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Experience the action of the Velosolutions UCI Pump Track World Championships Finals - Live from AREA47, Austria!

Area 47 hosted the LCQ for the 2023 UCI Pump Track World Championships. The indoor pump track facility will welcome the qualified riders from all over the world on 18 November. The Last Chance Qualifier was the last opportunity to be part of the event in 10 days' time. It was a pretty stacked field of riders for the LCQ and a massive thanks to the riders that already secured their tickets to the UCI World Final for taking it easy today.

Tanguy GRANDJEAN and Kristína NOVÁKOVÁ took the win in their respective categories in solid form to line up on November 18th for the big showdown. Fastest times for the day belonged to UCI World Champ Christa von Niederhaeusern in 13.985 and Tristan Borel in 12.749 secs.

The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and its partner Velosolutions announce that the 2023 Velosolutions UCI Pump Track World Championships, which were due to take place in Neuquén, Argentina, will now be held in Ötztal, in the Austrian regionof Tyrol. The date of the event –18 November –remains unchanged.

The 2023 Velosolutions UCI Pump Track World Championships will be held in the state-of-the-art indoor bike park at AREA 47, a theme park located at the entrance to the Ötztal, some 50km west of Innsbruck, which hosted the 2018 UCI Road World Championships and is the capital of Tyrol, a region which has

Switzerland, you did not disappoint! What a crowd, backflips for fun, some fine racing, and massive support today in Thal for not only the Qualifier but for the Swiss Champs, too. The Women’s race saw current Champ Christa von Niederhaeusern taking no prisoners as she secured yet another Qualifier win and took home the Swiss Champs. 2nd place and the ticket to the World Championships later this year went to young Slovakian rider Améllay Kissova.

In the Men's category, France's Thibault Dupont was definitely not going home without that World Final ticket in the bag. 2nd place and Swiss Champs went to Tristan Borel. Healing vibes to @anaia533 after a big crash in practice.

Results

Women

1. Christa VON NIEDERHÄUSERN

Thank you for an excellent day of racing Portugal! It was a big line-up today with some tight racing that went down to the wire. Sabina KOŠÁRKOVÁ current World no 2, cracked the win today in Loureira, securing her spot in Argentina in the Women’s Category in a time of 12.920 against Belgium's Julie HEUSEQUIN time of 12.935 in their final runs. A whole 0.015 seconds on the finish line, making the difference here today.

The young Slovakian rider Tommy MISKOLCI took the no 1 spot on the podium today against France's Thibault DUPONT with a 3rd place for Eddy CLERTÉ. It's really fantastic to see Eddy back out there after his massive crash in Chile at the World Final last year. Tommy secured his ticket to Neuquen

In sunny Shenyang in China, competitors from Japan, Russia, Canada, and China lined up for that ticket to Argentina. The Chinese riders and audience were really welcoming and supportive of the athletes from Japan and Russia, and it was Tetsuya Furuno from Japan, and Boris Ponomarev from Russia battling it out all day long in the Men's category. The Chinese riders put on a great show and showed a huge effort but eventually couldn’t match the two riders from Japan and Russia who would come out as the two finalists.

Tetsuya, finalist in the other qualifier in Deqing earlier this year, put up a fierce battle against Boris in his quest for the winner’s ticket to Argentina, but would play 2nd fiddle once again and miss out on the top spot with Boris setting the fasted time of the day in the final run.

Italy, you beautiful thing! Thank you for hosting at your new, incredible venue @vittoriapark_official , we could not have asked for a more immaculate setting for the Italian Qualifier. In the Women’s category it was current World Champ Christa von Niederhaeusern who took no prisoners and showed exactly why she is wearing those rainbow stripes by securing her 1st place on the podium in a time of 20.438 against newcomer Zoe Feuvrier from France. It was a third place for Slovakia’s Kristína NOVÁKOVÁ and a 4th for Sara FARINA.

Local rider Mattia Costerman secured his place in Argentina in a time a time of 18.630 against

Thank you China. What an excellent way to kick off the 2023 race for the rainbow stripes! The monster of a @velosolutions Pump Track in Deqing played host and 425m in total length of track set the scene for the showdown today. In the Men's category, local rider Chen Jiayang took the winners ticket to Argentina with a time of 45.71 against Japan's Tetsuya Furuno. Tesuya's final lap time came in at 46.64 sec. It was a fierce battle between the two riders all day long, but that number 1 belonged to Chen after a very long day of racing.

In the Women's category the trip to Neuquen in November belonged to Zhao Wanting. She was the fastest qualifier and consistently kept that lead right through to the end to take the top step on the podium.

Results:

The new season of the UCI Pump Track World Championships is kicking off soon, 4 weeks to go to the first race day!

The below dates are already open for registration:

-Deqing, China on April 29th
-Paris, Texas USA on April 29th
-Fussen, Germany on May 6th
-Middelkerke, Belgium on May 13th
-Hawick, United Kingdom on May 21st
-Saint Laurent de la Salanque, France on May 21st
-Vittoria Bike Park, Italy on May 28th
-Shenyang, China on July 29th
-Loureira, Portugal on July 29th
-Thal, Switzerland on September 2nd
-Isaberg, Sweden on September 9th
-Heipark, Czech Republic on September 16th

A few more races that will be announced in the upcoming weeks.

While in Switzerland for the MXGP we also managed to find a Velosolutions pump track in the town the Grand Prix was held. This one was actually huge and had two sections; one for beginners and a longer one for more advanced users. The fence around it defined the spot and keeps lunatics in cars or other large vehicles out of the pump track. Sounds strange, but we've seen photos.....

Once again the Velosolutions pump track was well designed with no flat sections or misplaced turns. The triple turn was cool as well as you were leaning into that turn three times and generated speed at the same time to jump the three doubles right after it.