UCI Combines Worlds Location For 13 Disciplines

UCI announced today that, beginning in 2023— and every four years thereafter— all 13 of the cycling disciplines under their governance will hold their World Championship event together, in the same region, over a two-week period.

The 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships will be held in and around Glasgow, Scotland over two weeks, that August. Thus, we are also reporting the location selection for the 2023 UCI BMX World Championships.

It will be the start of an every-four-year cycle of combining UCI World Championship events into a two-week mega event for a given region. Previously, each discipline held its own worlds event, as we have seen in BMX, in places like Rock Hill, SC; Zolder, Belgium; and coming in 2020 to Houston, TX.

Combining all events into one “festival” setting is pretty cool idea, with a lot of potential. It gives UCI the ability to capitalize on the centralization of resources, focused media coverage/broadcast rights, and spectator/participant travel. Maybe we’ll see BMXers riding the BMX Racing, BMX Freestyle, MTB and Cyclocross Worlds, all in one trip.

Here are the disciplines that are covered:

UCI Road World Championships
UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships
UCI Track Cycling World Championships presented by Tissot
UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships
UCI Mountain Bike Cross-country World Championships presented by Mercedes-Benz
UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Championships presented by Mercedes-Benz
UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships
UCI Mountain Bike Cross Country Eliminator World Championships
UCI Trials World Championships
UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Championships
UCI BMX World Championships
UCI Indoor Cycling World Championships
UCI Gran Fondo World Championships

Never knew there were so many, did you? Same here.

For BMX Supercross, the event will be held at the Glasgow BMX Centre—a dual hill facility, which hosted the European Games last year.

Two weeks in Scotland? Count us in! We’ll even pull the kilts out of mothballs and begin the long process of fitting in to our Prince Charley jacket (not kidding). BMX News will keep you posted on developments as they become available.

—Mike Carruth

Liam Phillips Joins UCI as WCC BMX Coach

It has been a little over two months since BMX News ran the story of British star Liam Phillips’ retirement from competition. In that announcement, Liam told News “If I’m no longer able to compete myself, it feels right for me to assist others in their quest to achieve their goals.” Read more

2018 UCI BMX World Cup Schedule

Back on September 29, BMX News brought you a preview of the 2018 UCI BMX World Cup schedule. The preview has five stops, for a total of 10 scores in 2018—three in the spring and two in the fall.

One of the fall stops was here in the USA, in Oldsmar, FL. Our preview list had Oldsmar as “unconfirmed,” since it was subject to approval by the Oldsmar City Council before it could be written in proverbial pen on the schedule.

On November 21, the Oldsmar City Council voted 3-2 against hosting the World Cup event, in part due to the costs involved (said to be ~$125,000), according to reports published in local media.

The 2018 World Cup calendar, therefore, was finalized as we originally reported, but without a US stop. So, here is a reiteration of that schedule.

UCI BMX World Cup – Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France*
March 31 – April 1, 2018

UCI BMX World Cup – Papendal, Netherlands
May 5 – 6, 2018

UCI BMX World Cup – Zolder, Belgium
May 12 – 13, 2018

UCI BMX World Cup – Santiago del Estero, Argentina
September 29-30, 2018

*Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines is about 20 miles Southwest of central Paris, and a baguette’s-throw from Versailles, so some incredible sight-seeing potential on that one. A quick check of Expedia.com shows flights from JFK to CDG at only $465—cheaper than our ticket from ORD to PHX for the Winter Nats. Can you say BMX tourism?

USA Cycling Creates All-Discipline “National Team”

It was like Hall of the Justice League at the US Olympic Training center in Colorado Springs, CO earlier this week, as 23 of the newly-named 51-member USA Cycling “National Team” came togdether for a day of briefings and meet & greet.

Top stars in seven disciplines were represented (BMX Freestyle, BMX Supercross, Mountain Bike, Cyclocross, Road, Track Endurance and Track Sprint).

This was the first time we got a glimpse of the Freestyle team as one unit, and got to hear their take on how conforming to the fairly-ridgid USAC/UCI/Olympic format squares-up with their decidedly anti-conformity sport.

“Whoever doesn’t want to ride the Olympics doesn’t need to, and whoever does…this is a great opportunity.”

