Originally Posted by
MinnMan
UCI is all excited about the big crowds for cx races, and wants to bring the worlds to NY. But hardly anybody in NY has heard of WVA or MVDP.
Also, the crowds are there for this historic rivalry, which won't last forever.
Yep. The crowd size was huge because of where the race was located, paired with having one of the top favorites from that country. I would expect exactly the same in Belgium. Year after year, you can reasonably expect that kind of excitement from those two countries because they consistently produce top competitors, and the people know the sport. Outside of that, crowd size will drop off in a hurry. The most common response to CX in the US is, "What is it?"