Recap: 2017 Worlds Junior and Elite Classes

By Mike Carruth

Whenever there is a race so action-packed or important that it calls for a longform, slow-down-the-sands-of-time-and-really-dig-in recap, I sit down to write it with a little devil on my shoulder the whole time, who tells me at the beginning of every new sentence “it’s too long…nobody’s gonna read this,” and screams “TL;DR” (too long; didn’t read) over and over again, into my good ear.

But the thing is: a detailed recap, like the one you are about to read IS important—both to fully appreciating what happened at the event, and also for the annals of BMX History. The 2017 UCI BMX World Championships WERE an historic event, and will go down in BMX History for many reasons.

It shouldn’t be just selfies, shoutouts and sponsor tags; and in the next post, we’re on to what’s for breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express.

I have written these kinds of recaps for World Championships in years past, and for the Olympic Games in London and Rio. When I did, I always received positive feedback from readers about the deep-dive we took on the coverage (which helped balance out the snarky comments that rode alongside the props).

This report took 18 hours to develop, over four days. That is an insane amount of time to devote, but I truly believe it was worth it.

So, for that little devil on my shoulder, the podium results are at the bottom of each class (if you did not already know). But for the angels out there, who want to peer inside the action in a more granular way, please read-on.

After a tremendous week of Challenge (amateur) class racing in Rock Hill, where Team USA took 51 “medals,” the focus narrowed, on Saturday, to the Junior and Elite “Championship” classes.

In all, 222 riders (33 Junior Women, 60 Junior Men, 43 Elite Women and 86 Elite Men) would do battle to make it to the four final gates of eight—seven riders were listed as DNS and are not included in the above count.

One thing we did not key-in on until after the event was the absence of the World Champions’ Rainbow Jersey at this event. Neither of the two reigning champs (Mariana Pajon and Joris Daudet) were wearing theirs. Turns out, the UCI rule is that a champion’s reign ends on the day before the start of the following year’s World Championship. So, all riders come in to the next Worlds even-Steven, at least as far as official UCI accolades.

The race action was as hot as the South Carolina temps, and there were more than a few surprises as the qualifying motos gave-way to the first of the single-elimination rounds, the Elite Men’s 1/8 finals. More on that after some recap on the Junior classes.

2017 BMX News race coverage sponsored by J&R Bicycles

JUNIORS
In the USA, we don’t get a lot of exposure to the Junior Elite classes; our substitute for Junior is A-Pro, to some extent, although that system doesn’t leave much runway for women going from age class, into the big leagues.

In UCI, there is no “pro” class, as we know it. The top classes are age-based (Juniors are 17 and 18 years of age, Elite is 19 and over, and Masters is 30-Over).

Many moons ago, ABA’s “AA Pro” was semi-retired in favor of UCI’s Elite Men, to keep pace with UCI nation and rider qualification points to the Olympics. We say “semi retired,” because AA makes an appearance once each year, at the Grands (on Friday and Saturday). All other races run the UCI rules (one main, USA BMX #1 Pro cannot run his/her plate, and some other more-subtle rules.

One of those subtle rules is that, at USA BMX races that are also on the UCI calendar, Junior Men and Junior Women run with the Elites.

The one race where Juniors run separate from Elites is the USA Cycling Elite National Championships. For 2017, that race was run in Rock Hill, as part of the USA BMX Carolina Nationals. Bryce Batten and Sophia Foresta are the USA Cycling Junior Champions.

Junior Women

JW had five groups in the motos, with three dropping from each one to fill four racks of five-each for the quarterfinals.

In the quarters, the class of the field was starting to show glimmers of main event glory, as Bethany Shriever of the UK, Saya Sakakibara from Australia, Sophia Foresta from the US and Vineta Petersone from Latvia, all either won their quarter or took second.

Saya Sakakibara and her brother, Kai (who was racing Elite at the worlds and went-out fifth in the quarterfinals), are a much-talked-about pair in Aussie cycling circles, and clearly on a trajectory to be among the next-gen stars. Saya is already rockin the Red Bull Helmet, and both signed frame deals with DK earlier in the year.

Foresta is in her first year of Pro Women racing in the US, and is looking impressive, hitting the podium for the first time in South Park, earlier in July.