That was how Freestyle site, Vital BMX, opened a video highlighting the team, with an on-camera quote by Pat Casey, one of the eight-member Freestyle squad.

The USA Cycling National Team was selected, not based on “teacher’s pet” rules, but based on certain results-specific criteria (see table below).

In BMX Racing, there are three levels (not surprisingly: Gold, Silver and Bronze) of support for which an athlete may qualify.

The USA Cycling National Team Members, and the results that qualified them to the program, are:

GOLD LEVEL QUALIFICATION (Alphabetically)
Connor Fields – Top 3 World Cup Overall
Alise Post – 1st at the World Championships
Corben Sharrah – 1st at the World Championships

BRONZE-LEVEL QUALIFICIATION (Alphabetically)
Sean Gaian – 15th World Championships
Dani George – 11th at World Championship
Mika Shaw – 16th at World Championship

Don’t let the “Gold/Silver/Bronze” levels confuse you, as it did us at first. Unlike the medal stand, where there is but-one Gold medalist, multiple people can qualify into the Gold level, and some levels (like silver in BMX) may not have anyone qualified.

Gold-Level qualifiers receive $25,000 in annual support from USA Cycling, and all-kinds of support services to keep their eyes on the prize between now and Tokyo. See the graphic below for the full table of bennies.

Bronze qualifiers are in a rarified environment, to be sure, but there is no financial support, per se.

News Caught up with Connor Fields, who qualified at the Gold Level for his top three finish in the 2017 World Cup standings. here’s what he told us about being named to the National Team:

I am super excited to have been a part of the official USA Cycling National Team launch this week in Colorado Springs.

I have been involved with USA Cycling for nearly 10 years now and this is the best program I have seen from them in that time.

It is easy to understand the different levels of support involved now. It is crystal clear how to earn them and what they include.

It was also great to meet and interact with members of the team from all different disciplines of cycling. We have access to so many recourses through USAC and USOC and to learn about more of them this week was great.

For me personally, I was most excited about the opportunity to learn more about all of the ways we can try to become better BMX racers with the resources available to us.

With the help of USA Cycling, I attained the following results:
2016 Olympic Champion
2017 USA BMX #1 pro
2013 UCI BMX World Cup overall Champion
2011 Pan American Games Gold Medalist
2012, 2013 UCI BMX World Champion – Time Trial
2012, 2014, 2016 USA Cycling National Champion

Thanks to Connor for taking the time to give us a first-person account of the experience.

We should add that membership on this “National Team” does not interfere with the athletes’ participation on their respective factory teams (“trade teams,” in USAC parlance). It also does not guarantee inclusion on the world championship team or world cup race delegations, all of which have their own qualification criteria.

We will have more on the USA Cycling National Team program, and how the athletes are making use of the services provided, in a future report.

—Mike Carruth

Links

USAC National Team Qualification Criteria and Benefits

2017 UCI BMX SX World Cup Kicks Off

The 2017 UCI BMX Supercross World Cup series got underway over the weekend in Papendal, Netherlands. Since the finale in Sarasota last October, the format of the series has undergone some important changes to improve the “raceability” of the program, and also to get more bang for the buck Read more

USAC Crowns 2017 Elite Champs

The annual USA Cycling BMX Elite Nationals Championships were held Friday, alongside the second of four Team USA World Championship qualifiers, and the Carolina Nationals pre-race.

Like most of these USA-only events, the Elite portion of the program was not packed with rack after rack of household name stars. Instead, one rack of Women, two racks of men, and one rack of Junior Men (which is an improvement, since we did not have any Junior classes at all last year, partially owing to the USA BMX rule at the time that said if you race Junior Elite, you are immediately turned up to A-Pro. This year, the rule was relaxed, and we had a gate of Junior Men.

Junior Men, by the way, was the race of the day, as Bryce Batten and Kamren Larsen battled the last half of the track. Bryce led it to turn two, but Kam came in and put the swoop down, taking the lead into the third straight.

BB jumped into the last turn, which gave him some nose room into the last turn, and he took every-bit of it to come up roses, and on to the stripe for his first title win in a championship class. We’ll be waiting for the next one in about 110 days or so, right back here in Rock Hill.

