It’s almost the final weekend of the 2018 Baku Worlds, late Saturday night will see the best of the best do battle but who will ultimately earn the right to wear the rainbow strips for the next 12 months? We definitely needed predictions … everyone loves predictions! But when we tried to come up with the last eight Elite Men and Women on the gate come Saturday night we couldn’t agree … we could more or less agree on the podium but not the final eight …
We needed someone way more ‘in the know’ than us, someone with the inside scoop, someone who’s in that small group of world class shredders, someone who’s not afraid to say what they think … so, obviously, we hit up USA’s Nic Long … he agreed straight away.
We were surprised that he didn’t include himself, we think he’ll be in the last race on Saturday night … maybe he just didn’t want to tempt fate …
Before we got into the nitty gritty of who’s going to walk away with titles we asked Nic why the European’s, with the exception of both Alise Willoughy and Anthony Dean, have been dominating on the international circuit this year … ‘I don’t think there’s much secret behind it … as in we all train pretty similarly and are top notch in our classes. I think what It comes down to is the ability and opportunities these have gotten to spend time on each of the tracks prior to the races. Most (if not all) major national teams have done camps on the WC tracks prior to each event … which would absolutely aide in results for each event.’
So, who is the Worlds track in Baku going to suit, not many have gotten the chance to ride the new layout prior to the Worlds, ‘The track, to me, looks rather basic but super-fast. It looks like we’re going to be able to really open it up down the first straight and make sure to keep it together through the whole track. So, I think it’ll be suited for someone like Niek and possibly Deano.’
On the Jr. Elite side of the coin, Nic, as you’d probably expect, is not as ‘in the know’ as he is on the Elite gang but since this is a prediction game … ‘Both Bryant White and Jesse Welch are great riders … Bryant’s got a strong head, so I got faith in him making something happen. Plus, he’s a Lakeside boy like me … but I think Izaac Kennedy will win It. Junior Women, not a single clue!’
When we asked Nic to go out on a limb and give us the 8 riders he thinks will be in the Elite Women’s and Men’s finals this year and if we should expect any surprises, like Harmsen in Papendal (until he crashed) … this is the list we got … ‘Joris H. will be fast for sure, but I think Deano will be turning some heads this year … not sure about injuries and not really in order, but …’
Elite Women
Alise Willoughby (Nic’s pick for the win)
Laura Smulders
Saya Sakakibara
Judy Baauw
Brooke Crain
Sarah Walker
Yaroslava Bondarenko
Simone Christensen
Elite Men
Niek Kimmann (Nic’s pick for the win)
Joris Daudet
Anthony Dean
Twan van Gendt
David Graf
Sylvain Andre
Corben Sharrah
Evgeny Komarov
Watch the Worlds Elite action unfold LIVE on Fifteen
