BMX Worlds - my view.

[b45t4rd]

Went to watch the Worlds on Saturday night, my thoughts. 

As a Brummie I was chuffed to watch the Worlds in my home Town, all around the NIA people were enjoying the sun & (for B'ham) good vibes.

The track looked awesome, I've heard some Pro racers weren't overly impressed (wonder if they will be sporting "W" plates next year  "

24 ish hours after watching the event live I've watched the Redbull feed, whilst excellent it really does not do the riders justice. Elite men, power & skill, Elite women same again.

Junior men, fecking awesome, the Columbian World Champ was sooo smooth, two french guys were possibly better still, but went out before the final.
The French in general looked strong & were a suprise how many good riders they have, South America also.

The USA had a very strong team & also a lot of very noisy fans. 

One thing TV does not convey is the noise...

On a return trip from the bar I entered the arena just as Isadore, got to the bottom of the start hill, the noise was immense & got louder as his lap went on! 
What was impressive was the crowds reaction to his race, naturally the Brits went bonkers, but all the Euro fans & the Yanks loved his ride also, would this happen at any other sport?

GB Olympic/Elite riders had big offs, which was a disappointment, but the crowd still got behind the rest of the competitors which was good from a partizan crowd.

I loved it, plain & simple, if you get a chance to watch the worlds best, do it. 

[ron burgundy]

  nice write up.

[part time]

I'd agree with everything there, it was a great night.  So cool to wander round the streets and see people in their national jerseys just cruising round going to and from their hotels etc, seemed like a real BMX takeover.

[KeithyT]

I'd bought tickets for the Saturday daytime only but was lucky enough to win a UCI Worlds/Generatesponsorship competition on Thursday for 2 tix to the Saturday evening finals!  

We travelled up from the in-laws near Stroud and it was so easy to get to and get parked (only £6.60 for the whole evening), which was a pleasant surprise. As per the post above I thought it was excellent. My first time seeing any sort of live racing in the flesh having got into the Supercross big time this year. My missus really enjoyed it too and was especially enamoured with Quillan Isidore and his dominant runs to become World 16s Champion.    

I think she thought the announcers and big screen captions were not up to scratch as she did not really know any names of the riders apart from Connor Fields, Liam Phillips and Shanaze Reade before going but the racing was fast and furious with not much time between the early motos and quarters so I guess that's understandable. I tried to point out certain riders to watch as best as I could but I'm a newbie too.

The track looked amazing, cannot believe that they got that ready in less than 2 weeks. Superb atmosphere in the Arena, very loud whenever any Brits were on track but also for all of the winners whatver the nationality.

Both Shanaze and Liam went down right on Berm 1 in front of us which was gutting for the home fans. Fingers crossed for the Olympics. Liam Phillips has already tweeted he expects to recover in time!

I'm still buzzing from it all, what a night!  

[beard1973]

This was my view...

AND I FRICKIN' LOVED IT.... 

[Jon The Bassist]

I think she thought the announcers and big screen captions were not up to scratch as she did not really know any names of the riders apart from Connor Fields, Liam Phillips and Shanaze Reade before going but the racing was fast and furious with not much time between the early motos and quarters so I guess that's understandable. I tried to point out certain riders to watch as best as I could but I'm a newbie too.

Absolutely, this was really poor - the general public had paid good money and often had no clue what was going on, even as a BMX Superfan/stalker    I found it tough to follow which class was racing and who had qualified etc.