There was no Junior Womens class, so the only Junior Woman—Sophia Foresta—was combined with the Elites, however received her own podium award and “stars & bars” jersey.

In the Elite classes, Reigning Champ, Connor Fields was coming off an ankle injury sufferend in Oldsmar, and said, in a post-race interview, that he only recently started walking on the injured ankle again, and the trip to Rock Hill to defend his title was one of last minute decision, based on how he felt at the time.

Corben Sharrah—who had held the USAC title before, had gate two, next to Connor, and got out to a nice lead early on, and held it all the way home. Jared the Jet Garcia was riding strong all day, and had a slammin lap in the main, with second place.

In the Elite Women, Alise was sitting on six USAC wins—every year since they started running it off the SX hill in, maybe 2011, (check us on that). Her seventh running down the SX hill would work out the same as the previous six, with a win taken wire to wire.

Felicia Stancil is edging her way back to the front of the pack, after an injury/illness took her out for substantially all of last season. Felicia ended up second at the USAC Nationals, and Dani George was third.

Here are the podium finishes, via USA Cycling’s website.

Junior Women
1. Sophia Foresta – GT Bicycles

Junior Men
1. Bryce Batten – Factory Throdwn
2. Kamren Larsen – USA Cycling Devo
3. Brady Kincheloe – Powers Bike Shop

Elite Women
1. Alise Post – Troy Lee/Klean Athlete/Promax/GW
2. Felicia Stancil – GT Bicycles
3. Dani George – Dale Holmes Racing

Elite Men
1. Corben Sharrah – Daylight Cycles
2. Jared Garcia – Box Components
3. Connor Fields – Chase BMX

Top photo by Traci Batten. Thanks Traci!

BMX Australia Pulls Plug on Training Ctr

You don’t usually hear about the tracks that DON’T get built. With the hot-hype of announcement day gone, they sort-of just limp away into the mist of history, never to be seen or heard from again.

Late last week, however, BMX Australia announced that a long-planned, multimillion dollar facility in Reedy Creek Gold Coast, Queensland will be shelved.

“Shelved” may not mean canceled, exctly, but it sounds about as likely as your boyhood dog coming back from the farm he went to when you were seven.

An article in the Gold Coast Bulletin said:

BMX Australia this morning announced they would no longer go ahead with the “BMX Centre of Excellence” which was set to be a training facility for the nation’s top BMX athletes.

The Gold Coast City Council had jumped on board, providing $1 million from surplus funds from last year’s project to help the project along.

The track was to be a training ground for future Olympians and use the Reedy Creek land previously used as a motocross track which closed in 2012.

BMX Australia CEO Martin Shaw said it was decided to build the Gold Coast track was no longer in the best interest of the sport.

“We have a new board that is setting a different direction for the sport and the significant financial contributions involved in a development of this nature, both initially and ongoing, were not deemed to be the best use of our limited financial resources,” he said. Wow, that’s a mackerel-slap of cold truth being told.

Mr Shaw said there was also a limit to the number of world standard tracks required in Australia.

There are four international standard tracks in Australia, including the Sleeman Sports Complex track in Chandler, Brisbane.

Now, if you just skimmed-over that blockquote, the one part that you need to read, and re-read is “We have a new board that is setting a different direction for the sport.” They are re-aligning the direction of the sport in Aus. Which is interesting, because similar talk is happening in certain circles here in the US.

The release didn’t go into exactly what “setting a different direction for the sport” means. But it sounds like the trend may be changing from gold and glory once every four years, to smiles for miles every day.

Of course, it isn’t necessarily a ding-alarm signaling the demise of BMX Supercross in Oz; Mr. Shaw said it himself, they have four “international standard” tracks in Australia. How many are necessary?

This was the scene just five months ago, as the facility was announced on September 1, 2016

Recently, New Zealand announced they were cutting their High Performance BMX program, requiring athletes to apply for support on a race by race basis. Matt Cameron announced his retirement, and Sarah Walker, though still keeping her 20” built up, is on to winning track bike titles now.

We always see post-Olympics review of the scales. How do the funds invested balance out against the results and goals each individual governing body has. And where do riders find the tipping point that keeps them fighting in the oxygen-starved environment of BMX Racing, versus pedaling into the great beyond.

