European UCI BMX championships

Jan 14, 2008

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 10936 times

The whole European championships BMX series has been moved forward on the UCI schedule for one reason; the Olympic Games in Beijing. The World Championships in China will be held before the Olympics too so some serious shifting went on in the 2008 schedule.

Round three and four took place in Zwolle, The Netherlands and since the weather this time of the year is more likely to be shite, the race was held indoors at the IJsselhallen. Good choice.

The track actually looked solid with some decent doubles, some good turns, rollers and was okay for the younger riders to ride around on as well as the big guns to master. Actually, because the 40+ cruiser classes and the younger boy and girl racers have to share the track it's not too spectacular and the Junior and Elite riders of today did not have too much problems with it.

It was a lot safer than the track in St. - Etienne, France where the stretcher had to come out 80 times to transport racers off the track at round one & two of the European Championships series, the main series for BMX in Europe.

The thing is, with the sport being Olympic, budgets have become available at the national federations. This results in team mechanics, team managers, team doctors, team trainers, team food specialists, team masseuses, team physio's and whatever positions one can think of to help the riders score points that will help each nationality to send riders to the Olympic Games in August. Sure, it has helped the sport but the pits looks different these days I can tell you.

England has not qualified one spot for the Olympics yet and with Liam Phillips spending 6 months in the USA and Kelvin Batey not present, they're hoping to score a good result at the World Championships to get a spot. It's a long road to Beijing and a lot can happen. Shanaze Reade has not qualified either but she's collecting points like crazy and there is always a few wild cards to give out but who are going to get those?

If you want to be sure you've got spots, the best way to do that is to score points and the national federations are doing everything in their power/budget to make that happen through the support they're giving their riders.

Racing like this has become more stressful for the riders but it gets more exciting for the crowd. Not making the next round or not making it out of the motos (Robert de Wilde on Saturday) can have a big effect on the valuable points that the riders and teams are collectiong during the European BMX series.

When 8 riders line up on the gate and only 4 transfer to the next round, it's easy to understand for the crowd who makes it, or not. With most riders wearing their national team colours, it's even easier to understand for people who just show up to watch a BMX race.

Team Orange (Holland) was doing well. Robert did not race on Sunday but was busy giving interviews all day long.

The national press had found out that this was an important race and showed up with several reporters. Although 4 orange jerseys showed up in the semi finals, only 2 went through to the main event on Sunday; Martijn Scherpen and the ever consistent Rob van den Wildenberg.

The woman's final was between Anne-Caroline Chausson, Laetitia Le Corguiller, and Shanaze Reade. Both know how to jump a bike and that helped in Zwolle, especially on the second straight which had two decent sized doubles. Shanaze did what she had to do (score maximum points). The Brit got the holeshot and lead th race from start to finish with Laetitia in 2nd and ACC in third.

The elite men finals were the highlight of the day and everyone got out of their seats to watch the race. Martijn Scherpen (NED) got the holeshot but had Sebastian Kartfjord (NOR) on the inside of him. He cut him off just in time to dive into the first turn in full speed. Martijn lost his momentum when he slid out but saved it and could continue. At this point Michal Prokop (CZE) passed him on the outside and took the lead on the second straight. Thomas Allier (FRA) moved into second place. What people did not see coming was Ivo Lakucs (LAT).

Ivo was in last position all the way on the outside in turn one and had a plan. You never know if it works out but his high-low move was one of world standard. Going into the turn in 8th and coming out in 3rd. Martijn Scherpen was picking himself up and got passed by Pablo Gutierrez (FRA) on the second straight as well but executed the high-low in the second turn to get back into fourth. Rob van den Wildenberg (NED) slid out in the first turn and his chance for a good position was over.

Prokop was leading going into the last 180 turn. Lakucs made a move on Allier for second and with a little elbow work he got the second spot. Allier lost some balance and speed and Martijn Scherpen noticed this and sprinted to the finish line to grab third in front of Allier, Kartfjord, Hamon, Gutierrez and Van den Wildenberg.

Elite men: 1. Michal Prokop CZE 2. Ivo Lakucs LAT 3. Martijn Scherpen NED 4. Thomas Allier FRA 5. Sebastian Kartfjord NOR 6. Thomas Hamon FRA 7. Pablo Gutierrez FRA 8. Rob van den Wildenberg NED.

The first weekend of February the BMX circuit will go to Fredericia, Denmark for round 5-6 of the European Championships followed by a round in France, Switzerland and Germany. The Olympic spots have not been given out just yet but things are boiling.

BdJ

Elite Women
1 Shanaze Reade
2 Laëtitia Le Corguille/FRA
3 Anne Caro Chausson/FRA
4 Jana Horakova/CZE
5 Romana Labounkova/CZE
6 Lieke Klaus/NED
7 Cyrielle Convert/FRA
8 Aurélia Don

Junior Men
1 Vincent Pelluard/FRA
2 Toms Skujins/LAT
3 Andre Aquiluz/NOR
4 Jan Svub/CZE
5 Jordan Lajmi/FRA
6 Jelle Van Gorkom/NED
7 Kenny Smulders/NED
8 Joris Daudet/FRA

Junior Women
1 Eva Ailloud/FRA
2 Gaëlle Charpentier/FRA
3 Elke Van hoof/BEL
4 Dana Sprengers/NED
5 Manon Valentino/FRA
6 Armonie Sailly/FRA
7 Esther Leroy/FRA
8 Joyce Seesing/NED