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PRO Title Chase Update 2018
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OH, WE’RE HALFWAY THERE
The end of June has passed, so it is time to take a look back at the first half of the 2018 USA BMX season. How have the A Pro, Vet Pro, Women Elite, and Men Elite Series’ been shaping up?
by Jacob Smith
Oh, we’re halfway there. It is not just the main lines in a huge hit song by Bon Jovi, but it is also a statement representing just how much of the USA BMX season is in the rearview mirror. January, February, March, April, May, and now June have all passed. That’s six months of racing action that has taken place all across the United States of America -- Arizona, Florida, New Mexico, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Illinois, to be exact. Seven rounds down, six to go for the USA BMX Pros. Around 200 different pro riders have earned points so far this season, and the chase for the four biggest honors in American BMX has only heated up with each passing race.
What’s going on right now?
Right now, it has been about three weeks since the last pro round for USA BMX, which was the Midwest Nationals in Rockford, Illinois. Menardo Simon controlled the weekend in A Pro with 1-2 Main Event scores, while UCI World Champion Tyler Brown and defending Vet Pro Champion Cristian Beccerine traded 1sts and 2nds in the Vet Pro class. As for Women Elite, Felicia Stancil and Lauren Reynolds each took wins while current points leader Alise Willoughby was absent, and in Men Elite it was Corben Sharrah impressively topping Joris Daudet for the win on both days.
Here’s how the Top 5 currently looks for all four disciplines of Pros:
PTS: | A-Pro | Vet Pro | Elite Women | Elite Men | |
1 | Kamren Larsen | Cristian Beccerine | Alise Willoughby | Joris Daudet | |
2 | Walker Finch | Luciano Roque | Brooke Crain | Corben Sharrah | |
3 | KJ Romero | Larry Dardini | Felicia Stancil | Trent Jones | |
4 | Izaac Kennedy | Jonathan Suarez | Lauren Reynolds | Anderson Filho | |
5 | Makieva Hopson | Howard Johnson | Ashley Verhagen | Corey Reid |
These standings need to be expanded upon, and how these riders ended up where they are needs to be explained. In order to do that, it is time to go back to the beginning…
WINTER NATIONALS
What better place to kick off the USA BMX Pro Series than in the always reliable Phoenix, Arizona? Black Mountain BMX played host to the first of thirteen rounds for the Pros on February 16th and 17th, and with a lot of anticipation for the season coming from an exciting 2017 campaign, the weekend had a lot to live up to. Well, to put it simply, the weekend lived up to all of the hype.
In A Pro (which is not technically a USABMX Championship discipline, but rather just a pro series where points are still kept and riders are ranked), 28 riders showed up to compete for the top spot on the podium on both Friday (the 16th) and Saturday (the 17th). On Friday, Haro/US Development’s Kamren Larsen held of the early charge of Nicolas Palacios Munoz for the main event win, while Justin Knapper nabbed third. Saturday saw Larsen repeat as the winner, but this time he just barely held off Tyler Brown from the last turn to the finish line for the win, while Brendan O’Brien took third. All in all, Larsen earned 536 points from the weekend, which put him solidly at the top of the A Pro rankings.
Vet Pro and Women Elite also saw the same winners on Friday and Saturday. For Vet Pro, defending champion Cristian Becerine went 1-1, while defending Women Elite champion Alise Willoughby (formerly Alise Post) swept her class. Tim Kneip and Kenth Fallen finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively, on both days for Vet Pro, while Brooke Crain and Ashley Verhagen swapped 2nd and 3rds over the weekend for Women Elite (which featured 23 and 22 riders).
By far the most action from the weekend came in the Men Elite class. 44 of the world’s best showed up for the Winter Nationals, including former two-time Men Elite Champion Joris Daudet, 2017 World Champion Corben Sharrah, and 2017 Men Elite Champion Connor Fields. On Friday, Daudet, Sharrah, Fields, Anthony Dean, Tory Nyhaug, Corey Reid, Zack Vankammen, and Sylvain Andre lined up on the gate for the main event. Sharrah took the holeshot while Fields pulled a good start from the outside, but after Daudet took a spot away from Fields on the inside of turn one, Fields was involved in a three-rider crash with Dean and Vankammen. That left Sharrah, Daudet, and Andre to go 1-2-3 around the rest of the track, while Fields and Vankammen took some to regroup from the fall.
