The BMX Supercross test event for the 2012 London games offered a compelling glimpse into what fans and athletes alike will encounter when the first gate drops on August 8 next year–a mere 354 days from now.

For the athletes, it was a chance to feel a sample of the rush they will feel if they make their respective Olympic team. In his Freecaster commentary, Pete Dylewski said that, talking to veterans of the 2008 Beijing games, “The excitement and butterflies are the same.”

It was a great opportunity to underscore what all the training, all the sacrifice and all the commitment is truly all about. We are quite sure that each of the 165 riders from 27 countries will take back a turbo-boost of motivation when they suit up for training on Tuesday.

The event battled weather from the get-go, with rain, or threat of rain each day. But the track seemed to hold together quite well, even when the skies opened up minutes before today’s event was scheduled to start. By the end of the day, the sun was shining bright on the Swatch start ramp, and the stormy lead-up was all-but-forgotten.

Speaking of the track, it was said to be a “toned-down” (or as toned-down as an Olympic Supercross track can be) version of the Papendal track the Athletes raced a few months back. You may remember that the unorthodox S turn and box-jump on the men’s side were both sources of contention in the athlete community, sparking a rare “activist” moment, (via a BMX News article).

In the initial practice laps, riders who had been to Papendal were said to be over-clearing many of the jumps, when their “loaded-for-bear” power was calibrated more for the Holland track.

The “Red Bull Wings” section–a jump-on-jump-off box that was more akin to last year’s Madrid track than Papendal’s sheer-faced container obstacle seemed to be a happy medium among the athletes, and more than one rider put their stamp of approval on the London track, calling it their “new favorite.”

On the ladies’ side, London introduced a new feature, the “Oakley Underground” (a tip of the bowler to London’s famous mass transit system), which was a jump-in, jump out tunnel that went under the Men’s “S” turn. The tunnel was said to give tall gals like Sarah Walker some initial pause, afraid she was going to clip her head on the top of it. But, didn’t happen, and surely didn’t seem to slow Sarah down when the Saturday sun rose.

In Friday’s Time Trial SuperFinal, 16 of the 35 womens starters did battle against the clock. France’s Magalie Pottier logged the top time, and Friday honors, with a 40.126 second lap. Australia’s pink-shoed princess, Lauren Reynolds was .044 seconds off the pace with a 40.170, and UK hero, Shanaze Reade, was back from Pottier’s time by .183 seconds for a third place lap of 40.309.

In the time trials, four of the first six gals to ride in the SuperFinal did not boost the first straight sets, and it was awesome to see the air war begin as the program made it down the start order.

The third straight rhythm was intensely technical, and scrubbed a lot of speed off otherwise perfect laps to that point.

In the Men’s SuperFinal, France’s Sylvain Andre sat on the hot seat for a long stretch, before fellow-Frenchman Joris Daudet parked his W1 there…ultimately unseated by Sam Willoughby’s beastly lap at the end of the order, with a 42.625–besting Joris by .142/sec, and earning him the Friday flowers. Andre ended up with the third spot, with a 43.317–.692 off Sam’s winning time.

As previously mentioned, Saturday’s warmup was interrupted by a Mother Nature-sponsored watering of the track. There were standing puddles, especially on the inside line of the exit to the first turn, but all that was dispensed with by race time, after a 10-15 minute warmup for the women and men.

Due to the rain delay, the normal three-round qualifying was trimmed to a “one-lap, no crap” qualifying format, first four to the semis (women) or quarters (men). Because the race was intended to run, in its entirety, in daylight, the track had no lights to take it past sundown.

In the qualifying round, Team USA’s Amanda Carr had a great trip for the first half of the track. She had a commanding lead on the others, until the third straight sapped a lot of her speed, and Magalie Pottier came a callin’ and grabbed the top spot. Carr stayed in there for the deuce, and Teagan O’Keeffe of South Africa got there just ahead of USA’s Amanda Geving for the final qual spot.

In the second rack, Lieke Klaus of the Netherlands exercised some top-drawer defense of her fourth-place qualifying spot, when she pinched off the line of Belgian Elke van Hoof down the last straight. Mariana Pajon, who was on Fire in Copenhagen two weeks ago, and looking for more in London, got the win.

The third group had Kiwi cutie, Sarah Walker logging a masterful lap for the win, and saw a photo finish for the final qualifying spot between Melinda McLeod of Australia and Aneta Hladakova of the Czech Republic. McLeod moved on.

The final gate of ladies qualifying saw Shanaze Reade take it on home for the homecrowd, with Caroline Buchanan, Arielle Martin and Dani George all in tow for qual spots to the Semis.

BMX News sister site, BMXNOW, tweeted that Sam Willoughby looked “invincible” today, and it was laps like the first qualifier that made that point well. A no-problem win this trip, while World Time Trials champ, Andre Aguiluz and Swiss sensation David Graf scooted in for the two-three. The final qual was an American dash between Jason Rogers and Tyler Faoro, with J-Rog getting his ticket punched to the Quarters.

Second gate drop of mens qualifying was stacked to the rafters, with Maris Strombergs, Mike Day, Khalen Young and Jelle van Gorkom. Day was trapped back in fifth down the second straight, but gained some solid ground on Italy’s Romain Riccardi into the S turn, then lit up his magic manualling after burners down the third straight to get the fourth slot. Strombergs won it, with KY and Jelle between he and Day.

Third rack action saw Ramiro Marino and Toms Mankus of Latvia lay it down in turn one, with Tory Nyhaug’s Redline in the lead. Josh Meyers, Pablo Carrasco and Martin Scerpin were in the chase, when Tory crabbed his front wheel and washed in the last turn. Josh got the win that lap, but Tory picked it up in time to get back on the gas and qualify, edging out American Weston Pope.

Nic Long had been looking strong all weekend, and showed fierce strength in his qualifying group. A perfect lap, even with an aggressive challenge by Aussie Josh Callan. The guy with the most interesting name in BMX, Moana Moo Caille scooted in for the third, and Sebastian Kartfjord of Norway in to round out the four movers.

