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Is it dry yet? Reilly and Roberts win the BMX Park rainbow jerseys in rainy Glasgow. Glasgow brought its challenges for the BMX Park competition at the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. After multiple delays over the past days to complete the necessary phases to get to a final result due to rain showers, it was Kieran Reilly (GBR) who came out on top in the Men Park class and Hannah Roberts (USA) claimed the UCI World Championship title in Women Park.

The Men Park finals started with 24 competitors as the semi-final had been turned into a final. This resulted in double the riding for the amazing crowd at Glasgow Green that had come to witness the event. The yellow ramps were the only bit of sunshine that the riders got to see but the riding

Results: C1 Venezuela Circuito Nacional BMX Freestyle Caracas, Venezuela 03 Nov 2023

Men Park:
1 Edy Jose ALVIAREZ SANCHEZ 41 VEN 90,8   200.00 UCI Ranking Points
2 Caio DE OLIVEIRA SOUSA 30 BRA 86.3           160.00
3 Derek SOLANO LOPEZ 19 CRC 82,6                 130.00
4 Anthony CASTRO CASTILLO 19 VEN 79,7       110.00
5 Aaron  MATOS PEÑALOZA 19 VEN 78,3            90.00
6 Kevin Jesus DE MEO PEREIRA 24 VEN 53,7      70.00
7 Leduar Javier RUIZ VERQ 26 VEN 50,5               50.00

Women Park:
1 Carolina DE SOUZA BITTENCOURT 23 BRA 53,60 200.00 UCI Ranking Points

Is China the future of BMX Freestyle? The last stop of the 2023 UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup took place in Bazhong, China. It was a long travel for most but once arrived at the permanent BMX freestyle facility it was clear that the Chinese are serious about the future. The Women park riders have already made their mark on the UCI World Cup circuit but it was the junior riders that impressed everyone. The warm-up section with foam pit and resi section behind the park was used all day by not only the World Cup riders but especially the Juniors. Their energy is endless. Their tricks are up to par with the higher classes. It’s almost scary to think what’s in store for the future of BMX coming out of China.

The last stop of the 2023 UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cup would decide who would go home with the title for this year. 28 Women signed up trying to make it to the final. With 6 riders from China making it to the final 12 in Bazhong it only confirms their domination. 43 Men entered the Park comp. The permanent ramp set-up was on the small side for them Men and had different transitions than usual but as always, adapting is key. Bigger names not making it out to the semifinal were a.o. Jose Torres Gil (ARG) and Justin Dowell (USA) who both suffered from a flat tire. In the semi-final a cut was made from 24 to 12 and things got wild there. Every single rider has the ability to make it through to the final round but it’s the riding that is done during the run that counts. Little mistakes, blank airs, pedal slips, it gets down to small details for the judges to decide who gets a high enough score to go to the final.

With two 60-second runs each and the best run counting, that job is never easy. Most riders pulled at least one good run. Missing the cut by just 0.1 points was Costa Rica’s Kenneth Tencio who, in his first 8 seconds already did three awesome tricks. The way he starts his runs with a flair drop-in is amazing and takes risk. He kept going till the very end but came up short to make the final. On the bubble also were Alec Danelutti (AUS) and Declan Brooks (GBR). It shows how high the level is these days. A simple cruise to the final does not exist anymore. A few names in Women Park that missed out on riding the final of the World Cup under the roof were Macarena Perez (Chile), the talented Kim Lea Müller (GER) and Queen Saray Villegas (COL). With the Chinese riders upping the level it is getting harder and hard to cut into the top 12 at each stop.

After a grey day during practice on Thursday the sun had come out for the rest of the weekend. The grandstands were full, the big screen showed the replays, the sound was blasting. In short; let the finals begin! Hannah Roberts (USA) was the UCI World Cup ranking leader coming into the last stop. The Chinese riders weren’t going to give it to her for free so the American had to push her personal limit to perform at her best. Hannah ended up on the podium but in between Sibei Sun (CHN) for third and Ya Wen Deng (CHN) for the win. The power that Ya Wen brought to the FOP was strong. She even improved her first run score of 90.10 with a 93.84 which brought the public to their feet. A UCI World Cup win on home territory is one not to forget. Congrats to team China on the results. Hannah Roberts ended up with the 2023 UCI World Cup overall title. It won’t be easy to repeat that for 2024 but time will tell.