Day #2 brought less chaos but better action, as a dream battle between Sharrah, Daudet, and Fields took place throughout the entire main event race. Daudet beat out Sharrah and Fields to the first turn, and everyone waited in anticipation for Fields to find a way to make a move around Sharrah and go after Daudet. Despite Fields’ best efforts, Sharrah held down the #2 spot all race long, and he even nearly nipped Daudet at the finish line. Meanwhile, Fields took third, just ahead of Anthony Dean.
Day #1 Pro Mains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1i9tD9zXxo (31:00-50:00, no Vet Pro)
Day #2 Pro Mains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYx6zfqKItg&t=877s (5:00-15:00)
GATOR NATIONALS
Stop number two on the USA BMX Pro Circuit came in beautiful Oldsmar, Florida, at Oldsmar BMX. A ton of professional riders showed up to take on the Florida track on the first day of the National, including 36 in A Pro and 51 in Men Elite. At the end of the day, an awesome battle to the line ensued in the A Pro main event between Izaac Kennedy and Cedric Butti, with Kennedy taking the slight win (and Gil Brunner taking third). For Men Elite, more intense action led to Daudet’s second win of the season, although this one came just barely in front of a hard-charging Sylvain Andre. David Graf took third, while Corben Sharrah ended up eighth.
For Vet Pro and Women Elite, it was The Becerine and Willoughby Show again on Friday, though not by their typical dominant standards. Willoughby found herself in third with two sections left in her main event, and in an unbelievable charge, she managed to get around Lauren Reynolds and Axelle Etienne to just barely nab her third straight win. Becerine, meanwhile, did not grab the holeshot in Vet Pro, which just about never happens (he is nicknamed “Dr. Holeshot,” after all). Instead, Jonathan Suarez took the holeshot, and he also hit the pro-set while in the lead, while Becerine opted for the left side. The two were bar-to-bar heading into the third straight, and using his line to perfection, Becerine pushed himself into the lead and finished on the top spot of the podium again. Suarez was second, and Carlos Manrique-Montesinos was third.
With all of that crazy action on Day #1, what could be left for Day #2? How about the return of the defending USA BMX Men’s Elite Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist to the top of the podium? That is just what happened in the Men Elite main event, as Connor Fields, who was not even in the main event on Friday, took the Saturday win. Also on the podium were Jeremy Rencurel and Anderson De Souza Filho, while Daudet was eighth and Sharrah was off of the main event start list. In A Pro, 34 riders vied for the top spot this time, and it was KJ Romero beating out Kennedy and Michael Gonzales for the win.
Women Elite saw a similar result to Friday in that Willoughby, Etienne, and Reynolds took up the podium, but this time Reynolds was in the two-spot, and Etienne was in the three. Vet Pro on Saturday was possibly the biggest surprise of the pro weekend, as Cristian Becerine was defeated for the first time all season, and he even ended up off of the podium! Instead, Jonathan Suarez got redemption for Friday with a win, and Manrique-Montesinos and Larry Dardini rounded out the podium.
Day #1 Pro Mains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah3NK6DpS4o&t=1292s (21:00-33:30)
Day #2 Pro Mains: Video Not Found
SPRING NATIONALS
Next up for the pros was Albuquerque, New Mexico, and more specifically, Duke City BMX. The Spring Nationals saw a decent turn out for the pros, and while the numbers did not match up with the first two rounds of the season, the action was still there. Before the Spring Nats are addressed, a big shake-up occurred before this race in the Men’s Elite group. Defending champion Connor Fields crashed in a race on Sunday at the Gator Nationals while participating in the USA Cycling Elite BMX National Championships, and the fall left him a bit beaten up. In fact, as of this writing, Fields has yet to race another Men’s Elite main event on the USA BMX circuit.
Back to New Mexico, A Pro kicked things off with eighteen riders in the field. By the end of the night, it was the familiar face of Izaac Kennedy grabbing another holeshot and win, as he topped Tyler Brown and Layne Gainer on the podium. For Vet Pro, Cristian Becerine was back to his dominant ways with a clear-cut victory over Kenth Fallen and Justin McLintotck, and in Women Elite, it was once again Alise Willoughby earning the first place finish. However, Willoughby had to work for it, as 2nd place Brooke Crain gave her all she could handle until the finish line, while Mika Shaw finished third. Last but not least on Friday were the Men Elite, and pulling a great start from an inside gate was none other than Joris Daudet. Daudet went on to win the main over Max Cairns and Trent Jones, while Corben Sharrah just missed out on a podium in fourth.