While all of the racks were stacked with household-name stars, the next one saw World Champ Joris Daudet taking his W1 and rainbow jersey to the front for the first time in group competition. Kurt Pickard edged out Marc Willers for the deuce, and it was Afro Bob, Robert DeWilde taking the final spot from name-brand talent Kyle Bennett (6th) and made-member of the Latvian BMX Mafia, Arturs Matisons (8th).

David Herman must have stashed some Wheat Ridge Wheaties in his checked baggage before the hop over to London, because he was on it like Blue Bonnet all day. Number 80 was at 100% this lap, solid as a brick wall, when he traded paint with Carlos Quendo in the S Turn. Oquendo WENT down, while David GOT down. Edzus Treimanis of Latvia was almost a casualty of the situation, until he roosted up some soil on the far outside, and used the retaining wall in the S-turn as a makeshift berm to keep it on two wheels. That bit of bike handling hocus-pocus earned him a trip to the Quarters, along with Damien Godet of France, who finished second, and Thomas Hubert of Australia who got the final spot.

In the penultimate qualifying group, Sylvain Andre stayed ahead of a herd of charging Rhinos, two of whom were rockin the same colors, to get there first. Thomas Hamon, who went bottom-bracket-up in Copenhagen (right in front of Corben Sharrah), was back to attack, but did not get there this time, and it was Raymon van der Biezen of the Netherlands, Aussie Luke Madill and French flier Simon Duchene who got to see the quarters from the top of the hill instead of the fenceline.

The final rack of qualifiers was love, American style, with Connor Fields acing the field, like flawlessly. SE Factory Boy, Barry Nobles was right there for the deuce, and Intense-mounted Team Australia idol, Brian Kirkham and Andres Jiminez out of Colombia was in for the fourth.

QUARTER FOR YOUR THOUGHTS

As these groups thin out, you get an overwhelming feeling of “Holy Cow, how does this all shake out?…These riders are ALL *SO* good!” On a stage like this, it goes way beyond being “fast” and enters almost Zen territory. You know what I mean if you saw the main at the worlds. Marc Willers, leading the main, way atop his game that day. A sliver of an over-jump on the second straight, which in most other races on earth would have been fully recoverable. Not in the SX arena. It was just enough to get Joris close, then past him.

In the Men’s Quarterfinals, four gate drops would distill the field further…and then you’d have that same feeling all over again. And then, of course, put your oxygen mask on before helping others for the main event.

But there was still 252 seconds of heart-stopping action on the track before that was upon us.

In the first group, you had Willoughby, Strombergs, van Gorkom, Day and Young, together again, just like the qualifying round. It was this lap that caused BMXNOW to call Sam “invincible,” with a perfect trip that got him to the line more than a second ahead of The Machine. KY was in the mix, until midway down the second straight, he seemed to unclip, and went to the top tube, just before hitting the second set. It was an “ejector seat” moment for Khalen, and looked like it might be one of those SX wrecks that sidelines a guy for three calendar pages. Thankfully, it wasn’t, and KY was back to his humorous self soon after, posting on Facebook: “If anyone has footage of my crash could you please post it. It has to look as good as it felt.” First to the semis were Sam, Maris, Jelle and David Graf.

Quarterfinal number two would thin strong contenders Josh Meyers, Martin Scherpin and Sebastian Kartfjord out of the semis, as Nic Long took it to the front flawlessly for the USA. The oddsmakers were strong on Long to win it all. Tory Nyhaug slugged it out with Moo Caille and Josh Callan to score a second, from fourth, down the last straight.

Willers was a giant awakened, starting in the third rack. Joris Daudet had the lead for the first three straightaways, until Willers took the fine-line in the last turn and got ahead of him. David Herman was on his chainstay down the last straight for second, by .141/sec, then came the World Champ, and Franco-bro, Godet.

Kirkham commanded the final group with the ever-present Sylvain Andre and Connor Fields getting “Qs” as well. Barry Nobles put the Alabama Slam on Andres Jiminez at the line to see the Semis.

SEMI-SWEET

Back to Girl-Boy racing, it was the ladies on-course first with Semifinal action. In the first group, Amanda Carr seemed to be shot out of a cannon, as she laid down a beating, American style to the rest of the pack. The third straight was a bog-down for her here as well, but it didn’t matter…her first two straights were aces-up, and she banked enough of a lead to keep Laetitia LeCorguillé, Magalie Pottier and Mariana Pajon looking at the backside of her “USA Stars” jersey.

Sarah Walker’s semi lap was a thing of beauty, as she handily dispensed with the pack. The battle was for the fourth spot, as a rematch of the Worlds Junior Women main was in effect, between Melinda McLeod and Brooke Crain. Brooke rode amazingly down the third straight to put herself in position to get that final main event slot. Unfortunately, it was not to be today, and Melinda got there .089 seconds faster. The transfers were Walker, Shanaze Reade, Lauren Reynolds and McLeod.

The track manned-up with two gates of eight ready to make a main. Here, it was Willoughby again with a win in the first pack. Nic Long was in for Team USA (go Power Rankings!), as was Maris and David Graf. Tory Nyhaug was oh-so-close, but would be leaning the fence for the main.

The stage was being set for that main event smackdown we had all been waiting for. Willoughby got his semi win in, now it was Willers turn to top. In fact, it was Joris Daudet who got the initial call for the win, but the photo finish would reveal that Marc was front-wheel-first by .025 of a second. Holy split-second soup, Batman! David Herman and Sylvain Andre were the final dynamic duo to make it in. That put two from Team USA in the main which, in this lofty company, is a great sign for the Chula Vista crew!

MAIN ON THE BRAIN

Watching the camera move from gate 8 to gate 1 in a Supercross Main Event is a great case study in composure. A million emotions are running through the athletes heads, ranging from “I am the winner” to “I need to get ahead of X, Y or Z person in the first three cranks,” to who-knows-what, vis a vis the pressures that are “right-now-real” to a world-class athlete, that the rest of us can’t understand.

And, to see the “face shots” of the main event contenders, you see all shades of the spectrum. Sarah Walker seems her happy-go-lucky normal self, smiling and giving the fans at home a few friendly waves…on over to Laetitia LeCorguille, who is all business, with laser beams down-range.

