Cameron Mason (Cyclocross Reds) edged closer to an elite cyclocross victory this season on Saturday. In eight starts at races just in Belgium so far, he has finished in the top 10 seven times. On Saturday, he finished just 10 seconds behind Joris Nieuwenhuis (Baloise Trek Lions) for second at Superprestige Boom.
The Scottish-born rider recently moved to Belgium, and it could have been magical to win in Boom, his new hometown.
“I walked to the race today. I could almost see my apartment from here,” said a smiling Mason as he prepared to take the podium near his home. “I tried my best to close on Joris, but I was kind of at my maximum. Which is cool. It’s nice to be able to do another podium at a race this big. It was a nice race, a kind of lonely race. And it’s one step closer to a win.”
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The 23-year-old worked hard in the chase of Nieuwenhaus for eight of nine laps to find the top step of the podium, still looking for a first victory this year on the ‘cross circuit. Even though he lives in Boom, he was not able to gain an advantage with a pre-ride of the course. He said he arrived just the night before the race.
“I didn’t actually ride on the course, but I run around here on my training runs, and it’s cool to see the course just so close to me,” Mason said in a post-race interview.
Nieuwenhuis said he heard the crowd cheering for Mason on each lap, and knew he could be caught, so he just kept his head down and rode his own race. But he admitted he had no idea that Mason had moved to Boom, so was considered a home favourite.
“Ah, OK, he had a lot of cheering, so that’s probably why,” Nieuwenhuis said at the finish. “I hear the spectators [cheer] for him. It was always at the same spot - first they cheer for me and a few seconds later I heard them cheer for him, so I had the feeling he was close.”
Mason wears the British champion’s jersey after his victory at nationals last season and so he is easy to spot in the mud. His race in Overijse in October was his first cyclocross race on Belgian soil, and he finished fifth.
"I know I can compete for top results in crosses like Overijse, Baal and the Koppenberg. But I am ambitious: I want to keep developing as a cyclist,” he told Wielerflits.
So far this season Mason has also finished fourth place in Koppenbergcross and third at Urban Cross in Kortrijk. Thanks to a solid haul of UCI points, Mason started on the second row at the UEC Continental Championships, and he battled to a silver medal in the mud at Pontchäteau.
The Scotsman combines mountain biking and gravel with cyclocross, and this past season he won the British Marathon Mountain Bike championship and had two podiums at UCI Gravel World Series events - a second at Gravel Fondo Limburg and third at La Indomable.
He moved from Trinity Racing this season and joined Cyclocross Reds, a Belgian team which is part of the Alpecin-Deceuninck organisation. A road programme has not been disclosed for 2024, as his foremost focus is still a quest for a cyclocross victory this season.
He plans to compete in a block of racing for Christmas week, then defend his elite title at British Nationals, race Worlds and follow with a stint of February cyclocross events for the first time.
“It feels like my time is coming and this result has been knocking on the door for a few years,” he told Cyclingnews at the Continental Championships.
After another runner-up at Superprestige on Saturday, he said, “I know that it only takes one mistake, so I know how close the racing is at the front. I didn’t stop believing. In the end, second [today]. I’ll try again next time.”