Saturday kicked off with some utter chaos in the A Pro main event. The eight riders in the final were all bunched up going into turn one, and an incredible five-rider pileup ensued. Tomas Fernandez, Walker Finch, and Jordan Miranda survived the insanity and seemed set to coast to a podium finish, but Fernandez and Finch came bar-to-bar while battling for the lead down the third straight and it ended with Finch going down in the last turn! Miranda had nowhere to go and joined Finch on the ground in the last turn, and now all of a sudden KJ Romero was closing in on a potential podium after being down in the first turn! Hernandez, in his home town of Albuquerque, took the win, while Finch got back on his bike and pumped his way to a second place, and Romero just barely beat out a sprinting, yes, a sprinting Jordan Miranda for third.
Vet Pro was a repeat of Friday as Becerine-Fallen-McLintock landed on the podium, and that meant Mr. Becerine has impressively won five of the first six Vet Pro main events of the season. What’s more impressive than that? How about winning all six of the first main events? That is exactly what Alise Willoughby did in Women Elite, as she once again barely beat Brooke Crain to the line for the win after a solid battle, while Zoe Fleming took third behind them. Making it four out of six in Men Elite was Joris Daudet, as the Frenchman took another big win by inches over Sharrah, while Trent Jones scored another podium in third.
Day #1 Pro Mains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYP02aTmS80&t=3843s (56:30-1:04:15)
Day #2 Pro Mains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlkL4my85A8&t=1030s (9;30-17:15)
CAROLINA NATIONALS
Stop number four on the USA BMX Pro Series was the Carolina Nationals in Rock Hill, South Carolina (a/k/a the 2017 UCI World Championship location). The Rock Hill BMX Supercross Track is one of the more renowned courses in all of USA BMX, and so that could only mean that sending out some of the fastest professional BMX riders in the world would lead to great racing.
Fortunately, that’s exactly how Friday kicked off in the A Pro main event. Round 1 winner Kamren Larsen was back and grabbed the holeshot in a close battle with Walker Finch, but Larsen ended up missing one of the pro set jumps in the second straight and dropped back in the field. That left Finch and a charging KJ Romero to battle for the lead, but now it was Finch that bobbled on a big jump in the third straight, and that left Romero to ride away with the win. Also on the podium were Benjamin Leslie and Gaby Malenfant, who finished just mere inches apart from each other.
Women and Men Elite were next, and there were some familiar faces on the top step of the podium. Full Tilt’s Alise Willoughby nabbed her seventh straight 2018 main event win in front of an impressive Felicia Stancil and Lauren Reynolds in Women Elite, and Chase BMX/Elevn Racing’s Joris Daudet earned his third straight main event win by topping common foes Corben Sharrah and Trent Jones. Daudet actually did not get the best start off of the gate in his main event, but he used an incredible first turn move to get by Sharrah and Alfredo Campo to take the lead, which he would never give up.
Friday ended with Vet Pro, and in one of the best pro main events of the season, Cristian Becerine put on an incredible charge to barely catch Jonathan Suarez at the finish line. Becerine and Suarez had previously battled in Florida at the Gator Nationals, and their re-match in this race lived up to their previous encounters. Suarez grabbed the holeshot while Becerine was 4th coming out of the first turn. Becerine proceeded to make two passes look easy as can be in the second straight, and then he used all of the third and fourth straights to push his front wheel ahead of Suarez at the end. It was Becerine’s third straight main event win.
What did Day #2 bring? How about another awesome battle for the win, this time between Kamren Larsen and KJ Romero? Larsen nipped Romero at the line with a good last straight pull, and Tyler Klumper beat out Walker Finch for third just behind them. Holeshot winner Billy Russell ended up back in fifth after all of the top four riders passed him in the second turn, which is just another example of how wild an A Pro main event can get. Women Elite brought a good battle as well, although it was for the #2 spot. Checking out in front was Mrs. Willoughby, as she put on a clinic over the rest of the field in her eighth straight main event win. Felicia Stancil and Dani George were the two locked in a big battle for second, and after an impressive run on the outside through the third section, Stancil made the pass and George ended up on the pavement in the final turn. That shot Lauren Reynolds into third, which meant that the podium was the same for both days of the Carolina Nationals in Women Elite.