Semis
Shriever crushed her semi, with her closest comp, Brazilian Paola Reis +.75/sec behind, along with Russian Varvara Ovchinnikova in third, and Foresta rounding out the first half of the final gate of eight.

In the second semi, Sakakibara started in lane one, with the Latvian, Petersone in lane two. Saya said “C-Ya” to this group, acing the lap with a 1.347/sec margin on Sae Hatakeyama from Japan, Maria Restrepo from Colombia and Petersone as the final qualifier.

Final
The first final of the evening was run fully under the lights, with a shadowy Carolina sunset off the backside of the big hill.

Sakakibara was in lane 1, with Shriever (pronounced “shree-ver”) in lane two. At the other end of the gate, it was Petersone in lane eight, and Foresta in seven. Down the hill, Saya took the early lead, with Shriever close on her chainstay. Brazillian Reis had some trouble down the hill, and was last by the first jump.

Into turn one, it was Sakakibara, Shriever, Foresta and Petersone. It stayed that way to the last turn, where Petersone made an inside pass on Foresta to take up third, and Shriever mounted a strong charge in the final feet to get past Sakakibara for the win.

THAT was some exciting racing!

Junior Women Podium
1. Bethany Shriever (GBR)
2. Saya Sakakibara (AUS)
3. Vineta Petersone (LAT)

2017 BMX News race coverage sponsored by J&R Bicycles

Junior Men

Where Foresta was the sole Team USA member in Junior Women, Junior Men had two—National Champion, Bryce Batten, and USA Cycling Devo team member, Kamren Larsen. As mentioned above, Junior Men had 60 riders on the sheets in Rock Hill (actually, it was 64—with eight full-gates in the motos—but four were DNS, taking the starting field down to 60.

South Africa’s Dylan Eggar wrecked first round, and was out for the day, with DNS in the latter two rounds. The rest of the guys made it to the gate for all three rounds, and the class was thinned to 32 for the full-rack quarterfinals.

We weren’t there to see it, but the points indicate that Bryce did not have a very good day, ending the motos on 18 points (the cutoff was 12). One thing we CAN say, via BMX News operatives, is that BB is, indeed, the “King of Cool,” and represented Team USA with the utmost professionalism.

The lineage from Junior Men success to making a name in Elite is pretty clear, so we are watching all the names here—even, or perhaps, especially—the ones we’ve never heard of.

In the quarterfinals, Kye Whyte of Great Britain (brother of British elite star, Tre Whyte) had the fastest time of the four groups, with a 34.709. That was, incidentally, faster than the winning time in the main event, as well. Also in that third Quarterfinal rack was Maynard Peel of New Zealand, who we have seen tearin it up in the USA BMX scene as well for a couple years. And, also, Kam Larsen. That trip went 1-2-3 in their quarter, with Matt Krasevskis of Australia getting the final qual spot.

Dutchman Kevin van de Groenendaal and Cedric Butti of Switzerland battled it out in the first quarter, with Kevin getting the win. The top four from that first rack were all eventual main makers (Josue Pesantez of Ecuador and Tino Pompa of the Netherlands were behind van de Groenendaal and Butti this lap).

Semis
In the first semi, Australian Isaac Kennedy had lane one, with Mynard Peel in lane two and van de Groenendaal in lane three. Down the hill van de Groenendaal was about a half a bike in the lead, and coming left, pinching off the Peel’s path.

Into turn one, it was van de Groenendaal and Kennedy, but a split-second later, Kennedy was down before the exit of the turn, and Peel settled into second, with Japan’s Asuma Nakai in third, and the rest of the pack charging hard over the berm jump, and out of turn two. Juan Ruiz of Colombia didn’t make it over the first set in the third straight, casing the frontside of the landing hard. Dude kept riding though!

Peel blew up on the landing into the last turn, casing his back wheel ever-so-slightly, and was on the ground just-like-that, giving-way to a final-four that included Ruiz, who stayed on the pace down the third straight, even after scrubbing-off all his speed. Quals went van de Groenendaal, Nakai, Pesantez of Ecuador and Ruiz, three seconds-back, though he was.

