Quillan Isidore almost snuck onto the podium at the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup in Papendal on Sunday.
In the second of back-to-back events held in the Netherlands, the 21-year-old finished fourth (38.668) in round four of the 2018 World Cup after a spectacular crash from France’s Joris Daudet made for a grandstand finale.
Isidore was sixth heading into turn three but when Daudet span out and caused chaos heading into the final straight, the British rider was able to take advantage – he finished narrowly behind the Netherlands’ Dave van der Burg (38.174) and Twan van Gent (36.620) while France’s Sylvain Andre (36.469) took gold.
He had earlier needed to come through a last-chance round after recording a struggling sixth in his first ride of the day (59.980).
From then on, Isidore racked three successive fourth-placed finishes to book his place in the final.
Meanwhile, Kyle Evans made it to the men’s semi-finals alongside his teammate but crashed out in the same heat.
Evans had earlier come second in his heats in both his first round and the 1/8 finals.
Shriever comes back from the brink
Like Isidore, Beth Shriever needed to pull a performance out of the bag in the last-chance saloon but ended up making it all of the way to the women’s semi-finals.
The former junior women’s World Champion opened her campaign with a sixth-placed finish in her opening race but bounced back to comfortably win her heat in the last-chance round in 38.751.
In the quarter-finals, Shriever came fourth (39.637) before crossing the line sixth in the semi-finals with a time of 41.040 – the United States’ Alise Willoughby went on to triumph in the final.
Paddy makes steady progress
Paddy Sharrock produced a solid set of rides to make it to the men’s 1/4 finals, finishing seventh in his heat as Evans snuck into the qualification places.
The 19-year-old progressed through his opening race of the day with a second-placed finish behind Switzerland’s David Graf and was then third in the 1/16 finals before edging out Australia’s Brandon Te-Hiko in a photo finish in the 1/8 finals.
The 1/4 finals proved a step too far for the youngster, however, who finished seventh in a time of 37.648.
Tre Whyte suffered a disappointing exit in the 1/16 finals stage, failing to finish as he was edged off the track, with the 24-year-old having earlier won his opening-round heat in 37.765.
Ross Cullen (38.219) was also knocked out in the same round as Whyte, finishing seventh in heat number seven.
