2016 UCI Supercross Round 2 | Manchester

9 April 2016

Even with a few notables missing from the gate, Fields with a broken wrist he sustained in practice, Van Gendt’s suspect broken collarbone, Willoughby and Strombergs deciding to skip this round, you could still not come close to predicting the final in Elite Men.  Half the field making their first main event at a UCI World Cup. Jaspers, Navrestad, Evans and Blanc where all in new territory now.

Strangely, the race favourite, Liam Phillips, was over in gate 3 but predictably came out first and shut off both Nick Long and Corben Sharrah in lanes 1 and 2 … it’s probably worse having Phillips outside you in Manchester! Kyle Evan’s took advantage of the extra room and tucked in right behind Phillips with Switzerland’s Renaud Blanc diving under everyone else to take up third, and that’s how it stayed for the rest of the race.

Evan’s podium probably means he has one hand firmly on GB’s current second Olympic spot. Blanc has also caused the Swiss Olympic selectors a headache, their spot was heading straight for W3 David Graf but Blanc’s third in Manchester makes the decision harder … much harder.

Norway’s Tore Navrestad is also hitting form … and new heights, just in time for the Worlds in Colombia where he’ll be looking for one of the three Olympic places up for grabs there. Sixth in Manchester was impressive but it’s hard to look past Liam Phillips and his fourth win on the bounce at a UCI World Cup in Manchester for the highlight of the event.

As usual the Elite Women’s main was a who’s who of women’s BMX. Alise Post had been the fastest women on the track all weekend, taking the win in the Super Time Trial on Saturday night. In the final she got out the quickest and it looked like that was it. In lane 2, Olympic Gold medallist, Pajon didn’t have a good first 15m’s leaving Australia’s Caroline Buchanan to land in second place after the first jump. World number 1, Hernadez in third, went down HARD along with Pajon at the end of the first straight leaving space for Denmark’s Christensen chasing down the leaders.

Post, Buchanan and Christensen … that’s how it should have ended but right before the line Post made an uncharacteristic error getting a roller all wrong and hit the deck, gifting the podium to Buchanan, Christensen and Crain.

Next stop Papendal …

Photos: BMX Mania | John Evans | www.i2ipix.co.uk | Craig Dutton

Video: BMX Live.tv