Men Elite was absolutely epic on Saturday in Rock Hill. Alfredo Campo once again had a great start, but unlike on day one, this time he brought it going down the second straight and took the lead going into the final turn. Just behind him were Daudet and Sharrah, who were in a big battle for second in the second turn, and Anderson De Souza Filho, who entered the battle in the third straight, setting up a four-rider battle for the lead going into that last turn. Sharrah tried to go low-high on Daudet, and Filho went high-low on Sharrah, which led to Campo taking the win, Daudet finishing in second, and Filho stealing third from Sharrah.
Vet Pro was once again a dual between Suarez and Becerine, as Suarez took the holeshot from “Dr. Holeshot.” It was a different story from Friday this time around, as Suarez matched Becerine jump for jump and held off the defending Vet Pro Champion to the line for the main event win. Carlos Manrique finished third to round out the Vet Pro podium.
Day #1 Pro Mains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JGvR8CJRVo&t=3521s (50:20-58:45)
Day #2 Pro Mains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jp0wq9tGUr8 (13:00-20:40)
DIXIELAND NATIONALS
Before diving into what went down at the Dixieland Nationals in Powder Springs, Georgia, it is time for a little points update after 4 of 13 rounds in the USA BMX Pro Series. KJ Romero, Kamren Larsen, and Izaac Kennedy were all pretty close in the battle for top spot in A Pro, as Romero and Kennedy had two wins, while Larsen had three. Vet Pro was being dominated by Cristian Becerine, who had six wins and somewhere in the ballpark of 1,700 points to his name. Becerine’s main rival, Jonathan Suarez, was second with his two victories, while Kenth Fallen was third. Obviously leading Women Elite was Alise Willoughby, as she sat a perfect eight-for-eight on the season. Lauren Reynolds and Brooke Crain rounded out the top three and were in a close battle for the two-spot. With five wins to his name, and at least one win in each of the four rounds, Joris Daudet led Men Elite with nearly 1,900 points. Mr. Corben Sharrah sat second with around 1,300 points, and then Sylvain Andre, Trent Jones, and Connor Fields were all pretty close in points in the battle for third.
How would the points get shaken up at the Dixieland Nats at Cobb County BMX? For starters, a new winner in A Pro emerged when Walker Finch scored a close main event win over Kamren Larsen. Just behind them, Brady Kincheloe took the final podium spot on his Factory Powers Bike Shop ride. Vet Pro was all the #100 bike of Cristian Becerine, who topped Luciano Correa Roque and William Peters for the win. Women Elite saw Brooke Crain give Alise Willoughby a run for her money again, but even with Crain on the inside on the gate, Willoughby still managed to earn the victory ahead of Crain and Ashley Verhagen. Men Elite saw another good battle take place between Joris Daudet and Corben Sharrah, and even though it was only by half of a tire length or so, Daudet was back to his winning ways on Day #1. Sharrah was 2nd, and Max Cairns was a very respectable third.
Saturday in Georgia was more of the same for Vet Pro and Women Elite. Becerine and Correa Roque were the top two for the Vets, while Willoughby and Crain were 1-2 for the ladies. The only change on the podium was the third place slot, which went to James Carter in Vet (Peters just missed another podium in fourth), and Felicia Stancil in Women. A Pro and Men Elite, however saw some shaking up of the top spot on Saturday. In A Pro, it was all Kamren Larsen, as he handled the field for his fourth win of the season ahead of Finch and Makieva Hopson. During the Men Elite main event, Joris Daudet got a mediocre start and fell to the back of the back. Daudet never could quite make up the ground he lost, and he finished seventh, which is what can happen to even the best of riders when dealing with a field as deep as Men Elite. Up front, Corben Sharrah held off Anderson De Souza Filho for his first win since the first race of the season, while Alfredo Campo held off a late pass attempt from Tanner Sebesta for third (Sebesta would finish fifth, as Max Cairns ended up beating him to the line for fourth).
Also, as just a special note, Women Elite beat out Men Elite in terms of rider count on Friday, 17 to 15, and Saturday, 17 to 13. Other than the A Pro class on Saturday, Women Elite was the most popular pro class of the entire weekend.
