FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

The 2006 Labor Day weekend was a busy time for BMX. The NBL BMX Race season is now officially over, as this past weekend in Louisville, KY the 29th Annual NBL Grand Nationals capped off one of the best Pro racing seasons most can remember. On the ABA side of things, the Pro season is quickly winding down, but just like the NBL this season has been a great year of Pro racing in the ABA with a lot of different winners, and there is still no runaway points leader in AA Pro. With two of the best races of the season going on simultaneously, it was a big decision for many pros on what race to attend. At both locations, something big was going on and the Double A Marketing pros split the races- On the NBL side, with a title on the line; Kyle Bennett, Randy Stumpfhauser, and Cristian Becerine all headed over to Louisville, while Dale Holmes and Brandon Meadows headed over to Reno. 

UCI is pleased to announce the permanent career numbers for Elite Men and Elite Women. These numbers must be used at all international BMX events worldwide. Starting with the season 2006-2007 (from 1 August 2006), the UCI is introducing a permanent number system for Elite Men & Elite Women. With this system, riders can choose a “career number”, which they have the exclusive right to use for their entire Elite class career. This will give riders a possibility to market themselves and to give media and spectators an easy way to identify riders.

It's nice when you don't have to travel for a change. The latest Motocross Grand Prix took place in Lierop which is a 10 minute drive from home. Sweet. I went to Lierop in the morning and took my son Philip as he's getting stoked on anything that relates to Motocross. We go watch practice from time to time at the track but when we rolled up this time he couldn't believe his eyes. Thousands of people and hundreds of cars, a big tent with 2007 models and all the factory trucks sure left an impression on him. After checking out the sights for a bit I drove home to drop him off and returned to shoot some photos. 

Dear friends in BMX, I am sorry to say, but I will have a different kind of introduction for the update of August 2006.Yesterday I received a very sad message from Marcia, the wife of GEORGE E. ESSER, Founder of the N.B.L. (National Bicycle League – USA), one of the first BMX pioneers in the USA and the world, original initiator and motivator of the I.BMX.F. (now integrated into the UCI) and last but not least my personal mentor and long time friend. The message said: George died in his sleep on August 31st. 2006 at 2.15 in the morning. Although this was expected, it still came over me as a shock. Another good friend has passed away. Besides that, people still today, do not realize what this man has mend for BMX. In the early ’70 George was one of the few pioneers in the sport of BMX, founded the N.B.L. with its office in Pompano Beach at the time, and was a visionary if you talk “world wide BMX organization”. 

NEW YORK - August 30, 2006 - The Dew Action Sports Tour, the pro tour of action sports, will host the BMX Supercross World Cup Finals as a specialty competition at the Toyota Challenge on Thursday, September 7 in San Jose, Calif. The first of two rounds of the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup will be held in San Jose; the second and final round will be held in Fréjus, France, October 6-7, 2006. In BMX Supercross, points are given to individual athletes and to countries in the UCI Nations ranking, which qualifies competing countries into the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

"The UCI BMX Supercross World Cup is the premier BMX racing series in the world," said Wade Martin, General Manager, Dew Action Sports Tour.  "We are excited to be a part of the growth and expansion of this sport into the 2008 Olympics in Beijing."

Gilbert, Arizona—August 23, 2006— The ABA (American Bicycle Association) announced today that it has retained the brand, event and marketing specialist group; bonspeedMedia of Anaheim, California. ABA, founded in 1977 is approaching thirty years of organizing BMX (Bicycle Motocross) racing on local, regional and national levels. As youth sports have grown the ABA has become the largest promoter of action sports in the world. bonspeedMedia is primarily known for their specialized branding, event and product marketing in the automotive, luxury and motorsport markets. bonspeedMedia clients have included Ford, Jaguar, Saleen, BMW, Barrett-Jackson, Bombardier Aircraft, Michelin and many others. It is bonspeed’s President, Brad Fanshaw who brings a vast knowledge base to the ABA, Fanshaw was a former Vice President of the ABA in the early 1980’s, when he retired as an active racer. After ABA, Fanshaw became Director of World Wide Marketing for Vision Sports an early action sport industry leader. Vision was a company he assisted in growing from $10 million to $120 million in just five years and is heralded as the one of the founders of X-Sports! 

Day One : AA Pro
1 Kyle Bennett
2 Donny Robinson
3 Bubba Harris
4 Randy Stumpfhauser
5 Aaron Johnson
6 Derek Betcher
7 Danny Caluag
8 Mike Day

Day Two: AA Pro  
1 Donny Robinson
2 Bubba Harris
3 Mike Day 

While the X-Games were going on in Los Angeles, FATBMX visited the Motocross GP in Namur, Belgium. The place of the track is the exact same place where Paul and I did our first international BMX race back in 1980. The motocross track normally isn't there, they just fence off a track through the parc and have the race. I love Belgium. The race this weekend was special because Stefan Everts was able to win his first (out of 10) world titles in front of his own Belgian fans. He didn't disappoint and won his 99th Grand Prix of his career. The dude simply rules the MX1 class and calls it a day at the end of the year which I believe is a good move.

It is with great pleasure to announce that SE’s Javier Colombo is the 2007 U.C.I. Elite Men’s Pro BMX World Champion. The race took place this past weekend in Sao Paulo, Brazil on one of the best World Championship tracks to date. Javier rode strong throughout the day and qualified to the 8-man main event, beating out over 90 of the world’s best riders from over 20 different countries.

In the final, Javier had a great start on his PK Ripper Team bike and went into the first turn in 2nd place, just behind former National Champion, Randy Stumpfhauser (GT Bikes). Javier rode a strong lap and stayed within striking distance of Randy throughout the two pro sections and five turns. Coming out of the final turn, Javier charged hard and pulled up along side of Randy. With approximately 25 ft to the finish, Javier rode the final jumps with more aggression and passed Randy by a half of a bike length for the U.C.I. World Championships win!

If you would like to see the 45 second clip of Javier wining the main event, [url=http://www.martijnscherpen.net/2006%20UCI%20worlds/2006%20UCI%20worlds%20elite%20men%20final.wmv]click this link.[/url] 

Unofficial 2006 UCI BMX Worlds Elite (class) results:

Elite Men 1. Javier Colombo (ARG) 2. Randy Stumpfhauser (USA) 3. Mike Day (USA) 4. Michal Prokop (CZE) 5. Florent Boutte (FRA) 6. Steve Cisar (USA) 7. Billy Jolliffe (AUS) 8. Jaime Gray (AUS)

Elite Woman 1. Willy Kanis (NED) 2. Maria Gabriela Diaz (ARG) 3. Cecile Lazzarotto (FRA) 4. JanaHorakova (CZE) 5. Aneta Hladikova (CZE) 6. Arielle Martin (USA) 7. Kim Hayashi (USA) 8. Laetitia Le Corguille (FRA)