Central Otago BMX riders are expecting a home track advantage as they set their abilities in opposition to some of New Zealand’s best this end of the week. The BMX New Zealand 2022 South Island Titles start in Cromwell today, in excess of 290 riders from all through the nation set to contend, including around 70 from the North Island.

The most youthful rider is 4 years of age and the most established is accepted to be in their 70s.

Cromwell BMX Club financier Tracy Huband said the club had been planning for quite some time to have the occasion – no mean accomplishment for a club just framed in 2016 and bragging “around 35 riders”.

“It’s immense – it’s a serious honor truly,” she said.

The club worked with the Cromwell Bike Park to set up the track for the occasion, tarsealing the corners a year prior and afterward raising support and looking for sponsorship.

For club president Mouse James facilitating the occasion was about BMX hustling as well as an open door to grandstand the Cromwell people group.

“It shows a ton of children that can’t do all the movement, and can’t get to every one of the meets, what the bigger occasions resemble,” he said.

“What I love about the game is everybody can have some good times at whatever stage in life – I think the most established rider is 73.

“It’s incredible – they’re having a good time and that is the most compelling thing,” he said.

He was glad to see the difficult work of the club and volunteers meet up for the occasion.

“Also presently we have [the track] finished everybody is remarking the way that quick and how smooth it is,” he said.

Hustling begins at 11am today and section is free for people in general.

The 2022 World BMX Championships are set to run from July 27 to 31. The four girls are guaranteed to get a spot while a couple of boys, Ryder Walsh and Peyton Wood, have a chance to join them if they place well in their qualifiers.

Men Elite Final | 2021 UCI BMX Racing World Championships

Four members of the St. Albert BMX Club are preparing to head to Nantes, France, to compete in the 2022 BMX World Championships this July.

Ariana van Leeuwen, 11, Aaliyah van Leeuwen, 12, Hailyn Walsh, 8, and Gretchen Hook, 9, were the four girls to qualify from the club. All four riders earned the honour after placing well in August’s Canadian nationals in Calgary.

The World Championships are set to feature more than 3,000 riders from 45 different countries.

Angela van Leeuwen, vice-president of the club, said everyone is excited about the representation at Worlds.

“We are really excited,” said van Leeuwen. “We haven’t really done anything more than provincials until last year so the girls competing at this level hasn’t really crossed our minds until now.”

The cold and snow have stopped the riders from getting out onto the track to practice right now. Instead, all four of them are partaking in some winter activities to keep fit and ready for when the time comes.

“We are doing basically any winter sport right now,” said Walsh. “Mostly at home, we will do sledding and we are also really big skiers.”

The 2022 World BMX Championships are set to run from July 27 to 31. The four girls are guaranteed to get a spot while a couple of boys, Ryder Walsh and Peyton Wood, have a chance to join them if they place well in their qualifiers.

Bailee Enlow was 6 years old when she first tagged along with her older brother, Tanner, to a BMX competition.She was hooked.For the next 13 years, Enlow has biked all over the country, earning a college scholarship at Marian Univer. Bailee Enlow was 6 years old when she first tagged along with her older brother, Tanner, to a BMX competition.

She was hooked. Worlds is the biggest race that happens every year. There were people there from 40-plus countries. There were a lot of Colombian and Australian riders.

For the next 13 years, Enlow has biked all over the country, earning a college scholarship at Marian University in Indianapolis because of her skill.

This weekend in Rock Hill, S.C., she achieved a career highlight in the sport.

Participating in the BMX World Championship for the first time, the 19-year-old Grand Forks Red River graduate reached the finals on Friday, July 29, and came away with a fifth-place finish out of 92 competitors from across the globe in the women’s 17-24 division.

Enlow had to go through two qualifying rounds, then finish top four in eight-person groups in the eighths, quarterfinals and semifinals to reach the finals.

“It’s been crazy,” Enlow said. “I don’t even know what to say. The whole day was kind of a blur to be honest. Every round was as exciting as the next. It was definitely stressful getting out of the rounds. You have to finish in the top four or you are done. It was a lot of fun and definitely the most fun race I’ve ever participated in.

“It was so cool. I had so many people texting me that they were watching online. My whole family is here. My grandparents were here, too. It was really exciting to keep going.”

Enlow hasn’t ever competed in the BMX World Championships because they haven’t been in the United States in 16 years. Last year it was in Colombia. Next year, it is in Azerbaijan.

But she had big hopes for this competition.

She has competed in Rock Hill before, so she had some familiarity with the course.

2022 see’s some interesting format changes to the UCI BMX World Championships in both the Challenge and Championship classes . The 2021 UCI BMX World Championships did not go to plan in fact we were lucky there was an event at all due to Covid19. But, for 2022 the UCI are already working behind the scenes to make the World Championships due to be held from July 26th – 31st, in Nantes, France, bigger and better. We already know of some major format changes that will take effect in France for both the Challenge and Championship classes.

The big one in the Challenge and Masters Classes and one that we think will broadly be welcomed is the introduction on mixed or scrambled motos meaning you’ll races different competitors in each of your three qualifying motos. These motos will be seeded we assume from the previous World Championships who remembers Zolder 2019! This represents a return to a more traditional moto format and in the grand scheme of things, an overall fairer format.

The Championship / Elite Classes will also see a change to the race format. The three Elite motos of past World Championships are to be replaced with the system used in the UCI World Cup series. One qualifying round where the top four move on to the knockout stages and the remaining riders move on to the Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) round, where the top two riders move on to the knockout stages the rest go home.

While the fans miss out on the three-moto action the format is more familiar to the Championship riders, especially those on the UCI circuit. We hit up Swiss National Coach, David Graf, for his thoughts on the change, ‘Finally! Now we only have to advance this system to get full racks and I‘m all happy. My suggestion is Round 1, then LCQ – but not taking all top twos. Just take the amount of riders to fill up the 1/8 finals. Let’s say after round 1 we have 52 riders that made it through. Then the rest of the field is fighting for the remaining 12 spots based on rank and times. And we now have full gates from the 1/8s all the way thru to the main’.

Another change in the Championship class at Worlds level is the introduction of the Under 23 class to the event. This will add a potential 152 extra riders to the weekend schedule, 72 women and 80 men.

The UCI have also clarified a question we heard a lot this year regarding the Under 23 class and Elite riders deciding to ‘race down’ ‘At any stage during the calendar year (01 January to 31 December) if a rider aged between 19 to 22 enters a UCI BMX World Cup or UCI BMX World Championships in the Elite category, that rider must enter all future events in the Elite category. The rider may choose to return to the Under 23 category in the following calendar year, however all points earned in the Elite category will remain in the Elite ranking and not transfer to the Under 23 ranking.’ Interestingly, the UCI are placing more importance on the Under 23 class when it comes to Olympic Qualification, previously the Junior class riders could gather points but for the upcoming Olympic qualification cycle, it will be a nations 3 best Elite/Under 23 riders who will be in the points chase. Start paying more attention to that Under 23 class!