Day #1 Pro Mains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2YG6bP_tVQ&t=1201s (7:00-13:30, rough video feed)
Day #2 Pro Mains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt-UkOitc4U&t=461s (4:00-8:30, rough video feed)
MUSIC CITY NATIONALS
After Dixieland, A Pro was led by Kamren Larsen, and KJ Romero and Walker Finch were left in a close battle for second. Everything else stayed pretty standard at the top of Vet Pro, Women Elite, and Men Elite, although Sharrah did close the gap on Daudet a little bit in Men Elite. That would be a trend that continued for Sharrah at the Music City Nationals in Nashville, Tennessee.
There was no Daudet in Tennessee, so it was the perfect opportunity for Sharrah to make up some points on the Frenchman. With a great gate on Day #1, that is exactly what Sharrah did, as he led from holeshot to stripe ahead of Tanner Sebesta and Corey Reid. Day #2 was a different story, as Trent Jones took his first win of the year ahead of Billy Russell and Sharrah.
Other big pro action news from Tennessee came in the Vet Pro class, as the emergence of Tyler Brown, a/k/a TB316, began in Music City. Brown had done a couple of rounds in the A Pro class to start the year, and he even had earned a pair of podiums, but he earned his first win of 2018 in the Vet Pro Class on Friday in Tennessee. Brown beat out top dog Cristian Becerine to the holeshotin his race, and he led all the way to the finish line ahead of Becerine and third place finisher Luciano Correa Roque. Day two featured nearly the same podium, but it was Larry Dardini grabbing the three-spot, while Correa Roque was 4th. With two wins in two days over some top 33 year old-plus competition, TB316 had put the Vet Pro field on notice.
Putting the field on notice in A Pro in Music City was Hayden Fletcher, who went 1-1 over the weekend. Tyler Smith and Makieva Hopson finished on the podium on day one after a great battle that also involved Walker Finch, and then it was Ryan Zinzow and Brandon Roharik grabbing the 2 and 3 spots on day two. With Fletcher, Brown, and Sharrah making big noise in their classes in Tennessee, could someone in Women Elite finally put a stop to the dominance of Alise Willoughby? Well, to put it simply, no. Willoughby swept the weekend in Women Elite ahead of Brooke Crain and Felicia Stancil on both days, Crain was seemingly getting closer and closer to finally knocking “The Beast” off in a main event, but at least after the Music City Nats, Willoughby had only strengthened her grip on the USA BMX Women Elite class.
Day #1 Pro Mains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNbn6amP8es&t=1492s (18:00-26:45)
Day #2 Pro Mains: Video Not Found
MIDWEST NATIONALS
After the national weekend in Nashville, Tennessee, there were a lot of questions left to be answered. Could Corben Sharrah keep his momentum going if Joris Daudet was back on the gate? Would someone other than Alise Willoughby ever win a Women Elite main event again? Was Tyler Brown for real in the Vet Pro class? Would everyone see another new A Pro winner at the next round? By the end of the Midwest Nationals, the USA BMX world knew that the answer to all of these questions was YES.
To kick off the last pro round before the halfway break, 22 A Pros took to the track on Friday to battle for a main event win. Off the gate in the main, it was Menardo Simon, Nicolas Palacios Munoz, and Justin Knapper up front, with Layne Gainer and Walker Finch quickly closing in on the group. Simon held on for the win, his first of the season, while Palacios Munoz and Knapper rounded out the podium. Also on Friday, TB316 and Dr. Holeshot went at it again, and once again it was UCI World Champion Brown taking the win just ahead of Becerine. In third, Larry Dardini grabbed another podium finish.
Next was Women Elite, and someone other than Alise Willoughby did in fact win the main event, although it happened when Willoughby was not in attendance for the Midwest Nationals. That is not to take away from the women who did race in Rockford, Illinois, especially Felicia Stancil. Even without Willoughby (and Brooke Crain) the Women Elite class was still stacked with top-level talent in Rockford, and on Friday it was Stancil and Ashley Verhagen battling for the win. Stancil held on for first, while Verhagen was second, and Zoe Fleming was third (just ahead of Lauren Reynolds). The finale of the opening day was Men Elite, and it was time to see how Sharrah would handle the return of Daudet. Sharrah handled it wonderfully, as he grabbed a holeshot from the outside and took his Daylight Cycles ride to the stripe, while Daudet took the two-spot and Sean Gaian took the three.
