Happy New Year!

Dec 31, 2017

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 5342 times

The new year is here! 2017 was a good one with plenty of BMX involved. Once again we went to Tallinn for the Simple Session which we haven't missed since 2004. It's great to hear Josh Harrington is going to be riding in the next one, coming up the first weekend of February 2018. The Mini FATJAM took place in Aarle-Rixtel and the Beckers Cup at OJA was a good time. The UEC racing started in April in Zolder which was only an hour away and we managed to get some first pics of the riders in their 2017 gear. The UEC continued in Erp, Netherlands not much later which we attended as well (only 30 minutes away). With the 2017 World Cups happening in Papendal (1 hour) and Zolder (1 hour) we managed to cover a lot of racing without much travel. The trip to Argentina for the last UCI BMX SX World Cup however took around 36 hours but once there you forget the long journey quickly. Sylvain André (FRA) and Laura Smulders (NED) wrapped up the World Cup titles in Santiago del Estero.

On the freestyle side it's easy to lose track on where we all went. With multiple jams/sessions/contests happening every single weekend it was sometimes hard to pick where to go. The UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cups in France, Hungary and China were the bigger ones. The UCI World's in Chengdu were held for the first time the weekend after the last World Cup of the season and it turned out great. It was a big year anyway for BMX Freestyle as the IOC observers came to visit in Montpellier and turned BMX Freestyle into an Olympic event. That news came in while in Croatia at the Pannonian Challenge.

Other events visited were the National BMX Freestyle championships in Iceland, the Munich Mash miniramp comp in Germany and we spent another couple of weeks at Eurocamp this summer and visited La Poma, Llorret trails and Lost trails after stopping at Duver Bike Park in France on the way. It's great to have that many spots around with welcoming people. The Netherlands wasn't short of events either with the Flame Trails jam in Helmond, the 040 BMX Invitational happening in Eindhoven for the second time as well as the Pro Freestyle events happening in Scheveningen on the beach (!) and Heerlen. We had an awesome time in Amsterdam during the Urban Sports Week Amsterdam. If that event is on the calendar in 2018 make sure to check it out. Flatland, miniramp, dirt, street and park all in the middle of the city. The annual FATJAM and the Helm Trails jam were also on the summer schedule keeping the local scene alive. We went to the opening of a Pump track in Oirschot real quick. It's good to see all the riding spots pop up all over the place.

Since 1990 we've attended the Eurobike show every year and 2017 wasn't any different. Although it was tough finding BMX bikes besides the HARO booth it was good to catch up with the BMX minded people in Friedrichshafen. From Germany it was straight to England pretty much for the Battle of Hastings and the Nora Cup. BMX is great. As if that wasn't enough, we went straight into the Antwerp City Drops happening which once again had great weather in September and crazy dirt riding. Flatland was added this year in Belgium and will be back for 2018.

Add the Freedom Awards show in Stuttgart, the MX GP of Valkenswaard, the Semi-gigantische Kerstshow at Paul's Boutique, a British Cycling visit, a UCI meeting in Lisbon, and multiple trips to Aigle and you'll understand that there weren't many dull moments in 2017. If you've taken a look at the BMX calendar for 2018 on FATBMX, you will understand that 2018 will be much of the same.

Make sure to follow FATBMX on all platforms so you don't miss out on any coverage. Bring on 2018. Happy New Year and all the best.

Bart de Jong