Kye Whyte came agonisingly close to a place in the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup final as an impressive British weekend in Zolder came to an end.
The Great Britain Cycling Team rider finished fifth in his semi-final, ending the double-header on a high in Belgium.
It proved a memorable weekend for Bethany Shriever in particular, though the independent rider wasn’t able to replicate her maiden victory from Saturday.
She bowed out in the quarter-finals as did a number of British riders, with the next stop of the series taking the riders to Santiago, Argentina.
Fine margins deny Kye
Just 0.6 seconds prevented Whyte from reaching the final, stopping the clock in 33.601s in the second semi-final heat to face the tough finish of fifth place.
But that couldn’t take away what was an impressive day of racing for the youngster, including taking home the sibling bragging rights.
That came after besting brother Tre in the quarter-finals, finishing as the top British rider after another pulsating day of competition in round six of the series.
Tre was unfortunate in finishing seventh in that particular race, with his brother ahead of him in third, while Kyle Evans – Saturday’s finalist – was another to bow out narrowly before the main event.
They weren’t the only Brits in action as junior Ross Cullen continued his ever-growing development, reaching the 1/8 finals after battling through the last chance qualification.
He finished one spot ahead of compatriot Paddy Sharrock, while Quillan Isidore wasn’t quite able to replicate last week’s fourth place finish after getting caught up in an incident.
Haha a great photo of @bethanyshriever Just crossing the line and winning her first World Cup pic.twitter.com/UMGBKOCT0C
— Quillan Isidore (@Quillan96) May 13, 2018
Shriever suffers early exit
Shriever’s weekend will forever go down as a memorable one in Zolder though the double-header eluded her with a quarter-final exit this time around.
After easing through her first round in first place, it looked as though a repeat of the Saturday heroics could be on the cards having secured her first World Cup win.
She carried that form forward into the 1/8 finals too, again topping the pile, but a tough quarter-final saw the chance of another win extinguished.
In a tight field separated only by a couple of seconds, junior world champion Shriever finished fifth to bring to an end her weekend.
Britain’s Elissa Bradford was also in action, bouncing back from a first-round disappointment to triumph spectacularly in her last chance race, coming home second in heat four.
But she too was to miss out in the 1/8 finals, though the junior has plenty to build on heading into the rest of the season.
The same can be said for all of the British team, now six rounds into the series, with a trip to Argentina next on the agenda in September – a course that has produced both male and female British winners over the past five years.
