Luis Rosas from Mexico went on a trip to Bogota, Colombia with his bike and camera. The city has a ton of great spots to offer and a good scene. One of the riders he hooked up with was Sebastian Baez aka Casco, who's an absolute beast on his bike. Here are some crazy clips the two managed to stack at some equally crazy concrete parks. Muy caliente!
Tercera edición del Sunday Session de Colombiaflat, en esta ocasión con el apoyo de 430 FOUR THIRTY y la participación de HIROSHI UEHARA.
UCI BMX Racing World Cup Standings after 7 Rounds. Are we going to see any changes in the standings with one more round to go today? With 500 points for a win in Elite Men and 165 points for a win in U23, it is still possible for athletes to move up (or down) in the final classification after today. Make sure to watch it.
Elite Men standings:
1 ANDRE Sylvain FRA 2335 points
2 WOOD Cameron USA 1879
3 WHYTE Kye GBR 1738
4 RENCUREL Jérémy FRA 1690
5 KENNEDY Izaac AUS 1687
6 ARBOLEDA Diego COL 1594
Elite Women standings:
1 SMULDERS Laura NED 3290 points
2 CLAESSENS Zoe SUI 2488
3 SHRIEVER Bethany GBR 2007
4 VEENSTRA Manon NED 1439
Round 7. Finals results UCI BMX Racing World Cup Bogota
Elite Men:
1 Joris DAUDET FRA 32.037 500.00 UCI ranking points
2 Kye WHYTE GBR 32.646 430.00
3 Alfredo CAMPO ECU 32.798 370.00
4 Izaac KENNEDY AUS 32.861 318.00
5 Juan RAMIREZ COL 33.443 273.00
Let me start this by saying it was great to see the passion for BMX that several people in Bogotá showed. BMX truly is a worldwide activity and with 10 BMX shops in town, Bogota is certainly a big part of it. Once again Sebastian and Esteban Palencia picked me up to show more of what the city had to offer. We first visited a sports facility with indoor pool, soccer fields, basketball courts and 3! skateparks. It was 'skateboard day' meaning no bikes were allowed. But on BMX day, no skateboarding is allowed. This way the parks see good activity. In other parts of town the NO BMX day corresponds with a YES BMX day so it is possible to ride different parks during the week. The three concrete parks had something to offer for everyone. A pool section, one with two box jumps and another one with smaller ramps. If you would take a few elements of all three it would be an amazing place for a Park
Fly fishing. I've never done it and I don't know how it works, but when I got the chance to tag along with Pedro, Craig and Max I went for it. Something new I'm always up for it. Little did I know that the plan was to leave the hotel at 04:20am to beat traffic. But Pedro had his vehicle well prepared with fresh coffee and breakfast sandwiches which was really nice. It was dark when we made it up north so not much of the environment could be enjoyed at that point. The roads are a mess in
On the first day off in Bogotá the plan was to meet up with Hiroshi Euhara and the Palencia brothers to see what the local BMX freestyle scene had to offer. When Esteban and Sebastian told me there were at least 10 core BMX shops I was surprised to hear that. We first stopped at Fuel BMX Distribution. They import brands like Federal, Tallorder and Fiction BMX and have 'core products from several other brands available at their shop. Entering the shop it felt like a real BMX shop which offered only BMX Freestyle products. Fuel distro has been supporting the scene for many years and it was a good first stop of the day.
Up next was a shop called Stike, located at Cra 52a #45a-29sur in Bogota. Also here the feeling was
The reason for me being in Bogotá is the UCI BMX Racing World Cup. Working with the media has been something I've done for many years now at these races and it's great to get on the road a couple of times a year to see the best BMX racing in real life. The work isn't too complicated but on arrival on Friday the media centre did not exist, we had no wifi, tables, chairs or anything that normally makes up the media centre at these events. The media tent was used for the medical centre or team Colombia who had priority over media on Friday. Come Saturday all was good and work could be done by local (Colombian) media as well as the international press that made it to the first Olympic Qualifier weekend for BMX Racing.
What makes races in Colombia so special is the crowd. Anything is better with an enthusiastic crowd in the grandstands. It was clear that Mariana Pajon and Carlos Ramirez are the national BMX heroes but after doing several BMX clinics in Colombia Niek Kimmann has his fair share of fans as well. Unfortunately for the fans Carlos Ramirez had two bad racing days with crashes. The good thing is that two more UCI World Cup rounds will be held on the same track that has his name on it. 1-2 October it's redemption time for Carlos so everyone watch out. Niek Kimmann added some fans after winning on Saturday. Sunday didn't go as well. Mariana was consistent but missed out on a podium this weekend.
So after checking the BMX track it was back in the shuttle to go back to the hotel. But instead of going to the room it was time for lunch first. Being on the road you never know what happens with food. I did take a banana to the track that I confiscated from Schiphol Airport Lounge 25 and imported into Colombia without thinking twice. Now that I bring this up it reminds me of a story when Michael Steingraeber went to the USA and had two oranges in his hand luggage. After ticking the question with a NO on important meat or vegetables, he had to pay $25 per orange before making it into the USA. Luckily Colombia isn't like the USA and that banana came into handy after lunch never showed up at the track and it wasn't before 15:30hr before we got some food after the 8am breakfast. I'm not complaining here, just indicating how things work in the field. It's never a walk in the park and
Through the UCI I've been lucky enough to be present at the UCI BMX Racing World Cups. With previous rounds over the years happening closer to home in Belgium, England, Italy, France, Netherlands, and Sweden, we now made it over to Bogota, Colombia. The 05:10am alarm clock gave me 20 minutes to get ready to leave the house for the 10 minute walk to the nearest train station at Helmond-Brandevoort. In Eindhoven I switched trains to Utrecht where the announcement came that a defect train was on the rails in between Utrecht and Amsterdam-Centraal. Luckily enough the train to Schiphol wasn't affected by it so I made it to the airport at 07:27hr, in time for the 10:10hr departure on the straight flight to the city of Bogota.
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.