Road To 2016
Breaks and breakthroughs at St Etienne Indoor
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Great Britain’s BMX riders endured mixed fortunes at the Indoor BMX Saint-Etienne Loire this weekend with a number of positive performances tempered with unfortunate injuries.
Double Olympian Liam Phillips, on British Cycling’s Olympic Podium Programme, dislocated four of his metacarpals in a crash in Saturday’s final after a collision at the foot of the start ramp with Frenchman Joris Daudet.
Academy Programme rider Kyle Evans fractured his scaphoid bone in his left wrist in Sunday’s semi-final after a fall during a rhythm section. Both have undergone surgery with British Cycling Olympic BMX coach Grant White updating the British Cycling website on the pair’s condition.
Three-time BMX world champion Shanaze Reade completed her first competition since the Olympics and was the only rider to win on both days of competition, while Academy athlete Abbie Taylor recorded her best result on Sunday, finishing fourth.
Another Academy rider, Curtis Manaton, rode on for his best international result to date, avoiding a near race-ending moment in the third turn. There were also encouraging displays from Grant Hill and Dan McBride as well as Development Programme athletes - world champion Quillan Isidore, Ryan Stack and Dan Pullen.
"It shows they are all on track, maybe even ahead of expectations."
British Cycling Olympic BMX coach Grant WHite
“Take the two injuries out of it and it was a really positive weekend,” Olympic BMX coach Grant White assessed.
“On Saturday in the men’s category the guys from the Academy and Liam [Phillips] won their opening lap. It was lap after lap after lap in the first round in which GB riders were out front and winning the laps.
“It just set the tone and there were Great Britain riders out front all weekend. They have been working hard and smartly and it’s been a big focused effort since the Olympics which has been the start of their winter training ready for next season.
“It shows they are all on track, maybe even ahead of expectations. The biggest thing is that we’ve got a blueprint on the male side of things with what Liam did last year and with all the training data we get we can have confidence from going from a training environment into a race knowing that they have good potential to do well.
“We felt that going into the weekend and they delivered what they were capable of which was a really positive sign. On Saturday night we had five GB men in the semi-finals, there were 200 riders who entered. From 16 in the semi-finals we had five so it shows that we have strength in depth. Curtis [Manaton] placed second in the final which is a really strong performance.
“Overall the weekend was massively positive, obviously two injuries detract from that a little bit, you never want to come away with injured riders. All the hard work is paying off.”
Great Britain’s BMX athletes will now go into their next block of training to build up to the BMX Indoor Caen from the 24-25 February.
“This week and next week prior to Christmas we planned to go back into training but we’re going to adjust this week slightly because the whole physical and psychological load at the weekend was massive,” White explained.
“Our next event happens to be back in France in Caen which is in February. Hopefully between now and then we can add another layer on to the performance and then go and have another outing and raise the bar a little further.”
Result
Trophy of Nations
Men
1. Simon DUCHENE (FRA)
2. CURTIS MANATON (GBR)
3. Vincent PELLUARD (FRA)
4. Martjin SCHERPEN (NED)
5. Sylvain ANDRE (FRA)
6. Thomas DOUCET (FRA)
7. Joris DAUDET (FRA)
8. Liam PHILLIPS (GBR)
Women
1. Shanaze READE (GBR)
2. Eva AILLOUD (FRA)
3. Manon VALENTINO (FRA)
4. Live Andrea MIKKELSEN (NOR)
5. Simone CHRISTENSEN (DEN)
6. Mathilde DOUDOUX (FRA)
7. Roude ANCELOT (FRA)
8. Abbie TAYLOR (GBR)
St. Etienne Indoor
Women
1. Shanaze READE (GBR)
2. Nadja PRIES (GER)
3. Dana SPRENGERS (NED)
4. Abbie TAYLOR (GBR)
5. Camille MEYRAN (FRA)
6. Camille MAIRE (FRA)
7. Manon VALENTINO (FRA)
8. Eva AILLOUD (FRA)