The second semi was a great opening act for the Elite semis to follow, with Whyte in lane one, Latvian Mikus Strazdins in lane two and Butti in lane three. Down the first straight, we lost Kye Whyte, and into turn one, it was Butti and Strazdins, with the rest of the pack trying to make somethign happen. And something did. Ben Leslie (CAN) and Noah Breschan (SUI) got together, spun-into the Carolina asphalt, and threw Kam Larsen onto the top shoulder of the turn, with Dutch Army Juniors Ian van Heugten and Tino Pompa getting momentarily balled-up, but back on the pedals quick enough to be three-four at the stripe. Quals were Butti, Strazdins, van Heugten and Pompa (a full six-seconds behind Butti, but qualifying, nonetheless). Larsen was fifth.

Final

On the main event gate, it was van de Groenendaal with the inside gate, then Butti and Strazdins. Would they make it down clean?

Yes, they would! Down the first straight it was van de Groenendaal, Butti and Strazdins. Pezantez was down over the first jump and DNF. Butti had the inside on Strazdins into turn one, and took up second behind van de Groenendaal as the pack raged into the second straight.

Strazdins caught up to Butti for a moment over the berm jump and into turn two, but Cedric held it well, and stayed in second as the pack plowed into the third straight.

This is where Butti made his move, manualing strongly and making up all the margin van de Groenendaal had on him. Butti was set-up beautifully on the inside for a last-turn pass, which stuck, and he came into the last straight in the lead.

In the final feet, van de Groenendaal seemed to stop pedaling after the last obstacle, which put Butti’s lead in the bank, as he crossed the line, the 2017 UCI BMX Junior Men Champion. Van de Groenendaal was second, and Strazdins third.

Junior Men Podium
1. Cedric Butti (SUI)
2. Kevin van de Groenendaal (NED)
3. Mikus Strazdins (LAT)

The scene was set for the top classes. Follow us now, as we recap the Elite Women and Elite Men.

ELITES

White plates, with black numbers on the hill meant it was Elite time. It may be a basic color combination, but the complexities of Elite BMX Racing have never been higher.

Elite Women

Elite Women had 44 official starters, with Karla Carrera of Ecuador a DNS, bringing it to 43. In the eight gates of motos, Laura Smulders (NED), Mariana Pajon (COL), Caroline Buchanan (AUS), and Alise Post (USA) all went aces-across. Yaroslava Bondarenko (RUS) and Judy Baauw (NED) joined the quarterfinals on four points. Caroline’s third round lap was the fastest of all in the three rounds of motos, at 33.899. Ruby Huisman (NED) made it out of motos with the highest points, at 14.

Smulders, Post, Bondarenko and Buchanan disposed of the comp, with wins in the quarterfinals. Shealen Reno was in qualifying position in the third group, and wrecked on the last straight, giving-way to Stefany Hernandez and Mika Shaw to join the semis.

Semis

Caroline was way-out on lane seven in the first semi (by choice), with Mariana in lane one and Laura Smulders in lane two.

With the gate drop Caroline had the perfect-pop and took an early lead, with Mariana in the two-spot and Smulders in the three. That’s how it would go, on to the stripe, with Axelle Etienne of France in the final qual spot.

The second semi had some heat in store, with Sarah Walker in lane eight and Alise Post in lane one, then Bondarenko in two, Lauren Reynolds in three and Stefany Hernandez in lane four.

The pack came down the hill with the post-race time analysis showing Hernandez in first, but Post powered-through and had the lead solidly in-hand by the first jump. Reynolds was at the back of the pack, in seventh, at this point, but moved into fifth with an inside pass in turn one.

As the pack raced toward turn two, it was Post, with Bondarenko, Hernandez and Walker all in the hunt. Reynolds put-down an epic pass in turn two, to pick-off Bondarenko and Walker and take-up the three-spot. WOW!

At the stripe, it would be Post, Hernandez, Reynolds and Walker. BRAVO to “Lozza” for that big-time move! If you watched it again, it would be VERY tough to call her for a qual spot in the first straight. So, it is a great reminder that ANYTHING can happen, and track skills kill-it every time.

Final
As the first Elite final of the evening gated-up, it would be Lauren Reynolds out on lane eight. On the inside of the gate was Caroline Buchanan, in lane one, then Mariana Pajon and Alise Post in three.