Olympic champ Logan Martin had a pretty comfortable lead coming into the last round and when he qualified for the final in 4 th place, his first goal was reached. His direct competitors (Marcus Christopher USA, Anthony Jeanjean FRA, Kieran Reilly GBR and Rimu Nakamura JPN) in the ranking also made it to the finals so it was going to be a good one. When Daniel Dhers (VEN) set the bar with a flawless run that involved his hardest tricks, the bar was set. Marin Rantes (CRO) topped Dhers and took the lead. But heat two in the final brought some more heavy hitters. Anthony Jeanjean, Kieran Reilly and Logan Martin changed leading positions several times which contributed to the show. With extra flips, rotations, tailwhips and barspins the final heated up. Logan brought the forwards bike flip, Kieran pulled a double flair and Jeanjean double backflipped and ended up in 1-2-3 in that order. The results gave Logan Martin the 2023 UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup Overall followed by Reilly and Jeanjean for third.

The 2023 UCI BMX Freestyle overall titles went to:

Men Park: Logan Martin (AUS)

Women Park: Hannah Roberts (USA)

Men Flatland: Yu Shoji (JPN)

Women Flatland: Aude Cassagne (FRA)

BdJ

Photos by Bart de Jong / @fatbmx

Full results

Men Park:
1 Logan MARTIN 30 AUS  1000.00 UCI Ranking points
2 Kieran REILLY 22 GBR      900.00
3 Anthony JEANJEAN 25 FRA 820.00
4 Marin RANTEŠ 28 CRO    770.00
5 Marcus CHRISTOPHER 21 USA 720.00
6 Nick BRUCE 31 USA       670.00
7 Dylan HESSEY 20 GBR   620.00
8 Daniel DHERS 38 VEN   570.00
9 Gustavo BATISTA DE OLIVEIRA 21 BRA 520.00
10 Brian FOX 28 USA       470.00
11 Rimu NAKAMURA 21 JPN 430.00
12 Daniel SANDOVAL 29 USA 390.00
13 Kenneth Fabian TENCIO ESQUIVEL 30 CRC 350.00
14 Alec DANELUTTI 23 AUS 310.00
15 Declan BROOKS 27 GBR 270.00
16 Jeffrey WHALEY 27 CAN 230.00
17 Jacob THIEM 23 USA 200.00
18 Jude JONES 22 GBR 170.00
19 Bryce TRYON 23 USA 140.00
20 Ernests ZEBOLDS 24 LAT 110.00
21 Maxime CHALIFOUR 24 CAN 90.00
22 Joji MIZOGAKI 17 JPN 70.00
23 Kevin PERAZA GARCIA 29 MEX 50.00
24 Istvan CAILLET 31 FRA 40.00
25 Zoltán ÚJVÁRY 23 HUN 30.00
26 Justin DOWELL 23 USA 29.00
27 Levi WEIDMANN 23 NED 28.00
28 Paul THÖLEN 25 GER 27.00
29 Ryan NYQUIST 44 USA 26.00
30 Tianwang WEI 19 CHN 25.00
31 Jose TORRES GIL 28 ARG 24.00
32 Shuotang LIN 19 CHN 23.00
33 Tomass GRINBERGS 26 LAT 22.00
34 Tom CLEMENS 18 GER 21.00
35 Martynas LAGAUSKAS 27 LTU 20.00
36 Caio DE OLIVEIRA SOUSA 30 BRA 19.00
37 Xiaolong SHA 21 CHN 18.00
38 Kaede OZAWA 16 JPN 17.00
39 Kevin FABREGUE 28 FRA 16.00
40 Zoltán KEMPF 27 HUN 15.00
41 Kim YEONHO 21 KOR 14.00
42 Jui Chun  KAO 21 TPE 13.00

Women Park:
1 Yawen DENG 18 CHN 1000.00
2 Hannah ROBERTS 22 USA 900.00
3 Sibei SUN 18 CHN 820.00
4 Natalya DIEHM 26 AUS 770.00
5 Iveta MICULYČOVÁ 18 CZE 720.00
6 Zihui FAN 19 CHN 670.00
7 Nikita DUCARROZ 27 SUI 620.00
8 Huimin ZHOU 18 CHN 570.00
9 Charlotte WORTHINGTON 27 GBR 520.00
10 Jiaqi SUN 19 CHN 470.00
11 Honglin XIA 17 CHN 430.00
12 Sarah NICKI 16 AUS 390.00
13 Macarena PEREZ GRASSET 27 CHI 350.00
14 Kim Lea MÜLLER 21 GER 310.00
15 Queen VILLEGAS SERNA 20 COL 270.00
16 Qian ZHENG 20 CHN 230.00
17 Laury PEREZ 20 FRA 200.00
18 Angie MARINO 33 USA 170.00
19 Sasha PARDOE 17 GBR 140.00
20 Analia Gabriela ZACARIAS 34 ARG 110.00
21 Lara Marie LESSMANN 23 GER 90.00
22 Agustina ROTH 22 ARG 70.00
23 Valeriia LIUBIMOVA 19 FRA 50.00
24 Eduarda BORDIGNON 23 BRA 40.00
25 Nene NAITO 17 JPN 30.00
26 Carolina DE SOUZA BITTENCOURT 23 BRA 29.00
27 Cory COFFEY 41 USA 28.00
28 Sinai OH 15 KOR 27.00