When the gate dropped, all the BS stopped, when from the outside, came Shanaze Reade. Pete Dylewski said it best, that she is an honest-to-goodness mainstream media darling there at home, splashed on the covers of newspapers and magazines, and even on posters in the airport. Well, she was not going to let anyone else top that podium today, and jumped to an early lead, which she kept for the balance of her rocket-fuelled 38.275 second laptime–not surprisingly, the fastest of the weekend. Walker was there for the second place podium honors, and Lauren Reynolds for the final podium spot. Mariana Pajon ended up with a DNF after an unfortunate takedown.

The final lap of the weekend would, of course, hold enough wattage to power a good-sized town. The moment before the war jumped off was frozen in time, when all of the sudden “BLAMO” it was on! The pack was close down the hill, then David Herman on the outside, and Marc Willers on the inside started to show themselves–Willoughby was through the middle. Going into the first turn, it was a race of millimeters (see, metric system), as Sam had a micro knobby on David and Marc. Sam got a stellar backside on the berm jump and jumped ahead the pack at the apex of turn one. By that point, Daudet had made a tasty move that put him literally neck-and-neck with Marc, with Graf on the razor’s-edge, way-up-high in fourth, and Herman and Long back in fifth and sixth, respectively. But there was A LOT of race yet to run.

Willers was back in command by the middle of the second straight, with Daudet and Sam still close enough to know what kind of chain lube he was running. It stayed that way into the S turn, but things were getting closer. Sam drew even, then a few spokes ahead of Marc over the box jump, and Daudet was a bike or so off the pace. Willoughby was tagged as leader in the split-time, with 23.714, with Willers “behind” (if you want to call it that) by .027. Joris was farther still by .24/sec, as the pack entered the third straight.

Of course, we are talking fractions of a second here…the blink of an eye is .33 seconds, so in reality, anything can change at any time. And down the third straight, it did, as it became a battle of the “W’s,” with Willers now half a wheel ahead, Willoughby on the inside, and the W1 in the middle. Three abreast they came, then Sam got scrubbed a bit, and fell back to third…Willers still in control.

Sam was not out of it, by any means, as his inside line positioned him well into the last turn. Marc was on his way to the win, unless something unexpected happened, and the epic battle would seem to be for second. Where was Nic Long at this point? Well, he was out of frame…and about to put his “Chula Vista comeback kid” plan into effect, because by the depths of the last straight, it was Marc, Joris and Nic firmly in the action. Sylvain Andre would finish off-the-podium in fourth, David Herman was fifth and Sam was sixth.

A pulse-quickening main. Maybe not as memorable as the Chula Vista main last year, which had solid lead changes and an at-the-line push by a hometown hero. But still, this one was double-A-Awesome!. Nic Long taking it from sixth to third was incredible. Willers beating back the “One Man Wolfpack” in Willoughby, and the World Champion–to say nothing of the reigning Olympic Gold Medialist. WOW. Just WOW.

Next stop on the SX tour is the season finale in Chula Vista at the end of September. With the Sarasota stop scrapped, the athletes have a solid month, and then some, to train up, and come back for more points, more fan adoration and more action, as the entire BMX industry looks on. We’ll be there. Will you?

—Mike Carruth

Don’t forget to tune in tomorrow for the network coverage on NBC in the United States. 3:30PM Eastern Time, but check local listings.

Above Photo: UCI BMX / craigdutton.com

BMX News is in the process of putting together a more proper story for today’s racing…and there is a lot to tell. But as we’re tickling the ivories of the apple wireless keyboard, we thought we’d pause to let you know that we have four new UCI BMX World Champions.

In Elite Men, it was Joris Daudet of France, who rode an incredible lap, and came back from fourth in the first turn, to pass Marc Willers in Turn Two for the lead, and ultimate win. Maris Strombergs, last year’s champ, was .483 second off Daudet’s pace and in for a second. It should be noted that Joris is having an incredible year, with an undefeated sweep of the 12 European rounds, French National Champion, and now the Rainbow jersey.

With Shanaze Reade out in the Semi due to some trouble coming down the hill (she got two strong cranks out of the gate, then pulled it up and coasted down), Mariana Pajon was virtually unchallenged for the win in the Elite Women’s Final. Sarah Walker was riding great today as well, but Mariana was a notch or two faster than all of them, and led the EM main wire to wire. Walker was .474/sec off the pace, and Magalie Pottier of France was in for the bronze. Americans Arielle Martin (5th) and Amanda Geving (7th) had good laps today, but were not in position to make any moves on Mariana in the main event. Still, Arielle will get something beyond birthday cake for today’s efforts (HBD AMV15!), she will get coveted USA Cycling “Power Ranking” points to jump her a few more squares toward the London 2012 team.

Junior Men had American Rusty Nesvig riding well all day, but he pulled the eject handle in the semi, and ended up watching Team USA teammate Lain Van Ogle as the sole American in the main. Alfredo Campo of Ecuador led the big lap pretty-much wire to wire, but had some heat from Antonin Dupire of France and Trent Woodcock of New Zealand. Woodcock was on Campos outside into turn one, and Dupire was hugging the inside, back in fourth (Darryn Goodwin of Australia was in third). At the top of the second straight, Dupire edged a tire in front of Campo, but the challenge was quickly knocked down, and the Yellow, Red and Blue of Ecuador stayed in the lead. Into turn two is when Woodcock laid down the technique to get past Dipire and into the silver slot. That’s how it ended up, with Woodcock mounting a last moment charge that might have put him on top, if the last straight were another 20 feet longer.

Speaking of split-second last-feet-of-the-race change-ups, Junior Women had a doozy. Brooke Crain turned the fastest lap in the time trials yesterday (first round), but Melinda McLeod of Australia was a tad faster in the Superfinal, and took the Friday Gold. Today, Brooke was riding solid all day, with a 1-2-1 in the qualifying rounds. She was going faster today too, beating yesterday’s time of 39.796, with a 39.484 in today’s first round.