It was the longest 24 seconds in BMX, between showing Caroline, as the last rider in the gate (on the inside), and the gate-drop.

When the gate did drop, as in the semi, Stefany Hernandez was down the hill first, according to the official Tissot timing analysis. After that, however, it was all Alise Post, both in time-stats and otherwise.

Into turn one, and down the second straight, it was Post, Buchanan and Hernandez. Mariana gassed-it-up down the third straight to pass Stefany and take up the three-spot.

Down the last straight, Caroline closed the margin Alise had on her, and it was down to the lunge at the line. The naked eye might call it a dead-heat, and the whole world held its breath for the two-seconds to took for “POST, A” to come up as the winner. The race, being decided by .008/sec. Mariana was third.

This podium would be the exact-reverse of last year’s Medellin finish, which was Mariana, Caroline and Alise.

The American crowd totally LOST it, cheering-on Alise as World Champion. She would later say that she was “always the bridesmaid, but never the bride” in the hunt for a W1 finish. Well, there is no irony in the fact that she is both the “bride” in winning the World title in 2017, and in BEING an actual bride, on the final day of the year, as she marries her man, Sam Willoughby, on New Year’s Eve.

Speaking of Sam, he was perched in the best seat in the house—atop the Challenge hill, along with Alise’s dad, Mark and all their friends. Alise rode directly from the finish line up the face of the five-meter hill to give Sam a big hug.

If there were a Pulitzer Prize for BMX Photos, the image of Alise and Sam, at that moment, would be the winner, for sure. There is no question that those who captured that moment have one of the most important photos in BMX history.

Elite Women Podium
1. Alise Post (USA)
2. Caroline Buchanan (AUS)
3. Mariana Pajon (COL)

2017 BMX News race coverage sponsored by J&R Bicycles

Elite Men
Elite Men class had 86 on the sheets, from 31 nations. As you might expect, Team USA had the most, with 11.

Out of the 16 racks, nine riders had 1-1-1 going into the 1/8 finals (Corben Sharrah, Tory Nyhaug (above), Carlos Ramirez, Connor Fields, Sylvain Andre, David Graf, Bodi Turner, Maris Strombergs and Gonzalo Molina). High points going out was 13 (Carlos Oquendo and Miguel Calixto).

The NBC TV coverage joined the program at the top of the 1/8 finals, so the audience was treated to some top-class racing, right off the bat to keep them interested.

There were conflicting reports of exactly where and how the event would be broadcast—with official reports stating that the only way to see the action live was to pay $40 to subscribe to a year of the NBC Sports Gold “Cycling Pass.” As it turned out, UCI simulcast the NBC program on their Facebook page for free (only after we paid the $40, of course)

1/8 Finals
The first two racks went around clean, handily-won by Corben Sharrah and Joris Daudet, respectively. In the third rack, Twn van Gendt hald his lead, and Latvian Kristens Krigers was DNF.

In the next group down the hill, Maris Strombergs got the “green helmet” to the bottom, and led the pack into the first turn. Tory Nyhaug was on the inside of The Machine into the turn, and took-up the top spot, as they raced toward turn two. American Jeremy Smith was second, to Nyhaug over the berm jump, with Strombers close behind in third. Maris came up short on the landing, and got thrown off-the-pace, allowing fellow Latvian Edzus Treimanis to inherit third and Miguel Calixto of Colombia to get the last qual spot. Definitely a major upset to see the two-time Olympic Gold Medalist go out so early.

The fifth of eight gates saw Kyle Evans of Great Britain get the early lead, and Justin Posey of the US come from lane eight to take up a solid second place into turn one. Posey went high on the turn, rode outside the striping, and ended up in a flip into the grass on the backside of the turn. At the stripe, it was Evans, Sakakibara, Blanc and Marquardt, who passed two down the third straight to get the last Q spot.

The sun was setting on Rock Hill at this point, and was directly in the faces of the riders, down the second straight, and into the berm jump.

