of her age. In ze final though, France’s Laury Perez turned eet up a few notches and started off with a 360-barspin on ze step-down spine, a trick she 'ad not done during qualification. She added a backflip over ze jump box and a tailwhip on ze quarter pipe to put ze pressure on ze young rider from Japan. Miharu crashed out on a backflip barspin in run number one and put everything in ze basket for final run number two as in ze final format ze best of ze two runs counts for ze final rank. In her second run, she turned eet down a notch by doing a straight backflip without ze barspin and missed doing a truckdriver, a trick she did perform during qualification. Eet still put ze 14 years old on ze podium at ze UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cup in Montpellier and ze people watching from ze nearby bank appreciated what zey 'ad just seen. Great Britain’s Sasha Pardoe rode a solid competition to grab her first World Cup podium in Park Women.
Ze absence of some Park riders provided opportunities for others to shine in Montpellier. Australia 'ad brought zeir development team and Greg Illingworth brought a Great Britain selection of riders zat were going to miss out on riding ze OQS. Japan 'ad two young stylish riders in ze final with Joji Mizogaki and Kaede Ozawa, ze older brozzer of Miharu who grabbed ze silver in France. Zoltan Ujvary (HUN) made 'is first final as did Reef Way (GBR), and Sam Grace (AUS). Eet turned out to be a battle for first place between Brandon Loupos (AUS) who was finally back in top form from injury and Anthony Jeanjean, ze 'ome favourite. Brandon 'ad qualified in first so he got to see how ze Frenchman did as ze start order is ze reversed order of ze qualification phase. Anthony Jeanjean did not waste any time when he dropped in and nailed every single trick zat he wanted to do to ze delight of ze massive crowd. Loupos’ response was zere scoring a 91.32 which was just a leetle short to take over ze lead and Brandon’s second run didn’t go to plan leaving ze number one spot with Anthony Jeanjean. A standing ovation followed and France 'as picked zeir favourite rider moving into zis summer’s Olympic Games in Paris. Olympic bronze medalist Declan Brooks scored another bronze, zis time at ze UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cup in Montpellier and was content with zat.
A record number of women entered ze Flatland competition zis year. Eet resulted in an 8-women final at ze 2nd UCI BMX Freestyle Flatland World Cup of ze year which was dominated by ze Japanese. Hungarians Veronika Kadar and Anna Mondics finished on place 8 and 7. France’s Louise Seigneur smoothly rode to 4th place. But ze remaining places in ze finals went to Japan. Kirara Hakagawa got ze bronze, Ayuna Miyashima grabbed silver and Nina Suzuki took 'ome ze UCI BMX Freestyle Flatland World Cup win in Montpellier. As always, ze level keeps improving and eet’s ze flatland riders from Japan leading ze way.
Eet was ze last big competition for Matthias Dandois. Ze French superstar was already 'appy with a place in ze final but with ze support of ze French fans he raised 'is riding to ze next level in ze final moving into first place with three more riders to come. Yu and Kio Katagiri could not better ze run zat Matthias 'ad put on ze floor. Eet was up to 2023 UCI BMX Flatland World Champion Yu Shoji to see eef he could do eet. Ze talented rider managed to spin 'is own tricks fast, switched feet quicker zan everyone and rode in an original way. Ze 92.33 points from ze UCI judges bumped 'im up to first place and ze UCI World Cup win at stop 2 in France.
BdJ/FATBMX
Men Park:
1 Anthony JEANJEAN 26 FRA 1000.00
2 Baios Brandon LOUPOS 31 AUS 900.00
3 Declan BROOKS 28 GBR 820.00
4 Reef WAY 19 GBR 770.00