Honestly, we thought the main battle would be between Brooke and Laura Smulders of the Netherlands, as Melinda came out of the qualifying rounds with a 2-1-4 and lap times that were laggin a bit (first round 40.538, third round 41.858). But the boosters were burning hot in the main. Brooke was first to the timing strip on the ramp (1.124 seconds), but Melinda was gone by the transition. Into the first turn it was firmly in the hands of McLeod and Crain, with Abbie Taylor of the UK giving chase. Brooke put the mega-move on Melinda in turn two, and came out ahead. Unfortunately, it was a short-lived lead, and McLeod took the top spot back as the pack raced down the third straight. The last turn had it McLeod, Crain, Taylor– but as the finishline cam rolled, the second and third spots were swapped. On our video of the race, it’s hard to tell whether Brooke stopped pedaling too soon, or Abbie just lunged a millimeter to the good side. But the bottom line was that GBR snatched the silver from USA by .002/sec. To put it in perspective, .002 is 16x shorter than the blink of an eye.

More content as it becomes available. Meanwhile, check out some of the links below:

Kristoffer West’s Early Saturday Photo Set

Elite Finals Photo (Kristoffer West)

Elite Podiums (Kristoffer West)

Discussion: Worlds thread on VintageBMX.com

Photo: Split/seconds after taking the lead with a turn two swoop on Marc Willers, Joris Daudet of France heads down the third straight, toward his third title of 2011–UCI BMX Elite Mens World Champion. Photo: Kristoffer West/BMX Copenhagen

NOTE: We will be updating this page throughout the day with commentary, links, photos and video. Check back often. Last Update>>>7:30PM EDT, July 29, 2011

The first-ever BMX World Champion medals for the Time Trial discipline have been awarded.

According to BMX News sources on the ground, the event had some interesting twists & turns, and the order in the “Super Final” was a not the same as in the first lap, in three of four classes.

In Junior Women, Brooke Crain’s first lap was fastest of the day, at 39.796, but in the SuperFinal, Melinda McLeod of Australia bested Brooke’s second lap by +0.396/sec, with a time of 39.801. Dani George and Shelby Stacy also made it out of Time Trials for the USA to “the groups,” which will run Saturday, placing sixth and 10th, respectively.

In Jr. Men, eight out of nine Americans made it past the first elimination, with Dan Birmingham posting a DNF for his lap (hope everything’s OK). Benjamin Janssens of France was tops in the first round, with a time of 34.951. Closest American to the Janssens was Rusty Nesvig in sixth, with a score of 35.661. In the SuperFinal, it was Rusty’s turn for some unfortunate luck, and he ended up posting a DNF. Aussie, Darryn Goodwyn, who finished seventh in the first round, turned an impressive lap time of 35.237 to win it (Janssens’ first round lap was fastest of the day among Juniors).

Among the Elites, Shanaze Reade suprised everyone–first by suiting up at all (it was widely reported in the press that she would be sitting out this year’s worlds while still recovering from injury), then by winning the first round, and onto the SuperFinal. Her times were increasingly-quick, with 38.039 first time out, and a SuperFinal podium-topping-time of 37.440. Caroline Buchanan was second in the SuperFinal, and Mariana Pajon was third, with times of 37.627 and 38.154, respectively. Among Americans, Arielle Martin was 10th with a SuperFinal lap of 39.254, Amanda Carr was 16th and Amanda Geving in 27th (out of the SuperFinal, but in for tomorrow’s racing).

Sam Willoughby turned the fastest lap of the day, bar none, at 33.572 in the first round. But it was Norway’s Andre Fossa Aguiluz to capture the top time of the SuperFinal– and with it, the Gold Medal and title. Andre’s time was 33.811.

The Aguiluz win today must have been a great moment of national pride for the Norwegian team. Only one week past the tragic terrorist attacks in Oslo, today was especially emotional back home, as the first of the victims were laid to rest, and a moment of silence was observed worldwide, via twitter (#amomentofsilence).

Meanwhile, back in Copenhagen, Jelle van Gorkom and Brian Kirkham joined Aguiluz on the podium. Maris Strombergs is making his return to the International stage this weekend, and scored a 34.162 in the SuperFinal (eighth). Corben Sharrah was the top American with a 33.936 (sixth place). Nic Long and Connor Fields (who is also fresh off the injured list), finished the SuperFinal ninth and 10th, respectively

Familiar names we will NOT see in the men’s group on Saturday include Tyler Faoro (who missed the 64th place cut by .011/sec), Donny Robinson, Bubba Harris, Christian Becerine, MIke Day, Travis Ohrazda and Jake Peebles. Kory Cook posted a DNF in his first lap, and also did not move on.

Tomorrow’s racing starts at 7AM Eastern Time, and will be broadcast live on Freecaster.tv. For those without access, our sister site, BMXNOW, will be posting a live-update article as-it-happens.

Links
Kristoffer West’s Pre-Event Photo Set
Kristoffer West’s Photos From Friday Time Trials
Elite Men Results
Elite Women Results
Junior Men Results
Junior Women Results

Happy Birthday to Laëtitia Le Corguillé, who finished sixth today.

Thanks to Dale Holmes for the shot of Shanaze Reade above

Day Two of the 2011 UCI BMX World Championships is now complete in Copenhagen. News is currently waiting for official results to be posted, but we can tell you, via Twitter and Facebook chatter, that Matt Pohlkamp (above) took home the Masters W1 for Team USA and Dan’s Comp, edging out Javi Colombo by a bike and a half or so.

W1 titles also coming home for the Stars & Stripes on the bikes of Felicia Stancil in 16 Girls, Stephen Larralde (30-Over Men) and Sean Gaian (15 Boys).

BMX News contributor Mattias Ankrah is in Copenhagen, and posted a “Teaser” set of images from yesterday’s 14-under competition. Check them out at the link below.

Keep your eye on News throughout the day as we update this story with tweets, vids, interviews, photos and other tidbits we pull together from around the globe.