The quarterfinals were coming to an end as well, as group six had Tre Whyte lead the pack to turn two. Jeremy Rencurel of France was in fourth place at this stage, with Carlos Ramirez and Anderson De Souza of Brazil in the middle. American Sean Gaian was fifth as the pack hit the berm jump. De Souza had a perfect trip over the gap, and shot into the lead, with Whyte in the chase now. The pack was three-abreast at the mid-point of the third straight, as Rencurel moved-up even to challenge for the lead. In the last turn, it was Whyte, Rencurel, De Souza and Ramirez, but the pack was tight in the final feet, and it was any man’s race. At the stripe, it was Rencurel, Ramirez, Whyte and Gaian.

Connor Fields and Nic Long owned the seventh group, and a back-of-the-pack wreck took out any challenge for the 3-4 spots. Anthony Dean, Jeff Upshaw and Dave van der Burg tangled in turn one, and were all DNF. Quals in this one were Fields, Long, Palominos of Chile and Therkelsen of Denmark.

In the final rack of the 1/8 finals, it was Alfredo Campo with the green helmet down the hill, and three-abreast into turn one, where Sylvain Andre took the lead, with Russia’s Evgeny Komorov, Exequiel Torres and Campo in the Q spots in the second straight. That was how it would finish.

A little-under 11 minutes to pare the field down to 32. Here come the quarterfinals!

1/4 Finals

Just about 30 minutes later, the Elite Men quarterfinals were on the hill, and ready to thin it down to 16 for the semis.

In the first rack, Alfredo Camp had the green helmet down the hill, but Corben Sharrah took over the lead early, with Campo in second and Calixto in third. Calixto came into the turn over-cooked, and went-high, letting four in the door on the inside. Hard to tell what happened next, but the result was Carlos Ramirex and Calixto spun in to the ground, and their day was over. At the stripe it was Sharrah, Campo, Kyle Evans and James Palmer of Canada.

The second quarterfinal was crash-free, and saw Bodi Turner get down the hill first, but it was Joris Daudet who led the pack into, and out of turn one. Jeremy Rencurel was in second, Exequiel Torres in third and Jelle van Gorkom in fourth. Bodi was in fifth, as the second straight charge was on. The order stayed the same out of turn two, but Turner moved into the four-spot after van Gorkom got pushed way-high by Treimanis. That was the final order.

Next, it was Connor Fields’ turn to grab a ticket to the semis. The Con-Man had it from the drop, with Komarov of Russia, Blanc of Switzerland and fellow Team USA star Sean Gaian all making it through. Twan van Gendt was in the two-spot, til a turn-two high-side took him down. Gsian passed Carlos Oquendo down the third straight to get his ticket punched.

The crowd was getting seriously amped-up as the semis were about to be decided. We could only imagine what the stoke level would be when the final gate of eight was on the line, the next time the guys were on the hill.

In the fourth quarterfinal, David Graf would start from the inside, with Sylvain Andre next to him and Tory Nyhaug in lane three. Down the hill, it was Andre with the green helmet, but David Graf who led the race into turn one. Andre has the quick line on the inside, and got under Graf in the turn, and the pack took-off toward the second straight as Andre, Graf, Kimmann and Nyhaug.

Just-then, at the exit of turn one, Therkelsen wrecked out of nowhere, and took Tory down with him, allowing Kai Sakakibara to take up the four-spot. Graf cased the landing on the berm jump big-time, but stayed on two-wheels and maintained his third place position. We did not see how, but Sakakibara got passed by the Russian, Kleshchenko, down the last straight. The finish went Andre, Kimmann, Graf and Kleshchenko. Lots of intrigue for a 33.327-second lap.

Semis

TWO laps to go til the final gate of eight would be on the hill.

Corben was in lane one, Sylvain in two and Rencurel in three as starter Ron Jones of USA BMX said “HERE WE GOOOOO!”

Corben was down the hill first, and it was Daylight all the way. Into turn one, Komarov had the two spot but, like so many laps, of so many riders, he over-cooked it and drifted high, allowing Andre and Rencurel under him to take-up the two and three-spots. That’s how it would roll into turn two, with Turner applying serious pressure on the outside of the fourth-place Komarov, and would jump into the third straight in the qual spot. Those-four ran away with it down the third straight, and onto the stripe—Sharrah, Andre, Rencurel and Turner.