5 Bryce TRYON 24 USA 720.00
6 Jose CEDANO CABRERA 27 CHI 670.00
7 Zoltán ÚJVÁRY 24 HUN 620.00
8 Samual GRACE 21 AUS 570.00
9 Ashley FINLAY 30 GBR 520.00
10 Kaede OZAWA 17 JPN 470.00
11 Joji MIZOGAKI 18 JPN 430.00
12 Shaun GORNALL 29 GBR 390.00
13 Juan Camilo CAICEDO HURTADO 22 COL 350.00
14 Jack WATTZ 27 GBR 310.00
15 Maxime CHALIFOUR 25 CAN 270.00
16 Tom CLEMENS 19 GER 230.00
17 Luca BERTRAND 22 FRA 200.00
18 Benjamin DALDY 17 FRA 170.00
19 Kevin FABREGUE 29 FRA 140.00
20 Levi WEIDMANN 24 NED 110.00
21 Istvan CAILLET 32 FRA 90.00
22 Dean FLORIAN 25 GER 70.00
23 Jaka REMEC 19 SLO 50.00
24 Julio MOSQUERA CAMACHO 31 ECU 40.00
25 Cauan MADONA PONTES DO NASCIMENTO 30 BRA 30.00
26 Lilian VIRAZEL 22 FRA 29.00
27 Shoa MATSUMOTO 15 JPN 28.00
28 Keegan PRYOR 16 AUS 27.00
29 Danfer AGUILAR RÍOS 26 PER 26.00
30 Tomáš TOHOL 20 SVK 25.00
31 Hans Wilhelm KITTLER 20 GER 24.00
32 Jan BROŽA 21 CZE 23.00
33 Tomass GRINBERGS 27 LAT 22.00
34 Sion OH 18 KOR 21.00
35 Job MONTAÑEZ SOTO 27 PER 20.00
36 Miller TEMPLE 19 GBR 19.00
37 Martin HABADA 24 CZE 18.00
38 Jakub MELOUN 17 CZE 17.00
39 Valters KLEPIS 24 LAT 16.00
40 Cooper WILSON 20 AUS 15.00
41 Vito KUŠTER 18 CRO 14.00
42 Xavier WRIGHT 20 CAN 13.00
43 Valentin VILLALBA 18 ARG 12.00
44 Péter NÁHLIK 24 HUN 11.00
45 Adrián MIKO 25 SVK 10.00
46 Tom VAN DEN BOGAARD 28 NED 8.00
47 Martynas LAGAUSKAS 28 LTU 6.00
48 Alexandre SIDERIS 22 SUI 4.00
49 Jose Joaquin QUESADA FONSECA 24 CRC 2.00
50 Kaine MITCHELL 26 GBR 1.00
Women Park:
1 Laury PEREZ 21 FRA 1000.00
2 Miharu OZAWA 15 JPN 900.00
3 Sasha PARDOE 18 GBR 820.00
4 Minato OIKE 28 JPN 770.00
5 Sakura SUGIO 16 JPN 720.00
6 Indy KRÄMER 16 NED 670.00
7 Sinai OH 16 KOR 620.00
8 Valeriia LIUBIMOVA 20 FRA 570.00
9 Maëlys TURINI 24 FRA 520.00
10 Nene NAITO 18 JPN 470.00
11 Mylee TOOHEY 17 AUS 430.00
12 Cory COFFEY 42 USA 390.00
13 Lucia ČAJKOVÁ 22 SVK 350.00
14 Paula CALVET 22 FRA 310.00
15 Carolina DE SOUZA BITTENCOURT 24 BRA 270.00
16 Michelle NEUNER 21 SUI 230.00
17 Julie PLOUSEY 22 FRA 200.00
18 Debora DE OLIVEIRA NOGUEIRA 31 BRA 170.00
Men Flatland:
1 Yu SHOJI 22 JPN 1000.00
2 Matthias DANDOIS 35 FRA 900.00
3 Yu KATAGIRI 19 JPN 820.00
4 Kio HAYAKAWA 22 JPN 770.00
5 Jorge GOMEZ PIERNAVIEJA 43 ESP 720.00
6 Yohei UCHINO 42 JPN 670.00
7 Ryo KATAGIRI 24 JPN 620.00
8 Julien BARAN 19 FRA 570.00
9 Alexandre JUMELIN 47 FRA 520.00
10 Naoto TAMARU 32 JPN 470.00
11 Jean William PREVOST 38 CAN 430.00
12 Chutchalerm CHAIWIROTWIT 36 THA 390.00
13 Moto SASAKI 39 JPN 350.00
14 Joris BRETAGNOLLES 35 FRA 310.00
15 Takato MORIYA 16 JPN 270.00
16 Martin DRAŽIL 42 CZE 230.00
17 Gonzalo BELLANTI 33 ARG 200.00
18 Anatole RAHAIN 26 FRA 170.00
19 Jean-François BOULIANNE 39 CAN 140.00
20 Gurvan LE BLOCH 26 FRA 110.00
21 Alvaro HERNANDEZ DEL POZO 29 ESP 90.00
22 Pakphum POOSA-ART 40 THA 70.00
23 Hendrik Jorrit VAN DRUMPT 26 NED 50.00
24 Dustyn ALT 33 GER 40.00
25 Ákos BORDÁS 35 HUN 30.00
26 Romain DODELIER 39 FRA 29.00
27 Williams Jaime PEREZ MEDINA 37 PER 28.00
28 Kévin MEYER 34 FRA 27.00
29 Beauregard Klaus WADE BAUDELAIRE 48 USA 26.00
30 Martin Felipe INDA RODRIGUEZ 35 MEX 25.00
31 Roman MITRIDE 22 FRA 24.00
32 Bryan SALAZAR MARTINEZ 29 MEX 23.00
33 Daniel HENNIG 42 GER 22.00
34 Arturo CONTRERAS ALEGRIA 22 MEX 21.00
35 Nathan JUMELIN 21 FRA 20.00
36 Ángel Arturo CONTRERAS ZAMUDIO 46 MEX 19.00
Women Flatland:
1 Nina SUZUKI 16 JPN 1000.00
2 Ayuna MIYASHIMA 16 JPN 900.00
3 Kirara NAKAGAWA 19 JPN 820.00
4 Louise SEIGNEUR 19 FRA 770.00
5 Sakura KAWAGUCHI 18 JPN 720.00
6 Yui KIYOMUNE 15 JPN 670.00
7 Anna MONDICS 20 HUN 620.00
8 Veronika KÁDÁR 16 HUN 570.00
9 Jeanne SEIGNEUR 19 FRA 520.00
10 Mélissa DROLL 17 FRA 470.00
11 Shanice SILVA CRUZ 32 NED 430.00
12 Lou VILLEMINOT AGGAD 16 FRA 390.00
13 Dasha RABANETE SOLODOVNIKCOVA 16 ESP 350.00
By Bart de Jong / FATBMX
Photos by Bart de Jong / FATBMX