2005 UCI BMX World Championships

Paris, France July 29-31

Palais Omnisports de Paris Bercy

The 2005 UCI BMX World Championships here in France are going to be one of the best BMX world Championship events ever.

Bercy has had a long tradition for great BMX events, from 1984 to 1990 there was an event called the Bicross International de Paris that would have riders from around the world compete to sold out crowds of 16,500 plus. This event alone made many American Pro riders world famous. Many great events have been held inside of Bercy and the Pro riders that remember or have heard about past events are in great anticipation for the 2005 UCI World Championships.

The wait for one of the best tracks was a bit of a let down as the riders stepped inside of the Bercy center on Tuesday. Due to a small arena floor and building area, the track layout was built with just 4 strait away's and lacked the over hyped pro section that was shown on the track map 6 months ago. The U inside a U layout was built for speed racers, as it seemed to lack the usual tech sections that French BMX tracks are well known for. The track is challenging though and will make for some great horsepower racing on Friday night for the Pro Cruiser riders and on Saturday night, for the big show, for the Junior and Senior Elite Men and Women.

Here is a quick rundown of the entries to one of the biggest UCI World Championships ever-

Elite Men Racers- 146
Elite Women Racers-52
Elite Cruiser Racers- 78
Junior Men Racers - 98
Junior Women Racers- 39

Total # of entries – 2516

The UCI World Championships are about to kick off with the Cruiser Classes. Randy Stumpfhauser looks to make history as he is going for his 4th UCI World Title. If he is to do this, he will break the current record that he is tied for currently with Christophe Leveque.

Here is a look at the start and some of the track. This was at the start of practice and the arena was already 3/4 of the way full. The stadium seats 16,000. The fans love BMX in France. Check out the old school half pipe, where roller bladers and skate boarders did stunt shows during breaks in the race action. Speaking of old school, Airwalk must be back, as they were the main sponsor of the race.

Dale Holmes was flying all day, winning every race he was in up to the main event. Dale has been in Europe for most of the summer and his Euro training paid off big time here. Unfortunately for Dale he crashed in the main event and broke two of his fingers, keeping him out from racing the Pro Elite race on Saturday night.

Randy did have an easy race here is France, as he had some of the toughest riders in his motos, including Luke Madil from Australia. Randy seemed to go faster as the 1/8, 1/4, and 1/2 came around. The main event was crazy, as Paul Lange from the USA holeshotted, was winning up to the last turn and a french rider came underneath him, giving Randy the space to pass them both, taking home the win and his 4th UCI Cruiser World Championship.

Randy gets to keep his UCI Rainbow jersey and has become the rider with the Most World Championship titles in the Elite Cruiser Class.

After the race, all the riders who made the podium were asked to come to a press conference. France did a great job with putting the race tougher and gave BMX a definite boost with additions to the race like the press conference. Media from around the world were able to go one on one with the new world champ.

Saturday Night is the Elite Men's race and we will have an update once the race is finished.

The Elite men's race was crazy. Dale wound up with two broken fingers on his hand from the crash in the cruiser main event and was unable to race on Saturday night. Randy, Cristian, and Brandon all made it out of the motos with ease and out of the 1/16. In the 1/8th Brandon unclipped down the first strait and at this track missing just one pedal sent you quickly from first to last with not much passing opportunities. Randy and Cristian made it onto the semis where they were both in the same one. As it happens a lot at the worlds, the semis are usually a bit lopsided and all lot of potential winners are in the same one. Semi was was that way, with Robert De Wilde, Randy, Mike Day, Cristian, Donny Robinson, Florent Boutte, Bubba Harris, and Michael Robinson. As the gate dropped, so did Cristian, as he hit it and flipped over the bars. Randy was in 5th for most of the lap, just behind Bubba but was unable to make a pass and his night was over.

The Elite main was crazy, with Aussie Jamie Gray holeshotting until the first turn where he jumped too far and crashed, giving the lead to Bubba. No one ever contested Bubba, but just behind him was drama. Jonathan Suarez was in 2nd, until he unclipped and was passed by Donny Robinson, Mike Day, and Robert De Wilde. In the 3rd turn, Robert got caught on Donny, letting Mike day pass them both and Donny wound up on the wrong side of the berm.

1st- Bubba Harris 2nd- Mike Day 3rd- Robert De Wilde 4th- Thomas Allier 5th- Jonathan Suarez 6th- Marc Willers 7th- Donny Robinson 8th- Jamie Gray