In the final gate before the final, it was Joris Daudet on the inside, with Connor Fields and Alfredo Campo in lanes two and three, respectively, and Niek Kimmann out in lane 8. Down the hill, it was Campo, again, with the green helmet, and all-even with Joris and Niek down the first straight. Into turn one, Joris took-up the lead, with Campo in second, Kimmann in third, then Fields. Connor moved into the three-spot down the second straight. That’s how it would stay into the last turn, when palmer, who was in sixth, tried a “hail Mary” move, and washed out his front tire, taking Exequiel Torres with him, and almost grabbing Kimmann into the carnage. The top-four stayed clear and the finish was Andre, Campo, Kimmann and Fields.

Final

Moments earlier, Alise Post won the Elite Women title for Team USA. In the time between her win, and the final gate-drop of the week, News tweeted:

One more gate to go. #MakeItADouble #TeamUSA

— bmxnow (@bmxnow) July 30, 2017

Corben was sitting on a perfect day, and won the past three laps handily. Connor’s horsepower in the big laps is undeniable, so all of us here at the BMX News Global Command Center felt that a USA double was more-than possible. If we were the betting kind, we would be looking for any fool to take our action on this lap.

And just-like-that, the gate was down! Months of trainig and prep, all focused on this-one effort.

Fields was out of Lane seven this trip, Sharrah was in lane one, Daudet in two and Andre in three.

Sharrah had an incredible start, and got the green helmet down the hill. Into turn one, it was Sharrah solidly in the lead, and a trio of hard-chargers that included Andre Kimmann and Campo. In the turn, Joris came under Campo to challenge for the three-spot. They would stay even into the berm jump, but it was still Sharrah and Andre up-top. In turn two, Connor came in capital-H-Hott, and nearly hit Campo’s back wheel.

Into the third straight, it was Sharrah, Andre and Kimmann. with Joris in fifth. Joris passed Campo on the third straight, and had the inside in the last turn, where he put Kimmann way outside and scrubbed-off some of his speed—but Kimmann was still third as they hit the final table. Joris lit-up the afterburners in the final feet, and got-past Niek for third.

“*HOLY COW*” is how we put it on Twitter in the moments after the official results were posted. This would be the first time Elite Women and Elite Men were won by the same country in the same year! And to do it on home soil. Extra-wow!

Corben later said, on social media:

Still haven’t found words for the happenings over the weekend but it was a very emotional one being found at the top of the field of the best BMX racers in the world.

Huge thanks to all the competitors you guys make me better in all aspects of life. Most of all I’d like to give thanks where it’s deserved to everybody who makes this possible, Jesus Christ for this miracle, my wife @nicolesharrah all my friends and family for the love of the sport. @cbecerine100 for being a great man providing the guidance to be my best. Also the fans you all were unreal all day long!

Elite Men Podium
1. Corben Sharrah (USA)
2. Sylvain André (FRA)
3. Joris Daudet (FRA)

POSTSCRIPT

The Elite Men final officially ended the 2017 UCI BMX World Championship week, which started with Cruiser racing on Tuesday. This worlds had the largest attendance of any UCI world Championship to date, with a reported 3704 entries (which does include some doubles who raced both classes).

The 2018 Worlds will go to the Middle East(ish), and be held in Baku Azerbaijan. BMX News is preparing an article to give you some impartial information on the region and Baku, in general, so you can make an informed decision on whether to go for it or not.

In 2019, the event will be back in Zolder, Belgium as in 2015, and in 2020, ahead of the Tokyo Olympic Games, everyone will be back in the Southern USA at a yet-to-be-built facility in Houston, TX. Hundreds upon hundreds of Americans who had no previous exposure to a UCI World Championships have now been bitten by the bug, and it’s a good bet they will be returning somewhere, somehow, to do it again.

If you have made it this far into the article, you have earned your BMX News Longform Merit badge. Just get your camp counselor to sign off on it. Thanks for reading!

Before you go, let me take a moment to thank Michael Albright for a selection of photos to use in this story. I’m sure you agree that his shots made it a much better piece, instead of the few less-quality shots I had. Thanks Mike!

—Mike Carruth

Links

2017 UCI BMX World Championship Class Results