The 2009 UCI BMX World Championships in Adelaide, Australia rolled into day three with the Elite classes. Saturday saw Donny Robinson as the only American who scored a win for the USA (with Mike Day on the two-step). Arielle Martin brought home a third in Elite Women for USA, as the only other podium finish for USA in the Elite classes (USA has 12 wins out of 26 Challenge classes thus far, with Cruiser left to run on Sunday). Other Elite Class showings for team USA included Dominque Daniels (5th in Jr. Women), Alise Post (7th in Jr. Women), Corben Sharrah (5th in Jr. Men), Riley Stair (6th in Jr. Men) and Nic Long (5th in Elite Men). Of course, it is not solely about Team USA. BMXNOW friends Maris Strombergs and Khalen Young took and 4th and 8th, respectively in Elite Men, Sam Willoughby took the top step for his hometown crowd in Jr. Men; Tory Nyhaug with a fourth, and Sammy Cools with a fifth in Elite Women.

Twitter is turning out to be the best coverage medium for the worlds. Check out Jeff Glynn’s page (follow: USA_BMX) for as-they-happen updates and, for a non-Twitterized tack, our pal Jerry Landrum’s coverage and photos on BMXMANIA.COM. BMXNOW will have interviews of some of the top finishers in both Elite and Challenge classes early next week.

Download 2009 UCI BMX World Championship Results.

By Brad Cloutier
The brand new SW Racing/SteelWheelsBMX.com racing team made the trek east to the Empire State Nationals this past weekend. We brought nine riders to see if we could pull out a win in the trophy division, and were able to do just that both days, with scores over 150 points. All of our riders rode with a lot of team pride and determination. Team mom Jackie Altizer showed why she is sporting the NAG #2 plate with wins both days in 46 and over Girls Cruiser. Also on Cruiser, “Smiley” Maslanka rode her way to a third on Sunday.

In the younger ranks, Patrick Blake rode to a couple of solid 4th place finishes in 9I. Also, our resident little 7X ripper who couldn’t find his way into the Saturday main, put the move of the century on another rider in turn 4 to find himself a spot in the main on Sunday. With another stellar move in the last turn, Denver Vaughn earned himself a main event 4th place finish. In 10X, Christian Cloutier battled it out with tough competitors E.J. Pascowiz and Alex Russel and picked himself up a couple podium finishes. The Pritchard sisters rode hard all weekend but came up short of the mains. They had a blast with their new team though. Did I mention their dad is the owner of one of our awesome sponsors, Dragon Wheels ? Our resident 13 girl was on fire all weekend as doubled up in class and even better, topped it off with two Junior Development Open wins on Friday and Saturday.

Our newly signed A Pro Brandon Brown made the trip as well to test the waters. If it weren’t for his four crashes, he might have seen some better results. Either way, Brandon finally found his way to the money with a 3rd place finish on Sunday. We are very proud of our little crew as everyone showed a lot of heart in the way they raced and represented our sponsors. Speaking of sponsors, this years team sponsors included Security Industries, Inc., Race Engineering, Fly, SteelWheels BMX Pro Shop and Dragon Wheels.

Look for us making some noise at the ABA’s Land O Lakes National next weekend in Isanti, MN.

Photo by Dexter Pritchard, Dragon Wheels Racing

No national action for us this weekend, so give a look at the 140 photos we brought home from the Farmer City NBL State Qualifier. Though not an “official” 2009 BMXNOW tour stop, I heard about it last weekend in Nashville, and looked forward to taking the lil lad down for a rumble with the rookies.

Above: Battle of the South Americans in the South. Javier Columbo of SE and Free Agent’s Cristian Becerine blast the first jump in the Elite Men’s Main Event on Day One of the NBL Music City Nationals in Nashville, TN. Becerine bested the field both days in Nashville.

WIth BMX roots as deep as the mid 80s, when it played host to the Murray World Cup, Nashville’s Music City BMX brought some serious dirt and asphalt rock & roll to the Country music capital this weekend, when the NBL Music City Nationals hit town. Robert Campbell’s team of good ol’ Tennessee volunteers had everything totally dialed (down to the little “BMX” wayfinding signs en route to the track), and was ready for anything–including Mother Nature’s watery tantrum on Saturday.

With 146 motos on day one, the race got started on time, and made it through the first round in the dry…but the approaching green blob on radar caused NBL’s National Team to call an audible and make it a two-moto transfer to try and get it in without the tarps. Still, by 1:02PM (53 motos into round two), it was Nature with the holeshot, as she proceeded with the precipitation. As the deluge started, BMXers did what BMXers do, and jumped the fence to help the crew get the track covered for what would be a three-hour pause for the BMX cause.

In the top classes, Free Agent’s Cristian Becerine seemed to take his fourth place finish in round one of day one to heart, and didn’t lose a moto or main thereafter for the whole weekend, scoring an Elite double against a field which included Javier Columbo (SE), Matt Pohlkamp (Celly Smellys), Jeff Upshaw (Alienation), Phil Delizia (Felt) and “Afro” Bob DeWilde (Redline) .

Elite Women looked like the stage was set for a clash of the titans, with both Dominque Daniels (riding for OFR for this weekend), and Redline champ Alise Post in the house, as well as a bevvy of other EW stars like Amanda Geving (Intense/Dyna-Pep), Allie Dragoo (Standard), Madison Pitts (BMXtruth.com) and Amanda Carr (Intense/Dyna-Pep). In the end, it was Dom for the double, with Alise having some bad breaks in the second straight and first turn in the two mains, respectively.

SuperEx proved “Super” in nature, as the battle was on between hometown Hero Logan Collins and the double-F-Fast, double-A-bound Josh Meyers. Watching both mains from the infield, the level of awe for Josh and his command of the track was…well..awesome. In the Sunday main Logan, second into the last turn, had a sliver of a chance to go for the lead (”Kevin McNeil-style,” as we’d call it on Vintage), but was every bit the Southern gent as he did not risk taking out Josh, himself and half the pack with him. The Sunday Main turned out Meyers, Tyler Faoro (Morphine) and Randal Neave (Standard).

At near-two-gates strong, the 15-entry Masters class pitted Intergalactic Masters Champion Dale Holmes of Free Agent against a contentious field that was “All Over His Action” from the fourth horn of the first moto. On day one, it was Tennessee hero Tommy Opincar who bested Dale in the main to win the guitar, followed by “Spiderman” Percy Owens of Profile and Joey Albright, who has had more Masters/Vet tower calls lately than a prom King on a Friday night. Day two was Dale’s day to dominate with a win, followed by Rennen-Intense pilot Will Murray and well-dressed Tim Dinger.

Check out the photo galleries for both days

Photo Galleries

Saturday Gallery	Sunday Gallery