Links

Article in the Gold Coast Bulletin

New Zealand cuts High Performance program for BMX

“Matthew” Not Expected to Impact Sarasota SX

The talk of the track this week is actually about a different kind of track than the usual BMX Track chatter. The focus is on the “track” of Hurricane Matthew, as he makes his way North to threaten the Atlantic Coast of Florida and on-up through the Easter Seaboard.

The storm has killed more than 60 people as it ripped through the Carribbean, mostly in Haiti.

Lots of BMX tracks in the path of this storm, including the almost-finished track in Daytona.

Hundreds of BMX Supercross athletes are in Sarasota for this weekend’s 2016 UCI BMX World Cup finale. The race will be held on Sarasota’s newly-opened dual-hill facility.

If there can be any “good” news taken from the headlines that a Cat 4 Hurricane is headed straight for your state, it is that the storm is not expected to cause much of a disruption of the Sarasota race, paprt from some wind and rain.

By Sat, day one of the two-day event, the forecast is partly cloudy skies, and a below-20%-chance of rain.

For the main race day on Sunday, we should be seeing nothing but blue skies smiling down.

Tickets are $15-$75. Check out the info at the link below.

Links

2016 Sarasota SX Tickets

BMX Gold for Pajon and Fields!!

Since BMX racing’s Olympic debut in 2008, riders around the world have been dreaming of competing at the pinnacle of the sport. Few riders have had the chance to make this dream a reality, and even fewer have had the fairy-tale ending on the medal stand.

Today there were six more medals up for grabs, and a chance for any of the 32 men and women in the program to notch their name into the BMX history books for eternity. The stands were full. The stage was set, and now its up to the riders to perform and the magic to happen.

Yes, we kind of gave it away with the above headline and photo, but unless you have been runnin deep cover, or on the International Space Station (actually, they have Internet, so just deep cover), you know that the 2016 Olympic BMX Medalists have been decided.

But just like any great movie, the final punchline is one thing…the “how it all came together” flashback is where the real “story” is. So, settle in…it’s about to get good.

Elite Women Semifinals
Recap By Bryce Betts

Run One

Group 1
The nerves were high, and the stakes were higher as the women loaded into the gate for their first of three Semifinal rounds. As the camera panned past the riders, and neared lane 1 the crowd continued to get louder. Once they introduced Mariana Pajon the crowd erupted, likely giving some additional nerves to the riders. It didn’t faze the veterans however, as Pajon rocketed out of the gate and jumped the first straight so much lower than Hernandez and Post. After Pajon jumped into the first turn, the race was over, as Mariana was bike lengths ahead. Christensen followed Post around the track til the last turn, where Hernandez made a great move pushing her up, and also allowing Alise Post to follow past the Denmark rider.

Group 2
The gate dropped and it seemed like Crain had the snap, but it was Caroline who held onto it thanks to an inside lane pick. Crain and Buchanan were the only two to jump the triple into the first turn, and Crain took some nice pedals down the backside but it wasn’t enough to get ahead of Buchanan. Brooke was trying everything to get around Caroline, but while trailing Caroline’s back wheel she lost sight of blocking the defending Bronze medalist and Smulders managed to push Brooke up in the last turn and slot her back to third.

Run Two

Group 1
After the first round of motos the riders were finding their position in the semi, but many didn’t want to settle if they were outside of the top 4. In the second round Alise Post had a much better first straight, and had a slight edge on Mariana. Pajon’s inside position allowed her to stay in front, but Alise continued to apply the pressure, all the way to the finish. The real battle was for third and on however, as the racing was as tight as possible. Hernandez was in third, and slid out on the green paint crashing into 4th place Christensen, with only Manon Valentino (a close fifth into last turn) dodging and finishing third, and Gaby Diaz going from last to fourth while Carr and van Benthem were tangled up with the downed riders. If the Olympics has proven one thing in the past eight years, it is supreme unpredictability! This was just another example of that.

Group 2
Moto two was down the ramp and once again the American rider got a better gate. Brooke Crain missed the triple into the first turn, but still got ahead of Buchanan, causing Caroline to back off into the first turn. This made room for Smulders and Bondarenko, to slot into the two and three slots. The top four seemed to stay consistent the whole lap, but Smulders made a last straight move past Brooke Crain yet again to edge her out and take the win. Unfortunately for the Brazilian rider, Carnaval, she crashed with Reynolds and is having a similar games to Rezende.

