making the temperature feel lower than the actual 1 deg C. This is what I would call a typical Belgium Cross Cup event which has been running for some 80 years. A twisting, winding, undulating course with 2 ‘hairpin’ turns per lap the course consisting of 7 laps total, 3 small laps of 1km followed by 4 larger laps of 1.5k totaling a 9 km distance which awaited the senior men as is so often for the last race of the day.
As usual the tight course had many aspects crammed into it less than 100 metres after the start the course narrowed quickly to a ‘pinch point’ followed by a steep drop immediately after making the sprint from the start line all the more important.
An exceptional start by Joe Wigfield getting through the first technical parts of the course unscathed and in the top 5 was motivation enough for Ned Potter to chase closely after him. They were followed a little way back in distance, but many packed runners later, by Ellis Cross and Jack Gray (Wigfield, Cross and Gray all competing here 1 week after the warm fast conditions in the Valencia road race).
The snow was now heavy and had been for the previous senior women’s race and was not likely to let up during the race. The first km lap passed very quickly and the runners were back in what seemed a flash with Potter and Wigfield battling it out in 9th/10th position respectively and both looking very good and in the mood for a tough slog further back Cross and Gray were also slogging it out with Gray moving through after the explosive start still unraveled.
As is often the case the second and third lap sore little change at the front although Gray had moved up and was clearly running well but Cross began to struggle later to be found he had lost a shoe around 400m stopped to put it back on and lost a lot of positioning as the runners ploughed past him he then found himself up against it physically and mentally as he tried to get some momentum and pull runners back and a foot that had become wet from losing a shoe quickly became frozen and was not ideal.
As they entered the 4th lap it was now 4 1.5k laps remaining but with the addition of yet more turns and a series of 3 hurdles in quick succession per lap. Still the pace was relentless at the front and running well not too far behind was Potter and Wigfield in 7/8th really having a battle and holding their own. As the leaders kept pushing and the gaps grew slightly the hurdles added another dimension of complexity to this course. The positions looked more or less set would there be one final twist for any of the leaders. Joe Wigfield was looking good in around 8th and just holding on to Potter but at the end of the penultimate lap (Iater it was discovered he had miscounted the 7 laps and thought he was nearing the end) no such problems for Potter who had created a slight gap on Wigfield and on hearing the bell for the last lap threw himself round the hairpin and down the hill with the 1 to go lap marker showing and it was clear he was full of running and determined to have his best ever cross country race on his England senior debut. Wigfield pursued hard despite his miscounting the laps and further back Gray had hung in and gradually picked runners off lap after lap as he looked strong – Cross had pulled the plug at around 4km and it was just not a good day for him.
As they came back into view towards the finish Potter’s sustained running had earned him 5th position and Wigfield had dug deep on the last lap to finish 8th.

Results
1 Schrubb, Yann Fra 28m 29s
2 kimeli, Isaac Bel 28m 48s
3 Grimard, Guillaume Bel 28m 59s
4 Rono, Kipkertich Ken 29m07s
5 Potter, Ned ENG 29m08
6 Da Silva, Lucas Port 29m10s
7 Boulvin, Dorian Bel 29m20s
8 Wigfield Joe ENG 29m25s
17 Gray, Jack ENG 29m45s
Ellis Cross DNF