Pete Dylewski’s iPhone Video of the Masters Main Event

Promo Video of Thursday’s Action by BMXCOPENHAGEN

Links

Videos of All Classes, via bmx-videos.com

Arielle Martin’s Blog

LINKS FROM THURSDAY’S RACE
Thursday Podium Photos
BMX Copenhagen Photo “Mashup” Page (Thursday)
Thursday Results (PDF)
Mattias Ankrah’s Flickr Set from THURSDAY

LINKS FROM WEDNESDAY’S RACE
Mattias Ankrah’s Flickr Set from WEDNESDAY
Wednesday Results (PDF)

For the second year, I was lucky enough to be invited as USA Team manager for a very special BMX race in Korea. The annual Crown-Haitai Seoul International BMX Competition is an invitational event for BMX Elites. This year, as with last, a unique and fun event was delivered by organizers, and the racing was fast and furious for the fans.

The event is put on by the Korean Cycling federation, with hopes to not only have some of the world’s best Elite BMXers showcase their skills in Korea, but also to help develop the Korean BMX movement/ program, and promote BMX racing in the country.

The organizers pays all expenses for Hotel, Food, and gives the riders and team manager an allowance for airfare.

The event itself was live on ESPN Korea and had over 20 different media outlets from Korea in attendance. With the stated goal of the event to help further and expand awareness of BMX racing in Korea, my impression was that this goal was met, and then some.

Things started off with a press conference., held in a penthouse suite in downtown Seoul. Joey, Masa Sepmei, myself, and about 20 photographers and news stations. A unique experience and a great way to get BMX exposure and info on the event out to the Korean cycling fans.

A field of 32 men and 6 Women were in attendance. Team USA consisted of Kim Hayashi and Joey Bradford. (Dom Daniels was in attendance, but riding a Puerto Rico Jersey).

With a packed month of BMX travel both in the past and coming months, many top riders decided the long trip to Korea wasn’t in their best interest.

Still, top riders like Glenn Van De Wetering & Lieke Klaus (Netherlands) Masahiro Sampeo & Akifumi Sakamoto (Japan) Edzus Treimanis (Latvia) Arminas Kazlauskis & Vilma Rimsaite (Lithuania) Lilian Goux, Francky Gagnu (France) Darryn Goodwin, Jon Geck (Australia) all decided to attend and have a blast at the race. All riders were here to battle it out for the huge purse, which would pay USD$6000 for the Elite Men win, and USD$3000 for the top spot in Elite Women.

The format was simple: a time trial to seed riders for the motos, then onto group racing action with three motos, semis, and the main event. The women dropped one rider in qualifying, and had a main event that raced just like the result. In the men, the lap was lead by Edzus all the way to the last turn, where Joey set him up, made the pass, and took the win.

Elite Men
Joey Bradford – $6000
Edzus Treimanis – $3000
Darryn Goodwin – $1000

Elite Women
Vilma RIMSAITÉ – $3000
Kim Hayashi – $1500
Lieke Klaus – $1000

Joey Bradford’s Report From Korea

Although the track is different, to say the least, the Crown Haiti International BMX Competition in Seoul, Korea is definitely one of the coolest races to attend! The Korean Cycling Federation and organizers for this race do an awesome job of hosting riders from around the world, making a big effort to treat everyone to a “rockstar” style trip and race. For most, the trip is fully paid for. Everything from your flight, to transportation, lodging, and meals are taken care of and first class, and then on top of all that they have a prize purse set around $30,000 USD up for grabs to who ever can survive the track!

The best way to describe the track is to imagine an all concrete skate park made for bikes, and laid out over the shape of your typical m shaped BMX track. They altered the starting hill this year by placing an eight-man ProGate on top of the ramp, so instead of having a hard time slip-sliding down into gate and then getting set up, you now had a two crank sprint before dropping into a quarter pipe-like-hill.

The first straight is basically five rounded off box spines in a row, all the turns are flat with a two foot embankment at the very end, and if you don’t bump jump or pull manual a few jumps on the second and third straights your front sprocket will clip the top of the lips (see below, and also check YouTube for video of Japan’s Masahiro Sampei in last years final. He had third place and $4K locked up, until all hell broke loose on the third straight).

Once you look past the facts this track is nothing like you have ever ridden, isn’t at all fun to ride during the first practice, and the pyramid-shaped rollers before the finish line are only spaced 7 feet apart instead the normal 13-15 feet… this track is fun to race on.

You have to actually use practice to dial in the track, and because of the flat corners there are a LOT of opportunities for passing and side-by-side racing instead of getting into the blue groove and holding the throttle wide open like you do on tracks now a days. The style of this track is more Formula-1 than Nascar.

Come race time, my short legs couldn’t land flat in a manual off the second jump without sapping all my speed speed so I had to play it smart and patient. Edzus Treimanis from Latvia has been going really fast the past few months and we were paired up in the same moto. Getting through the qualifiers wasn’t going to be very difficult, so I saved some energy and just followed him, paying attention to the lines he was taking through the corners and taking notice of places you could pass. In the final, I slowed up quite a bit before the second jump to make sure I didn’t loose all my speed, tucked in behind Edzus and then sure enough the open line on the bottom of the flat last turn was there like I thought it would be! We locked elbows a bit but I tried to give him enough room to carry on down the last straight and we went 1-2.

All in all it was a great trip, and I have to be happy with the result seeing as it was my first big race back after being off the bike for six months! I’m glad I took my time, waiting until I felt ready instead coming back too early and just getting hurt again like I have done the last two years. I’d like to thanks Junwon Jang/EJ Koh and everybody else from KCF and Crown for putting on this event and taking such good care of us, and the companies who are supporting me – Prophecy BMX, Hasbro, Fly, THE, Sinz, Oakley, Tioga, Profile, and Snap. See you guys in Copenhagen!

Kim Hayashi’s Report

The Crown Haitai Invitational Race in Seoul, South Korea is one of the best races of the year. The Korean Cycling Federation knows how to put on one amazing BMX competition and I was lucky enough to be able to attend again this year. Being involved in a sport that gets minimal recognition, we never get a chance to experience first class treatment like other professional athletes do, but the KCF make sure that we get that opportunity. They made sure that all of our needs are taken care of from our flights and transportation, to hotel accommodations and food. Our only worry was pedaling our bikes and getting a shot at the $30,000 purse…what a life!