Run Three

Group 1
The points are settled for the top seeds, but it is still important to get lane pick. Just thirty minutes after last moto, the women loaded up for their last shot to get into the final. Mariana and Alise were a dead heat into the first and second turns. Alise got pushed wide though, and Hernandez ended up making a move down the third straight giving her second place and AP11 the third. For every bummed rider in the semis, there is a happy rider however. France’s only rider left in the semi finals, Valentino made it on to the final much to the delight of her very BMX-proud country.

Group 2
The first half of the main was set, with Pajon, Post, Hernandez, and Valentino. We were one gate start and 34.67 seconds away from filling the rest of the gate. Smulders had a great gate, and Crain followed close. Belgian VanHoof finished third, The big surprise was Caroline Buchanan, who ended up coming up way short on the first two jumps, which appeared to move her bars way forward in Chicago style.

She then went on to crash into Bondarenko’s back wheel in the first turn. It was up to watching how Bondarenko finished to see if Caroline’s dreams would end. Unfortunately for Caroline, Bondarenko finished fifth, making it a tie in points which, with the better finish, would allow the youngest rider in the Games to advance into the final.

It can’t be overstated how big a deal this was. Caroline was on the top of many picks, even above Mariana, in some cases–and now she was out. Naturally, she was heartbroken and the tears were hard to watch.

Elite Women Final

Before we could process what happened in the semis, the main event was already loading up in the gate. There was a lot of heat on the inside, with Pajon in one, Smulders in two, Crain in three, and Post in four. And just-like-that four years of waiting, training and visualizing the Olympic final was down to the starter’s command and a cadence.

Smulders seemed to have the snap, but Alise was up there as well. Brooke Crain didn’t get the starts she was having all day, and the French rider of Valentino did a front flip into the first turn similar to Nic Long’s in practice.

It was all Pajon out of turn one. Mariana was chased down by a hungry Alise Post, followed by Hernandez and defending bronze medalist Laura Smulders. Smulders had been making moves at the end of the track all day so we were looking for her to make something happen. Hernandez made a slight mistake in the third straight, and the Dutch rider was catching-up quick. Unfortunately, Smulders went down in the last turn, ending her quest for a second medal. Brooke Crain rode by for the gut-wrenching fourth place, ahead of Russia’s Bondarenko, but behind Hernandez.

The stands seemed to be nearly 50% Colombian, and as you can imagine the crowd was erupting all the way until the medal ceremony. Mariana is now etched into BMX history along side Maris as the only BMXers who have earned two (gold) medals at the Olympic Games.

The Silver medal for Alise also marks the best BMX result by a U.S. woman in the Olympics, and was America’s 4th medal in history. Alise and Mariana have been swapping 1-2 positions since before they were pro, and the NewsTeam feels like their dominance on the world stage won’t stop any time soon.

BMX News 2016 race coverage sponsored by Dan’s Comp

Elite Men Semifinals
Recap By Mike Carruth

Run One

Group 1
In the gate for the first semi, we had (from the outside in heat 1): Luis Brethauer (GER), David Graf (SUI), Jelle van Gorkom (NED), Carlos Ramirez (COL), Carlos Oquendo (COL), Corben Sharrah (USA), Nic Long (USA) and Anthony Dean (AUS).

Down the hill, and down the first straight in an instant, van Gorkom had the lead for a moment, with Graf on the way outside, and Dean a pedal or two off the pace. Into turn one, Dean dropped in off the triple, and took the lead with van Gorkom and Long in trail. Down the second straight, the Colombian, Ramirez came through the left and took up third. Out of turn two, Oquendo edged up into the fourth spot…and that’s how it would finish. Dean, van Gorkom, Ramirez and Oquendo.

Group 2
Lining up for the second semi group: Trent Jones (NZL), Niek Kimmann (NED), Jefferson Milano (VEN), Tory Nyhaug (CAN), Connor Fields (USA), Gonzalo Molina (ARG), Twan van Gendt (NED), Sam Willoughby (AUS).

