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It was on the brand new track in Jössefors, Arvika, that the Swedish round of the Red Bull UCI Pump Track World Championship Qualifier race was decided last Sunday the 19th of September. 25 excited and eager racers battled it out for the prestigious win and the opportunity to go to the big final in Lisbon in October. It was a heater of a race with plenty of fast racers from an astonishing five different countries, pushing the level of riding through the roof - the final rounds of the competition so tight and intense it kept both racers and the crowd on their toes. In the end, it was Swedish BMX racer Oskar Kindblom and Latvian BMX racer Vineta Pētersone who kept it consistently pinned and grabbed the top step of the podium.

A bunch of Freestyle riders made it to Eindhoven last weekend as a loose competition was happening on the BigAirBag. It more or less was a free session for entertainment and practically anyone could join the session to see what it's like to jump an airbag set-up. Pim v.d. Bos had built the take-off and Nicky v.d. Veen makes sure the BigAirBag is working. It's good news BMX-ers stay involved in a different shape or form to further develop BMX. The riders were stoked with the soft(er) landing and the Pump Track event had a way of entertainment and participation. When the session was done and dusted it was up to Daniel Wedemeijer, Nick van der Veen and Levi Weidmann to throw down some real tricks on the set-up. The crowd got to see 360-backflips, fronties, turndown flips etc. from Daniel, flipwhips, flips, 3-inverts from Nicky, and 720-s, 360 bar-to bar and flips from Levi.

The session afterwards continued with Sem Kok sending 360 turndowns to the moon, Denz van Laare flipping gaps for the first time and others simply sending it until the airbag was unplugged. Only Dennis Keunen would have sent it at that point but he was not there.

We posted some pics on our Instagram account (@fatbmx) but had some more photos left that we did not want to go to waste. Enjoy.

BdJ

Pump Tracks are all the craze. Instead of leaving it up to the users to figure out what to do with it, Red Bull, in association with Velosolutions, have set up a worldwide qualification system for the World Championships which will be held in Lisbon, Portugal mid October. Litterally tons of qualifying events worldwide have taken place already and on Saturday 18 September it was Holland's turn to find out who would go to the Red Bull UCI Pump Track World's next month. These qualifiers are open for any rider (17+) to enter and with time running out, Eddy Clerté took the Dutch opportunity to try qualify for the big one in Portugal 16-17 October 2021.

It's a big mix with BMX as well as MTB riders setting a time at the beginning of the race. The goal is to set a time fast enough to make it to the top 32. There's a second opportunity to if you could not set a quick enough time in your first run. Once the 32 fastest riders are selected, it's a head-to-head system afterwards where the first place qualifier races the rider who qualified in 32nd, number 2 races number 31, etc. After each phase half of the riders make it to the next round until 2 are left for the final race of the day.

This was the first Pump Track race I've visited and I was wondering how the start of the time trial and the start of the head-to-head phases would go. In fact, there is no starting gate, and the riders all have their chains on the bike. Basically it's a rolling start where you can gain as much speed as you like

34 Men and 11 Women registered for the 2021 Red Bull UCI Pump Track World Championships qualifier in Brussels, Belgium. Riders from Belgium, Netherlands, Latvia, France, Switzerland were racing the newly built Velosolutions pump track for a spot at the upcoming World Champs in Lisbon, Portugal. There was a fairly even split across BMX and MTB and a few Freestyle riders joined the fun. Aiko Gommers was absolutely unstoppable in a stacked Women's category, unbeatable in every single round saw her secure her World Final ticket with her best time of the day in at 11.622 with Olympian Elke Vanhoof taking home 2nd spot on the podium in the Women class.

In the Men's category, a small mistake saw top qualifier Mateo Colsenet take a fall in top 16, leaving Latvian rider Kristaps Veksa to take home his World Final ticket after his third place in the German Qualifier last weekend. Second place behind Veksa was Belgian rider Elias Verbinnen.

Next up qualifiers:
11 Sept. Leogang, Austria
18 Sept. Eindhoven, Netherlands
19 Sept. Jössefors, Sweden
25 Sept. Schüpfheim, Switzerland

Red Bull UCI Pump Track World Championships Qualifier - Berlin, Mellowpark, Germany. It is Vineta Petersone’s (Latvia) second win this season after she secured her World Final spot in Portugal at the end of 2020, leaving the World Final ticket for freestyle rider Lara Lessman from Germany to travel to the World Final but riders are Olympians. Lara secured a 6th at the Olympics after breaking her collarbone 6 weeks before she travelled to Tokyo. Vineta had the fastest time of the day in the Women’s category with 15.352

The men’s category came down to the wire between Philip Schaub (Germany) and Max von Eijndhoven (Netherlands) during the Big Final with both riders breaking the 14 second track mark, Max with a 13,935