Last round of the 2013 UCI World Cup!
So I have been in Belgium for the last round of the UCI Trials World cup, held in the city centre of Antwerp. The competition has been held here for 4 uyears in a row now and has gotten better every year. It was a great turn out with 130 of the best riders in the world from 19 countries! The sections were set out really well, if a little confusing with so many turns, but it made for a very technical competition. I qualified in 4th place with just 8 points in total. In the semi finals I had a great first lap and with is 4th place with just 5 penalty points. But I made a mistake in the rock section which cost me 5 extra points on the second lap which dropped me all the way to 10th place! the results were so close, just one 1 point less and I would have been in the final! I finished on the same points as the Hungarian Champion Lazlo Hegedus and he sneaked ahaead of me with more cleans. This leaves me in 10th place in the world cup at the end of the season. After only competing in one round last year I was in 40th place or something at the start of the year, so I have done well to climb back up through the ranks. Now its time to train hard through the winter and come back even stronger next year.
I wen tround the finals with fellow british rider Jack Carthy, this years Junior World Champion. After dropping 15 points on his first lap he had allot to make up on the second lap to get to the Super-Finals, but he did it, with just 3 points!!! All of which were on time! So he cleared every obstacle an went through in 1st place, just one point infront of Gilles Coustellier. Jack rode like a machine in the super final dropping just 6 points in the 4 sections and won the competition 10 points clear of 2nd place! Jack is the first new winner of a major international competition in 10 years! breaking the rign of Gilles Coustellier, Vincent Hermance and Kenny Beleay. And he is just 17 years old! i think he has a great future ahead of him and it also gives me great motivation for next year. Huge well done to jack for his efforts and he finishes in 3rd place in the world cup at the end of the season.
Concrete Section
Harbour section, thanks to Marc Coen for the photo!
After Jack took the win, thanks to Tribal Zine for the photo!