Molina had a terrible start, and almost lost it down the ramp. Connor and Sam were fork to fork the whole way down the first straight, but Sam took the lead into turn one, and down the second straight. van Gendt came out of the turn in second, but Connor made up the ground by the time the pack reached turn two. Connor nosed into the lead for a split second in the early part of the third straight, but Sam held the lead all the way home, with Connor in second, then Jones and Kimmann. Milano crashed in the last turn, but was up pretty quick.

Run Two

Group 1
Second verse, same as the first: Dean hit turn one first. (Not to self: lobby HARD for scrambling Olympic Qtrs and Semis next time). This time it was Corben who would take up second place and Ramirez into turn two. The group got around clean, and at the stripe it was Dean, Sharrah, Ramirez and Oquendo (who came back from sixth in the second turn to finish fourth).

Group 2
Willoughby and Fields were well-away into the first turn, with Nyhaug in the hunt. Trent Jones had a moment of trouble, as it looked like he almost lost control of the front end on the exit of turn one. Molina took up third into to turn two, and the Dutchies were behind him. Jones and Milano crashed in turn two. At the stripe it was Willoughby, Fields, Nyhaug and Molina.

Jones got a flat on the landing into the turn. The on-air commentator on the NBC stream was into micro-analysis of the tire pressure, having said both days that the riders are riding 90PSI here, but on dirt they ride 60PSI. That was good times for the Twitterverse.

Run Three (10:45)

Group 1
As the third and final run was climbing the hill, you have to know that five or six of these guys were turning the math wheels pretty hard. Dean didn’t have much addition to do, with a 1-1, but van Gorkom (8pts) and Long (10pts) both needed a “simple addition” solution for round three. A +1 would be ideal, but a +2 or +3 might get it done too.

On the entry into turn one, Nic bonked the third peak on the triple pretty hard, but still came down the mountain in second to Dean. Oquendo wrecked in the latter part of the turn, taking graf with him. Into turn two it was Dean, Long and van Gorkom with a close fourth place battle between Brethauer and Sharrah. Corben put a lock on fourth place down the third straight, and Ramirez spun into the ground in the last turn making the final four all-but assured this lap. It ended up thus: Dean, Long, van Gorkom and Sharrah.

Main Event Qualifiers From Group One:
Anthony Dean, Jelle van Gorkom, Carlos Ramirez and Nic Long.

Nic and Corben tied on points–at 12 apiece– but Nic’s better finish in round three gave him the main event qual spot. The difference between Anthony Dean’s 3 points and Jelle van Gorkom’s second place qualifying points: 11 was a stark reminder of both how dominant Dean was both days of the Games, and how competitive it was down the roster.

Group 2
Final gate drop before it is for all the medals. As in previous trips, Willoughby was in charge into turn one, and this time it was van Gendt on the outside and Nyhaug nosing in to the inside. Fields did not have a very good trip over the triple, pumping it instead of boosting it as he had before. The Con-man fell back to sixth out of turn one, after Kimmann and Molina slipped in on the inside.

Into turn two, and all the way home, it was Willoughby, Kimmann, Nyhaug and van Gendt. Then Molina and Fields.

Main Event Qualifiers From Group Two:
Sam Willoughby, Connor Fields, Niek Kimmann, and Tory Nyhaug

Elite Men Final

Mariana’s repeat Gold was still sending waves of joy through the mostly-Colombian crowd as the Men climbed the Rio hill for the last time. The one where it all counts.

From the outside, the 2016 Olympic BMX main event was: Niek Kimmann, Carlos Ramirez, Connor Fields, Tory Nyhaug, Jelle van Gorkom, Nic Long, Anthony Dean and Sam Willoughby.

Over the first jump, Connor had a slight wheel lead on Sam, but Nic got a couple solid cranks in, and by the entry to turn one, it was Nic and Connor. In the apex of turn one, it was Long, Fields and Willoughby.

The two Americans stayed closer than hot dogs and mustard into the third straight, when Connor began to surge. Every backside gave him a little more margin, and 3/4 the way to turn three, he had a solid lead. Long was under pressure in the middle from Ramirez on his right and van Gorkom on his left. Jelle rode the extreme inside and pushed Nic high enough on the turn that it left the door open for Ramirez to get himself in there too.