The track, at first glance, is pretty intimidating. It’s not so much that the start hill is a straight drop down with a transition that feels like you’re going down a curb, or the wide, flat sweeping turns that have no bank except for at the very top, or the rollers that are shaped like triangles or even that the biggest jump is approximately a little bigger than the length of my Expert XL Supercross bike. It’s the fact that the track is made of concrete (my bones start to ache every time I think about it). One major improvement that was made this year was the addition of the 8-man Pro-gate that was set on top of the already very steep start hill. This actually allowed us to get in the gate without having to get off our bikes and walk it in, but created another problem–more speed. Who knew more speed would be a bad thing, but on a track like this one it’s absolutely terrifying.

I don’t think I’ve ever used practice to it’s max, but on this track the more track time you can get, the better off you are so I took advantage of both practices on Friday and I felt ready for the next day. Saturday was the longest day of them all. Made it to the track for warm-up at 10am, followed by 1 round of time trials for gate choice, opening ceremonies that lasted an hour, lunch, then racing. TT weren’t a big deal, but the crowd loved it. We only had 6 girls signed up this year and the order of TT came from UCI ranking. With no UCI points, i was the 3rd girl to go. Rode a decent lap, managed not to fall and placed 2nd behind Vilma. Motos started off a little rusty for me, I guess swinging back into race mode took me longer than I thought because I got buck wild in the 1st round. After I got that out of my system the next two rounds went smooth with Vilma finishing in 1st and me finishing 2nd. Main time was upon us and I have to admit, I was nervous. Trying to stay smooth on a track where you’re over clearing jumps left and right while battling for the number 1 spot is a very bad combination. I got a good pop and saw a glimpse of being in the front of the pack, but was gone in a blink of an eye as I over cleared the 2nd jump and fell into the 2nd spot behind Vilma. The race finished in that order, I didn’t have any JB turn skills in the last corner so the silver medal is what I walked away with.

This year’s race was no disappointment and one of the best things about this race is getting to meet new racers from other countries such as Malaysia, Korea and the Philippines where they have just started BMX programs. I got to make new friends and reconnect with old ones and I want to thank the Korean Cycling Federation, EJ, Junwon, Thomas Allier and all the people involved in making this race happen. I had an awesome time racing and hopefully look forward to attending next year’s event. I also would like to thank all my sponsors: Speedline/Supercross, Vans, Tioga, Tangent, Shimano, Alienation, FLY Racing, ODI and Gordy’s Bicycles.

—Lil Kim

BMX News Euro correspondent, Carl Lein just posted a downloadable e-zine from the Papendal Supercross this past weekend. Some good photos, insights and interviews in the eight-page zine.

Download, the zine now

When you’re done reading it, come join the discussion on Vintage.

Also, in case you missed them, here are Carl’s photo galleries from Friday and Saturday.

Friday Time Trial Gallery

Saturday Race Day Gallery

An UNREAL day of BMX Supercross racing in Papendal Netherlands.

BMX News did an “as it happened” report of the race, which you can read below.

Yesterday, News brought you coverage of the Time Trials. We missed including Corey Reid in the list of USA riders who qualified into today’s racing (61st). Sorry Corey, and thanks to Jeff Glynn for helping us out.

Times are EASTERN (US) Time.

9:02AM – Raymon yan der Biezen seems to have had a bad crash, and is getting help off the track. Looks like a busted handlebar. Gives the thumbs up as he is helped off the track.

9:07AM – Kirkham, Dean, Graf in the sixth rack of 1/8s Elite men. Jason Rogers goes down in the last turn while in second. Josh Meyers goes down a few feet from the finish line.

9:08AM – Daudet, Van de Weittering, Aguiluz, Robinson.

9:10AM – Hamon, Medill, Jaspers, Day in final rack of the men’s second round

9:12AM – BMXNEWS Euro Correspondent, Carl Lein tweets: “Track is breaking people off”

9:13AM – We’re in the break at the moment. As a spectator, the track is amazing to watch.

9:16AM – Ready for Elite Women third round.

9:17AM – Check out http://bmxurl.com/johnnywstatus for status on Johnny Woodmansee, injured in yesterday’s Time Trials.

9:19AM – Labrounkova, Hladakova, Carr in first rack of Women’s third round.

9:20AM – No start for Brooke Crain in third round after a second round crash.

9:21AM – Pajon, Martin, George. Dani George lookin awesome in third round. Was leading into the first turn, and held on well to get the qualifying spot, with Pajon, Arielle and Van Hoof

9:25AM – Verhagen down over first jump in next rack, Horakova puts a pass-move on Sarah Walker in last turn. Rachel Bracken with the third. McLeod gets fourth qual spot. Verhagen’s chain breaks in first straight. Down for a few, but walks off the track.

9:26AM – Caroline Buchanan, Pottier, Valentino, Seesing in next rack with a no-incident lap (pretty rare today).

9:27AM – Third round for men on-track with the first rack. Willers, van Gorkom, Herman, and Khalen Young. in the race. Gorkom, Willers, Young and Andreasen of Denmark transfer out. Herman had a crash in second round, and missed the transfer by one point.

9:30AM – Happy Birthday to Luke Madill

9:32AM – Biesseling, JIMENEZ puts the pass move on Schirpen in the last turn on the outside. Callan ends up with the second and BISSELING with third in the race

9:34AM – Second Rack: Oquendo gets Willoughby, at the line with Godet in third. Willoughby makes a great lap, holding off an outside pass move in the last turn.

9:35AM – Sharrah, Long, Therkildsen in next rack. Those three and Montana from Colombia gets the transfer as well. Sharrah and Long look incredible on this track!

9:38AM – Nyhaug, Tyler Faoro, Falla, Tyler Brown in next rack. Faoro with awesome work on the last straight, going from fourth to second in final feet of the last straight.

9:41AM – Kirkham, Treimains, Jason Rogers, Prokop in the next rack. Those are also your transfers. Rogers looking great today as well…back in black! That was the first rack of this round that did not have a DNS or DNF

9:42AM – Daudet, van de Wetering, Donny Robinson in next rack. Just thinking for a moment how insane the mains will be today.

9:44AM – Hamon, Madill, Jaspers, Day in final rack of third round.

Break between rounds now. Next Up: Quarters for the men.

