The first day of competition at the third UCI Urban Cycling World Championships in Chengdu, China, began today with Spain taking the team trials world title for the second year in a row. Teen riding sensation Vera Barón made her UCI World Championship debut as part of the Spanish team of gold medal winning riders, along with Alejandro Montalvo, Sergi Llongueras, Daniel Barón and Toni Guillén.
The result was announced via the UCI Twitter feed:
Given the impressive showing of their riders across the sport of trials in recent years, the Spanish team were strong favourites before the competition had begun. But few would have anticipated that it would be the Swiss team of Debi Studer, Luien Leiser, Tom Blaser, Vito Gonzalez and Loris Gonzalez that pushed Spain all the way to the final round, seeing off the challenge of the experienced French team in the process. 2017 team trials UCI World Champions, France, took the final podium place finishing in third. Nine teams in total took part in the competition.
Swiss Cycling were quick to congratulate their athletes on social media:
1st Spain – 700 points
2nd Switzerland – 630 points
3rd France – 570 points
4th Czech Republic – 410 points
5th Denmark – 390 points
6th Germany – 380 points
7th Japan – 310 points
8th Slovakia – 260 points
9th Austria – 250 points
Meanwhile, qualification for the BMX Flatland competition also took place earlier today. In the Men’s category, 36 riders from 15 countries battled it out to decide the running order for tomorrow’s semi-finals. Benjamin Hudson Araya of Chile topped the qualifying table with a score of 88.45, followed closely by competition favourite Dominik Nekolny (CZE) on 87.67 and Jean Prévost (CAN) with 87.38.
In Women’s BMX Flatland, six riders representing five countries took to the oval stage to also decide qualification for tomorrow’s semi-finals. Julia Preuss (GER) finished in the top spot with a score of 74.50 points, followed by Misaki Katagiri (JAP) on 74.00 and Irina Sadovnik (AUT) with 70.25.
The action continues tomorrow, beginning with the Trials Men Junior 20” and 26” semi-finals, followed by the BMX Flatland semi-finals in the Men and Women categories, then last but not least, the Trials Women semi-finals.