USA Cycling will coronate its first national champions of 2011 on Saturday, April 16, at the USA Cycling BMX National Championships at the United States Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif. For the first time in American BMX history, the elite national championship event will be held on an Olympic-style supercross track, taking advantage of the facility built on the campus of the United States Olympic Training Center ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games. Amateur races will also be contested at the nearby smaller, traditional BMX track at the same venue.
“Having our national championship race on a ‘real’ supercross track clearly identifies an elite national champion,” said USA Cycling BMX Program Director
Mike King “Our program’s aim is to develop Olympic and world champions. What better way to do that than on an Olympic and world championship style supercross track?” Hosted by the American Bicycle Association (ABA), the national
championships is an American-only event but is sandwiched between two world-class UCI races (the ABA Super Nationals), which will feature both U.S. and international competitors. The national championship event, which gets underway at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, will crown national champions in various age groups of both challenge and cruiser categories. The day’s highlight will come when the elite men and women as well as junior men and women compete for the Stars-and-Stripes on the supercross track. All other riders will compete on the ABA track.
“This is truly a unique event in that we’ll have access to two tracks, the smaller ABA track and the supercross track for the elites,” King said.
“The national championships are also an important factor in qualifying for world championships.” Any amateur rider that advances to the final 16 of his or her category automatically qualifies to compete in their respective age group for the challenge portion of BMX World Championships, scheduled for July 27-31 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Expected to be among the competitors are
Mike Day (Redlands, Calif./GT Bicycles),
Kyle Bennett (Conroe, Texas/Free Agent BMX),
Donny Robinson (Napa, Calif./Hyper Bikes) and
Corben Sharrah (Tucson, Arizona/GT Bicycles) fresh off his UCI BMX Supercross World Cup win in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. On the women’s side,
Alise Post (St. Cloud, Minn./Redline Bicycles) and
Arielle Martin (East Spanaway, Wash./Intense BMX) are expected participants.
Photo by BdJ
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