Menardo Simon was right up front in A Pro again on Saturday, but it was Brandon Roharik grabbing the holeshot and holding off Simon for the main event victory. Layne Gainer was third, and that put him right up there in terms of who had the best overall weekend in A Pro (he was 4th on Day #1). Becerine vs. Brown IV was after A Pro, and the two jetted out in front of the field off the gate and into the first turn. Becerine held on for an outside holeshot ahead of Brown, and despite the presence of a quick Larry Dardini close behind in third, and a charge from Brown in the last section, Becerine found himself back on the top step of the podium.
The Women Elite podium saw a bit of a shakeup on day two at Rockford BMX. Amanda Carr grabbed the holeshot in front of Lauren Reynolds and Ashley Verhagen, and the three were 1-2-3 going into the last turn. Reynolds was determined to make a move on the outside, and while she did so successfully, Carr went down hard right in front of Verhagen. With nowhere to go, Verhagen went down, as did fourth place rider Rachel Mydock. The three-rider pileup let Reynolds speed away with the victory, and put Heather Collman and Dani George onto the podium in 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Day #1 winner Stancil ended up 4th thanks to the carnage.
Men Elite finished the day, and with a gate 8 start that many BMX riders only dream of pulling off, Sharrah grabbed another holeshot in front of Daudet and held off the Frenchman for his second main event win in as many days. Joshua McLean took an impressive third just ahead of Justin Posey, but the big news of the day was that Corben Sharrah was in fact for real.
Day #1 Pro Mains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5AyWlCfawE&t=472s (0:35-8:00)
Day #2 Pro Mains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVVyrduTw1I&t=581s (1:00-9:50)
What’s going on right now? (Cont.)
Now that the USA BMX Pro Series has been expanded upon through recap and review of its first seven rounds, it is time to wrap this up and get ready for the second half of the year. Here’s a final look at the four pro classes before signing off:
A PRO - His Rockford performance bumped him up to 8th, but Menardo Simon is just one rider in a long list of crazy talented A Pros. Currently leading the group with 1,405 points is Kamren Larsen, and trailing him by 274 points is Walker Finch. KJ Romero, Izaac Kennedy, and Makieva Hopson round out the top five.
VET PRO - Tyler Brown has gone 1-1-1-2 in the last four Vet Pro main events, but he is not listed in the Vet Pro standings at the moment on usabmx.com. As a result, it appears that “Rocky” Luciano Correa Roque is currently Cristian Becerine’s top challenger. Becerine leads with 1,760 points, and Correa Roque is a little less than 700 behind with 1,096. Larry Dardini sits in third, while Jonathan Suarez, is fourth (Becerine, Brown, and Suarez are the only three men to win a Vet Pro main this year). Rounding out the top five is Howard Johnson.
WOMEN ELITE - Will anyone straight up defeat Alise Willoughby at a USA BMX race this season? Time will tell, but right now “The Beast” is 12-for-12 in her main events, and she has 2,562 points to her name. Brooke Crain, Felicia Stancil, Lauren Reynolds, and Ashley Verhagen round out the top five, and even though the attention is squarely on Willoughby at the moment, these four ladies have been very fast this season, and it is realistic to think that one or more of them could unseat Willoughby in a main event at some point this season.
MEN ELITE - In 2017, the Men Elite points came down to a battle of Frenchman Joris Daudet and American Connor Fields. By season’s end, Fields had ended a nine-year drought for Americans by winning the Men Elite Championship, but Fields has been recouping from a rough early season fall since Round #2. In his place has been Corben Sharrah, and Sharrah has done one heck of a job keeping the American red, white, and blue at the front of the pack. Currently, Daudet leads Sharrah by just 127 points. If things stay like this, everyone could bear witness to another great title fight ending at the season finale in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Trent Jones, Anderson Filho, and Corey Reid round out the top five, while Tanner Sebesta, Alfredo Campo, Max Cairns, the golden man himself Connor Fields, and 2018 UCI World Champion Sylvain Andre look on in the rest of the top ten.
Here’s to a great second half of the season! USABMX.com hopes that everyone enjoyed this mid-season recap!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jacob Smith races out of New York as a 17-20 Intermediate ("at the moment"), along with his brother (who is 21-25 Inter). THey both rode when they were younger in the NBL days, and just recently returned to the sport they love.
Jacob is an avid writer, who has dabbled in sports media, writing in the past as part of cnywrestling.com - a website that covers high school wrestling in the central New York area, and newyorkwrestlingnews.com, which has a similar goal as cnywrestling.com, but is based more around New York State as a whole. Smith is currently enrolled at SUNY Cortland as an Adolescent Education: English major.