A couple of days a year, we happily spend the entire Sunday on the sofa – whether the weather outside is good or not. Paris-Roubaix (preferably with rain outside and in France), the Tour of Flanders, the Road World Championships – and the Cyclocross World Championships. This Sunday we made an exception; brother and fellow Pedaleur Garikai celebrated his birthday on February 5th and wanted to celebrate by watching a race with the family. Not from the sofa as usual, but on location. Off to Hoogerheide, to witness the anticipated duel of the cross greats up close.

Noord-Brabant is about a two-hour drive for us (not counting potential traffic jams for the course), so we get in the car at half past eight. And that turns out to be a good departure time; a two-hour drive, a traffic jam that starts well before the exit, finding a parking spot, and a 4-kilometre walk means we arrive at the course at 12 o'clock. Anyway, we're here. Time to buy the special debit card, because without beer and Flemish fries, this festival wouldn't be half as fun!

We heard estimates beforehand that spoke of between 30 and 40 thousand visitors on Sunday, and that has proven to be true. The central field is already a huge mass of people, and truly every metre along the fences is packed with supporters. And although the participants competing for the top spots mainly come from Belgium and the Netherlands, that certainly doesn't stop visitors from other countries from coming to watch too. The Spaniard Felipe Orts has even mobilised a complete fan club, who have set out with cardboard versions of their favourite rider. The atmosphere is great.

The under-23 women started their race at 1 p.m. and suddenly I saw a gap opening up by the fence. Great, I thought, I could get some decent photos from there. That turned out to be a miscalculation: a few brutal shoves later and I was back in the second row. It turned out I'd taken the spot of a grumpy-looking man wearing a David and Mathieu van der Poel fan club jacket. “I've been here since eight,” he grumbled at me as I walked away. Okay, so not everyone was in a good mood – I took my place back with the others (who had a good laugh at me as I walked back, slightly bewildered).

The women's race is brilliantly won by Shirin van Anrooij, who thus sets a good example for later in the afternoon. The men's race starts at three o'clock, and as Dutch people, we do hope that Mathieu van der Poel can also win the world title there. But do we really have faith in that? Wout van Aert has clearly been the better rider on a number of occasions during this cyclocross winter. Because how good is Van der Poel exactly? And how is his back doing?

During the men's race, the crowds are at their largest. After only about three minutes of racing, it becomes clear that the race is unfolding as expected: from our spot, we see Van der Poel and Van Aert whiz past together time and time again, with the rest following at an increasingly larger deficit. Most of the cheering is for a Costa Rican who is trailing far behind the rest of the field. That sounds delightful to us; Garikai, a Dutchman born in Zimbabwe, sees that even a reasonably untalented rider like himself could have a promising career as a cyclocrosser.

Halfway through the course, we move to a spot with a bit more overview. Because good atmosphere or not, following the race itself isn't very easy. Luckily, the cyclocross champions don't make it too difficult for us. Inseparable, they thunder towards the inevitable sprint, which we can watch on the big screen. As soon as Van der Poel proves to be not good, but very good, the cheering erupts on the grounds. You really miss that atmosphere on television.

We're seeing if we can have another birthday drink in the village, but all the pubs in Hoogerheide appear to be reserved by groups of cycling enthusiasts. That would have been a nice way to finish, but then it's back to the car.

The return journey is a little smoother than the outward one, and we're back home just before eight. It was a beautiful day with a crowd that (with a few exceptions) was in a very good mood.

Well worth it!

And yet, it also looks rather nice from the comfort of home on the sofa.