UCI World Championships Rock Hill – Elite Men

As always, at the UCI World Championships big names can start dropping early during the knockout stages in the Elite class and this year in Rockhill was no different. During the 1/8th, we saw the 2x Olympic Gold Medalist, Maris Strombergs, exit after looking good during the motos alongside his Supercross teammate Anthony Dean who went down in the first turn and was finished for the night.

During quarters, we lost the likes of Olympic Silver & Bronze medalists, Jelle van Gorkom and Carlos Ramirez, alongside Twan van Gendt, Tory Nyhaug and Australian National Champion, Kai Sakakibara who all went down. In the semis, both Kyle Evans and David Graf were swallowed up, leaving once again, current USA BMX, European and current World Champion, Joris Daudet lined up on the gate in lane 2 for the final with not only another rainbow jersey in his sight but also another major win here would almost put him right up there in the GOAT conversation, if that hasn’t happened already.

Joris had to fend off Chase teammate and current Olympic Gold Medalist, Connor Fields, along with Niek Kimmann, France’s Sylvain André and Corben Sharrah, who all have been riding well throughout the year and also looking in with a shot to grab the Worlds win. The others lined up on the gate… France’s Jeremy Rencurel, Bodi Turner and Equador’s former Junior World Champion, Alfredo Campo, riding strong following a few years of injury.

The Gate slammed down and before Daudet could get his second pedal in, André was on him shutting him down leaving it clear for an on-form, Corben Sharrah, to pull clear with the holeshot from lane 1 and put in a clean lap to his first rainbow jersey and a very popular win in front of the Rockhill crowd.  André made a charge down the last straight however not with enough to pass Corben but managed a good 2nd spot while Joris came from behind to pass Kimmann in the last turn and secured the 3rd spot on the podium in front of a packed South Carolina crowd.

Photo credit: bmxemotion.com.