Results Canadian BMX Park National Championships Markham, ON, Canada, Canada 27 October 2023

Men Park:

1 Mike VARGA 27 CAN                200.00 UCI ranking points
2 Maxime CHALIFOUR 24 CAN  160.00
3 Jeffrey WHALEY 27 CAN         130.00
4 Lawson TURNER 21 CAN         110.00
5 Carson DONOVAN 43 CAN        90.00
6 Gavin INGRAM 22 CAN              70.00
7 Xavier WRIGHT 19 CAN             50.00
8 Ben MALETTE 23 CAN               30.00

Stormy UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup Park in Brussels. BMX Freestyle is amazing in many ways and if the platform is provided to the riders to perform at their very best, it becomes an incredible show time after time. The location at the 2023 Urban Sessions with the sloping hill is unique, but works in many ways. It creates a festival style vibe with the crowd hanging out overlooking the BMX Freestyle Park and other activities provided by the local organizer. With the UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cup being the main attraction, the event started on Thursday with an 11-hour non-stop practice session followed by 11 hours of BMX Freestyle riding on the FOP on Friday for the qualification phase. Brussels has become the second largest UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cup of the series (after Montpellier) which shows the riders and federations embrace the event.

With hot days during training and qualification, a surprising hail storm appeared on Saturday right after Women Park warm-up calling off the semi-final for the women. The sun came out again afterwards on Saturday which made completing the Semi Final for the men a possibility. The cut from 80 (qualification) to 24 (semi-final) to 12 (final) is a tough one especially when all of the riders show a run that they had in mind and leave the decision with the judges. In the end 2 Americans made it in (Marcus Christopher and Justin Dowell), three Brits (Kieran Reilly, Declan Brooks, Shaun Gornall), UCI World Champ Rim Nakamura (Japan), Olympic gold medalist Logan Martin (AUS), former UCI World Cup winner Anthony Jeanjean from France, crowd favorite Kevin Peraza (MEX), Jose Torres from Argentina, Tom

van den Bogaard (NED) and Gustavo Batista de Oliviera representing Brazil. Four continents were represented in the final in Brussels.

With another big storm on the horizon to arrive on Sunday afternoon, the decision was made to have a 24-Women final on Sunday morning followed by the 12-Men final right after that trying to beat the incoming storm. It turned out to be a race against the clock. With 5 riders from China in the top 8 in the Women Park final results it’s fair to say that their domination in this category is real. Their work ethic has brought them where they are, leaving others to catch up with their progression. Taking home the points for 8th , 6th , 5th , 3rd and 1st was unheard of only 2 years ago but team China, who had been staying in Europe since the last UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup in Montpellier, made that a reality in Belgium. Xia Honglin’s 87,90 got her on the podium right behind UCI World Champ Hannah Roberts (USA) and Zhou Huimin whose 91,40 got her the gold at Urban Sessions 2023. With double truckdrivers, double barspins, flairs, flips, nothings to barspin, and tailwhips becoming regular tricks it sure gets more interesting by the event. Making it to the next round during competition is not a given any longer, you sure need to deliver at all times. Between the Chinese delegation Switzerland’s Nikita Ducarroz got 4 th after qualifying in first and Natalya Diehm, back from injury, settled for place 7. America’s Chelsea Wolfe and Colombia’s Queen Villegas Serna completed the top 10.

With the Men final still on the program the storm was nearing Brussels rapidly. After a 30- minute warm-up for the 12 finalists there was no time to waste to get the final done before the rain arrived. Luckily everyone understood that and the joint effort was made to deliver a good final for the crowd that made it to Parc Josaphat on Sunday morning. When the introduction to the riders was made, a tribute to Pat Casey (RIP) followed before the first heat of 6 riders made it on top of the ramps to drop in for their final runs of the weekend.

