The first round of the British Cycling National BMX Series 2012 was held at the impressive new Manchester Indoor Arena. A fantastic venue, track and infrastructure which must make it one of the most enviable BMX venues in globally!
Ethan
With the forthcoming 2012 World`s in Birmingham later this year, Ethan made the decision to ride up an age group so he could gain as much experience riding clips prior to the event.
With a class stacked with some real talent, it was always going to be a battle just to make it through to the finals. However he rose well to the challenge and put in some strong rides to take wins in the 1st. 3 qualification moto`s. He repeated the same for the ¼ finals and also the semi which came down to a closely fought race to the finish line.
Feeling confident for the final, he made a good gate but didn`t quite get a clear run to the 1st. Jump which lost him a little speed down the 1st. Straight. A closely fought battle again rewarded him with a well deserved 2nd. place.
Off to Belgium next weekend and back on to flats for the UEC European round. Will keep you posted.
Aaron
Aaron chose to ride up this year, to give him a little more experience before the World Championships held in May.
His moto’s and semi final went well, which took him through to the final.
Aaron had 4th pick on the gate and made some great moves in the first turn and with another good move in the final turn, it was a close race to the finish line but had to settle for 4th place. A good day’s racing though.
Lauren
It was the first National of the 2012 season. I was very much looking forward to racing again. As this was only a single race, I had a lot of practice on Saturday.
Sunday came and I was given gates 2, 6 and 4. In the first and second moto I got 2nd place and in the final moto I claimed a 1st place. I had semis this weekend and I was in the first semi. I had second pick so went for gate three. In the semi, I got second place however this meant I had 4th pick in the final.
In the final I ended up with gate three. This turned out to be not very good as I got boxed in at the start. Despite this, I still managed to get 4th but I wasn’t too pleased with this. There is still 4 more races at Manchester so plenty of time to do well!
Ryan
It was the start of the 2012 National Series and I was raring to go after a good winter of training out in the USA. After a good practice sessions on Saturday I couldn’t wait for the racing on Sunday.
Sunday morning came around and it was time to get Round 1 of the 2012 national series underway. The day started off well with great positives picking up and 1st in Moto 1. This form continued throughout the rest of the motos and picked up another two 1st places. We had 17 riders in our age group so we had Semi Finals. I had first pick after the motos so went in gate 3 and had a good gate, and continued good speed around the track and picked up a 2nd so progressed through to the final in a confident mood.
In the final I chose gate 5 but messed up my gate a bit. I was stuck in the middle of the pack and picked up 5th place. I was disappointed with this result as I felt I could of done better but it’s time to look forward to the next race.
Jordan
Day 1 of Manchester Elite open, I was fired up to race the Europeans and quite a few Olympians. Moto1 went well not getting the best gate but a smooth lap in a tough race I ended up finishing 5th. Moto2 I ended up crashing on the last straight taking a big knock leaving me with concussion when I was in 3rd; I felt really good up to that point as this was my first race back from injury!
I look forward to the next national rounds in manchester and will be hoping to achieve my goals.
Check out Spence’s photographs below:
Tags: indoor bmx, manchester
