The equipment, staging, barriers, sound systems were all the level you would see at the USPRO Championships in Philly or at Tour of Georgia.

The finish line equipment is similar to that used in many of the pro road races in France. On the line is a familiar grey truck that is likely the same that I described in my Criterium du Dauphine Libere travelogue. This truck is operated by Portix. It has judging, computer, and television facilities inside. During the race the arrival judge stayed on the upper viewing balcony, while the timer took electronic times from inside. The photofinish was MacFinish, using two cameras on the left hand side of the road.

The right hand side of the road in the last 50 meters was left open to spectators, while the left hand side was the race operations. Immediately after the Portix truck were three familiar green booths on a truck bed that were used by pairs of radio commentators. Slightly further down was the awards presentation stage. And adjacent to the stage was a series of three tents. The first two white tents were connected by a fabric door and were heated. The first was to store the top three’s bikes and have immediate television interviews. The next tent was a semi-private area that they could put on dry clothing before the interviews as well as a storage area for the flowers, trophies, and other awards to be given out for the different events.

The third tent was a grey tent with markings Mitsubishi on top. This was a rider sign in tent that the sponsors wanted to get exposure of their brand name. Rider sign-in is normally done at pro road races, and evidently is being implemented this year at World Cup cyclocross races. Normally, rider sign-in is placed nearer to the start line, but in this case the tent was placed in this odd location for sponsor reasons. Miroslav asked the organization to make a pair of signs on the barricades that would say "Sign-in". The race organization had these in place within the hour of request.

The whole start/finish area, from 100 meters before the line to 100 meters after was secure with steel barricades cover of course with sponsor signage. In fact, most of the race course used steel barricades near paved roads and "snow fencing" like material for the remainder of the course. No plastic tape at this race, at least plastic tape by itself. Like at Diegem, when steel barricades were not used, thick wooden stakes were implanted into the ground and in this event the "snow fencing" was attached to the wooden stakes. This formed a very solid barrier for spectators.