“This is how (BMX SX) should be” –Johan Lindstrom

Johan says this track is “very similar” to the London Olympic track. Going to be interesting to see what the dealio is with that bridge/tunnel that is rumored in London.

The outside pass in the last turn seems to be a big favorite. The last straight is so deep that people who try to pump and not manual are shaken to the roots of their teeth and it is virtually impossible to do it and not lose all your momentum.

Is there a drinking age in Holland? I think I just saw a 12-year old drinking a beer on Freecaster.

9:54AM – Men’s Quarterfinals gated up. Willers, van Gorkom, Callan, Jiminez. Tough break for KY. WIllers got a rippin start and had an early lead.

9:59AM – Second Rack of Elite Men Quarterfinal: Long washes out front wheel in first turn, takes a bunch with him. Willoughby, Sharrah, Mankus, Montana with the transfer spots. Nic would have made it for sure…that first turn is SLICK…we’ve seen lots of folks break loose there. Nic is up and OK.

10:03 – Treimans, Nyhaug, Prokop, Kirkham. Kirkham unclipped in last turn, and looked like he would be out of it, but hooked it back up, and somehow kept momentum to scoot in for the final transfer spot.

10:04AM – Final rack of the quarterfinals: Daudet, Donny Robinson, Mike Day, Hamon. van de Wetering comes into the slick turn one white hot, under Madill and Hamon, and takes out Madill. The French rider Hamon escaped the carnage on the outside, and ended up with the transfer slot.

10:13AM – Women Semi Gated Up First rack is Labounkova, Pajon, Hladakova, Martin, Carr, Smulders, George and van Hoof. All US women in this first rack, so hoping we’ll get our gals in the main! Arielle on the inside. Amanda Carr has the “cold steel on ice” look as the Freecaster cam gets her in the gate.

10:17AM – Pajon, Labounkova, Martin and Hladakova transfer out. Pajon had the lead, then gave it up in the last turn, only to regain it by the line. A little bobble by Mariana in the first straight, but kept it together brilliantly. Way to go Arielle for Team USA on that Intense Podium. Sole American Woman in the main.

10:20AM – Sarah Walker, Caroline Buchanan, Pottier, Horakova. Seesing might have mounted a challenge in the last straight, but had some trouble.

10:23AM – Men’s Frist Semi: Willoughby with the inside gate…Mankus out in gate 8. van Gorkom, Willers, Willoughby, Callan in the first semi. Sharrah down after contact with Willers’ back wheel, and out of the main. Corben back up…bummed but OK.

10:26AM – Second Semi for the men: Daudet on the inside and Mike Day out in gate 8. dR on the Hyper ride in gate 6. Hamon down.

10:28AM – Daudet, Treimans, Nyhaug, Kirkham go to the the main. Incredible lap by Tory Nyhaug! Was in last as of the first straight, and picked up a bunch of ground in the first turn, then picked off a few more on the massively-complex track.

First SX main for Tory Nyhaug. Donny Robinson goes down at the start of the last turn. Mike Day was there in qualifying position most of the race, but had some trouble just before the last turn (where dR ultimately went down).

Donny Robinson carried off on a backboard after crash in last round of the Semi.

MAIN EVENTS

Mains gating up in Papendal. Watching the Dutch crowd have such a good time is helping us have a good time. They seem way stoked…and we’re sure they’ll be even more stoked if Jelle van Gorkom hits the top of the box, come podium time.

Arielle Martin in gate 1. Sarah walker picks lane 5 and Pajon takes second pick of gate 8.

Sarah Walker wins it wire to wire, with Labounkova, and Buchanan on the podium with her. Caroline gets on the box by a razor-thin margin at the line, over Pottier. Sarah had a little bobble at the end of the first straight, but was going so fast, momentum was not a problem. Masterful lap!

In the Men’s main event, it is Willers, van Gorkom, and Daudet!
Big day for New Zealand. Willoughby was in second, but fell victim to that slick first turn, and washed the front wheel out. Major move by van Gorkom to take over the two-spot in the second straight. Pete Dylewski characterized Jelle’s move as a “Local Line,” as it is a line that comes only through familiarity.

Next World Cup race is the Olympic Test Event in London this August. Keep an eye on BMXNEWS.COM for all the latest on the 2011 UCI BMX Supercross World Cup series, and as the 2012 season unfolds leading up to BMX Racing’s second appearanc e in the Olympic Games.

BMXNEWS.COM Euro correspondent, Carl Lein, will have his report on the race, as well as a photo gallery from today’s event, posted here on NEWS, on Monday.

—Mike Carruth

Editor Note: The original results we were given by UCI were incorrect. So, if you read or downloaded the results BEFORE 7:30PM Eastern Time on April 8, you will want to re-read and re-download the results–if you care about their accuracy, that is.

Well, the first phase of the South Africa SX is now complete, with Time Trial qualifying having taken place this morning, US time. Time Trials are usually two laps, with the best used as the qualifying time. Today, some say due to weather (but we have not been able to confirm that), there was only one Time Trial lap. It may also be because the new-for-2011 “Superfinal” is taking the place of the second lap (more on that below).

Aussie Brian Kirkham and Columbian Mariana Pajon had the fastest times of the first round, at 33.964 and 34.051, respectively. But the top 16 lap times in each class transferred to the “Superfinal,” where they ran a second lap for the win of the day. The top riders from the Superfinal were Joris Daudet and Manon Valentino, both of France, who turned in the fastest laps of the day in their respective classes, with a 33.497 and a 33.541. Valentino’s time was also fast enough to place her SECOND in the Men’s Superfinal, beating Raymon van der Biezen’s second place time of 33.691.

Some speculate that the Time Trial “Superfinal” may make its way into the Olympic Games as a second BMX Racing medal in games to come, though there is no confirmation on that from official sources.

The American riders all qualified to the 1/8 finals, to be held tomorrow, with Corben Sharrah having the best Men’s time (33.919, which was +0.422 seconds off of Daudet’s Superfinal lap). The ladies did not fair as well, with Arielle Martin turning the fastest lap among the eight American women in the field, with 35.205 in the first run.

