Strombergs and Reade top Elite Podiums at Worlds

An amazing day of racing down in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa today, as the Championship classes.

In Junior Women, Redline/Dutch team star Merle Van Benthem had great finishes in the motos, and got out to a rippin holeshot in the main. Brooke Crain of the USA rode her Clayborn to a profoundly-impressive second place. Melinda McCleod got the right step.

Junior Men had some massive back & forth, and it turned out much different than even the best oddsmakers would have pegged it. Sylvian Andre from France won the Time Trials, with Connor Fields and Corben Sharrah in second an third. Everyone was expecting those three would battle hard when they finally found themselves in the main event gate. Unfortunately, Corben over-jumped one of the sets on the second straight, and was out in the Semis. In the Junior Men Main, Connor had it all the way, with a commanding lead down both the first and second straights. He seemed to bobble a little coming into the third straight, and lost control, taking him out of the race. In the end, it was Andre, Kristers Lejins of Latvia and Twan van Gendt of the Netherlands.

Elite Women provided an opportunity for Shanaze Reade to get her stripes back. After sitting out the 2009 season, it would be a main event showdown between her, Laeticia leCorguillé, and the 2009 champ, Sarah Walker. Also in the mix were two of Team USA’s finest, Arielle Martin and Alise Post. Reade got out clean, and went to the front quick, with Post keeping a quick pace behind her. Walker was way up in it too going into the first turn, and it came out of turn two as Reade, Walker, Post (martin had trouble in turn one and was out of it after that). At the line, it was Reade, Walker and Post on the podium.

The final main of the day would be spring-loaded with excitement, as the top eight of the 80 Elite Men gated up for the final, and most important lap of the day. Maris Strombergs was certainly a favorite–having chose gate 8 the whole day, and acing every lap from out there. A special energy flowed through Sifiso Nhlapo, as the only South African Elite to make the main on his home turf. Also going incredibly fast was Sam Willoughby, Khalen Young and Marc Willers. it was 6-5 and pick ‘em between Sam and Maris, as those were the favored top steppers going in to the gate drop. Without seeing a replay, it was tough to know what happened in turn one, but KY, Sam and Willers all got together and were out of the race. Maris was already far ahead of them and was never in any jeopardy. Sifiso held the second pretty much the whole way, but there were a few moments where it looked like Joris Daudet might sneak in to take it away from him. In the end, it went Strombergs, Nhlapo and Daudet.

BMXNEWS will have more on the 2010 UCI BMX World Championships later on Saturday, as well as Cruiser results on Sunday.

Thanks to freecaster.tv for the screenshots.