Tom van den Bogaard was first up and set the bar high. It was now up to the others to go over or stay under. With runs not going the way he planned it, Marcus Christopher finished on spot 12. If he’d pulled what he had in mind It would not have been a surprise to see him on the podium for Brussels. We might see what he is capable off at the UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow which is just a few weeks away. With two runs of 60 seconds in the final the worst of the two scores gets dropped. Kevin Peraza’s first run was the keeper and even though he had a little crash in run 2, he still put on a show for the crowd. That’s why the BMX community loves him. When we enter the top 5 we find first place qualifier Justin Dowell on spot 5 with his own tricks and plenty more. Kieran Reilly has won a comp or two in 2023 but just missed out on the podium. Australia’s Logan Martin’s 89.41 second run score was good for 3 rd in Schaerbeek. Nakamura opened the throttle in run one to get in the ‘90s range with a 91.56 but like in 2022, it was Anthony Jeanjean who left the competition in awe with two amazing runs that would both have won the competition. After the worst score was taken away the 92.56 remained. Another UCI BMX Park World Cup win for the Frenchman and well deserved. Just moments after the prize giving, rain started to drop. Timing is key.

BdJ

Pictures by Bart de Jong / @fatbmx

UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup winners from China/Australia/Japan/France celebrate in Montpellier in front of the biggest crowd in BMX. The biggest event on the 2023 UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup calendar took place in Montpellier, France. The Festival International des Sports Extreme attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. The multiple sports festival in the city in the South of France hosted the UCI BMX Freestyle Park and Flatland World Cups. For Park it was the second stop on the calendar where the flatland riders met up for the first time in France this year. Due to the huge number of participants, practice started as early as Tuesday with Wednesday schedule for a pre-qualification phase in BMX Park Men. The first cut was made from 110 riders to 72 for the qualification round down to 24 for semifinals. Due to the weather forecast for Sunday it was decided to turn this semifinal into the final round giving 24 riders the chance to shine in front of the thousands of spectators that had come to watch from the banks at the Rives Du Lez.

The first UCI final of four produced amazing riding. The field of play offered many different lines for the riders to choose from with the step down spine and step up ramp along the river being two ramps that were chosen to execute their tricks on. On first sight a jump box was missing on this Park course but the high ramp with transitions on both sides connected to the new tipi ramp turned into a box jump for the braves. High risks were taken on this one but to stand out, you have to ride in a different way and take some risks.

Introducing the UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup to Saudi Arabia. Roberts and Martin claim the wins. From the beginning a warm welcome was felt when foot was set in Diriyah, home of the first UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cup, and not just because the temperature was higher than in most countries during winter. Just 30 minutes outside of Riyadh a new BMX Freestyle facility was created and the set-up was nothing short of impressive. Mountains were moved
(literally) to create an area for the event and the nearby training ramps with resi sections were well used by riders to prepare for their UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup runs. The plan is for the facility to stay around for the local riders to develop BMX Freestyle and for international athletes to come train.

Thursday’s Men qualification was the first part of the event which eliminated over 30 riders and transfered 24 to ride Friday’s Semi-Final. Youngster Marcus Christopher’s 87,5 score was the highest score all day followed by fellow countryman Justin Dowell (USA) and British phenom Kieran Reilly in third. Olympic gold medalist Logan Martin made sure he remained part of the competition by getting 4 th followed by 2022 UCI BMX Park World Champion Rim
Nakamura from Japan. Next to the trick machines, flow riders like Kevin Peraza (Mexico- 8th), Joji Mizogaki (Japan-9th) and Paul Thoelen (Germany-22nd) made it through providing a wide variety of BMX Freestyle riding in the first UCI World Cup semi-final of the year.

Results British National Championships Asylum Skatepark, United Kingdom 22 - 23 October 2023

Men Park:
1 Kieran REILLY 22 GBR         100.00 UCI Ranking Points
2 Jordan CLARK 24 GBR 2     160.00
3 Dylan HESSEY 20 GBR 3     130.00
4 Declan BROOKS 27 GBR 4  110.00
5 Kaine MITCHELL 25 GBR 5   90.00
6 Kaz CAMPBELL 24 GBR 6     70.00
7 Reef WAY 18 GBR 7               50.00
8 Jack MAGUIRE 22 GBR 8      30.00
9 Thomas RUSSELL 27 GBR 9 20.00
10 Mitch DOOLEY 21 GBR 10  10.00