Down the last straight it was Fields all the way, followed by van Gorkom and a fierce battle for the final medal, between Long and Ramirez. For us, here in the BMX News Global Command Center, it was like that moment in Rocky IV, when Rocky was chopping down Drago with body blow after body blow. Adrian screams “You’re gonna do it!” That was the mood here as Connor made it the last few rollers, and past the finish line. Popcorn flew, and it was an awesome moment for all of us (oh yeah, for him too, we’re sure).

In the seconds after Nic and Carlos crossed the line, it was thought that they tied in a dead-heat and would both receive a medal. Not sure how long it took to officially make the decision, but within a couple minutes, they showed the official Omega time “photo finish”, on the live stream, and it was clear that Carlos had edged Nic out by an inch or two. We were bummed for Nic; he rode a helluva race. One of the papers back in Colombia posted a cool infographic telling the tale of Carlos’ main event lap (link will open in a new window)

The focus was now on Connor Fields, and watching him celebrate at the finish line, with the American Flag draped around him, and hugs and high-fives all-around.

We were SO anxious to see the medal ceremony, with the American Flag hoisted to the highest, and “The Star Spangled Banner” played. But, the NBC live stream cut the feed just at the end of the women’s ceremony, so we never got to see Connor get his medal. But we sure know he got it!

—Mike Carruth

Final Results

Elite Women
Mariana Pajon (COL) – 34.093
Alise Post (USA) – 34.435
Stefany Hernandez (VEN) – 34.755
Brooke Crain (USA)
Yaroslava Bondarenko (RUS)
Elke VanHoof (BEL)
Laura Smulders (NED)
Manon Valentino (FRA)

Elite Men
Connor Fields (USA) – 34.642
Jelle van Gorkom (NED) – 35.316
Carlos Ramirez (COL) – 35.517
Nic Long (USA) – 35.522
Tory Nyhaug (CAN)
Sam Willoughby (AUS)
Niek Kimmann (NED)
Anthony Dean (AUS)

Rio Olympic BMX Start Lists

As a final step before the time trial seeding rounds start Wednesday at 12:30PM Eastern Time, the order in which the 48 riders will ride has been released. Elite Women will go first, expected to take about 24 minutes, followed by the Elite Men which is expected to take about 48 mins. The order was decided by UCI Individual Ranking points.

Here now, the Time Trial seeding round start lists (top in UCI points ride last):

Elite Women Start List
Nadja Pries | Germany
Manon Valentino | France
Amanda Carr | Thailand
Priscilla Carnaval | Brazil
Merle van Benthem | Netherlands
Yaroslava Bondarenko | Russia
Gabriela Maria Diaz | Argentina
Simone Christensen | Denmark
Stefany Hernandez | Venezuela
Elke Vanhoof | Belgium
Lauren Reynolds | Australia
Brooke Crain | United States
Laura Smulders | Netherlands
Alise Post | United States
Caroline Buchanan | Australia
Mariana Pajón | Colombia

BMX News 2016 race coverage sponsored by Dan’s Comp

Elite Men Start List
Kyle Dodd | South Africa
Toni Syarifudin | Indonesia
Yoshitaku Nagasako | Japan
Niklas Laustsen | Denmark
Twan van Gendt | Netherlands
Jefferson Milano | Venezuela
Jelle van Gorkom | Netherlands
Renato Rezende | Brazil
Tore Navrestad | Norway
Luis Brethauer | Germany
Jeremy Rencurel | France
Evgeny Komarov | Russia
Alfredo Campo | Ecuador
Kyle Evans | Great Britain
Gonzalo Molina | Argentina
Bodi Turner | Australia
Edžus Treimanis | Latvia
Tory Nyhaug | Canada
Trent Jones | New Zealand
Connor Fields | United States
Carlos Ramirez | Colombia
Māris Štrombergs | Latvia
Anthony Dean | Australia
Carlos Oquendo | Colombia
Amidou Mir | France
David Graf | Switzerland
Sam Willoughby | Australia
Joris Daudet | France
Corben Sharrah | United States
Niek Kimmann | Netherlands
Liam Phillips | Great Britain
Nic Long | United States

Good luck to all 48 competitors! Check the links below for links to the NBC live streams for all three days of Olympic BMX coverage.

Top photo via UCI BMX Supercross FB Page.

Links

Rio BMX Events – Watch Links, Schedule and Results Page

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