Americans in the top 16 overall, and making it to the Superfinal were Sharrah, Josh Meyers and Nic Long for the men, and Carr and Arielle Martin for the women.

Download the official results

Elite Men Time Trial Results

Elite Women Time Trial Results

Photo pinched from the MCS Bicycles site, who pinched it from Bas de Bever

The stage is set for the first race of the 2011 UCI BMX Supercross World Cup season to jump off down in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

The final Start List shows 103 men and 38 women locked and loaded for tomorrow’s Time Trial qualifying (64 men and 32 women will make it out of the Time Trial and get to compete on Saturday). For our part, the USA has brought some big guns to PZB, with eight women and eight men.

USA Riders in Pietermaritzburg

MEN
Nic Long*
Josh Meyers*
Tyler Faoro
Alex Anthony
Tyler Brown
Corben Sharrah*
Donny Robinson
David Herman*
Barry Nobles

WOMEN
Amanda Carr*
Amanda Geving*
Alise Post*
Ashley Verhagen
Arielle Martin*
Brooke Crain*
Taylor Wolcott
Dani George

*Denotes USA Cycling “Funded” riders for PZB

As well as serving as the opening round for the 2011 World Cup season, Pietermaritzburg also marks the first event undertaken by NBL-controlled Global SX Events, or GSX. Gary Aragon has retained substantially all the key staff that were running the show under UCI’s control, starting with Johan Lindstrom, whom he made President of GSX and moved from Switzerland to Ohio. Expectations are for the 2011 season to look and feel like the ones that came before.

For Pietermaritzburg, Tom Ritz and Elite Trax are debuting some interesting new features. The second straight ends in an off-camber, hip jump thingy, which is a lisp away from being an “S” turn. It jumps over the women’s second turn, pointed to the right (of the orientation of the second straight)…then the turn which whips around more than 90 degrees, to take the riders into a short third straight. There, they encounter a “climber” (a step-up, but more dramatic), which appears in the simulation to drop the riders down sharply into a soft-left which opens up to a rhythm and into the last turn. From there, it is standard SX track fare for the last straight.

An animated “walkthrough” was available on a few sites, but seems to be universally down as of this writing, so we won’t frustrate you by giving you the link.

The track really does look exciting, and the second turn is bound to have some nice “change-up” potential.

At 11:19AM Thursday, Pete Dylewski posted the following on Vintage, as an update after practice:

Today, the GSX staff proved their worth, as the last 3 or 4 days, pouring rain had kept them from getting the track and set up dialed in. This morning at 6AM they were all out there, getting things done and right at Noon, as scheduled, Group A practice was underway.

They track wasn’t 100% dialed, but the riders were jumping everything by the end of the hour of practice.

Group B and the Women also got their full hour of practice in and Tom Ritz went to a good group of riders and talked to them to get feedback on the track and will make a few slight adjustments to get it completely dialed in by practice time tomorrow. The track seemed to flow really well and the new hip

As far as USA riders, Donny Robison looked solid as did Brooke Crain and Dani George. The others rode well also, but these 3 really stood out to me. I wasn’t able to focus 100% on watching the riders during practice, as I was helping do Video stuff for the TV show. style berm jump was a favorite to many riders.

You can watch the race live on freecaster.tv beginning Saturday Morning at 8AM Eastern Time. Pete Dylewski is back in the booth this year, and is for this race joined by home country hero, Sifiso Nhlapo–still recovering from a crash suffered in the second straight at the ABA Sooner Nationals.

Some “off-track” photos

Left To Right: Corben Sharrah, Amanda Geving, Tyler Faoro, Alise Post, Josh Meyers, Nic Long, Arielle Martin and Brooke Crain take a beach ride soon after touching down in South Africa.

The US Women hug and mug for a group photo in the PZB mist. Left To Right: Arielle Martin, Dani George, Ashley Verhagen, Amanda Geving, Alise Post, Brooke Crain and Taylor Wolcott. Not pictured: Amanda Carr.

USA Cycling BMX coach Jeff Glynn takes some time to “shred” the local South African bowls at a Pietermaritzburg skatepark.

Photos via Twitter and Facebook.

Downloads

Elite Men Start List

Elite Women Start List

Rider Breakdown By Country

One thing we notice in reading the start list is the absence of Laëtitia Le Corguillé. Last month, her Facebook page indicated she may be competing in PZB, having recovered from her injury last season. We will try to find out the 4-1-1 on her status for the next rounds. And, of course, we knew that Maris Strombergs’ name would be absent from the list as well. He is still nursing a wrist injury suffered at the ABA Grands.

BMX News will have a re-cap of the Pietermaritzburg SX late Saturday Afternoon, and we will be rockin the Tweets (follow @bmxnow). Check back often!

Editor’s Note: “Pietermaritzburg” is 16 letters. I hate typing it, so I have resorted to using the airport code, “PZB” instead.

Team USA had a contingent of Elite Men in New Zealand as well, led by USA Cycling BMX Program Director, Mike King. Our boys made up HALF the eight man main event, with David Herman, Josh Meyers, Nic Long and Corben Sharrah all gating up for the big lap. Z Herminator got on the podium with a second (full results below). No Team USA ladies on this trip.

The final podium slot belonged to Aussie Brian Kirkham. Speaking of “Podiums” the party poppers must be poppin at VSI Products headquarters this morning. Speed and Intense-mounted riders grabbed all three podium spots among the Men, and at least two of the three in the Ladies (not sure what Sarah was riding, or if she switched up equipment after her five-month layoff).

UCI BMX Oceanic Continental Championship – Results

Elite Men: Marc Willers (NZL), David Herman (USA), Brian Kirkham (AUS), Kurt James (NZL), Nic Long (USA), Josh Meyers (USA); Kurt Pickard (NZL), Corben Sharrah (USA).

Elite Women: Sarah Walker (NZL), Lauren Reynolds (AUS), Caroline Buchanan (AUS), Nicole Callisto (AUS), Rachel Bracken (AUS), Melinda McLeod (AUS, Junior), Nicole Wright (NZL, Junior), Victoria Hill (NZL)

Junior Men: Daniel Franks (NZL), Nic Fox (NZL), Darryn Goodwin (AUS).