This past weekend was the UCI World Championships in Rotterdam, Holland. Cristian Becerine and Anthony Dean were out in Holland not only representing both of their countries, Argentina and Australia, but also flying the flag for the team as well. Cristian was out on a mission to take the Masters World Championship Title that he’s been chasing for the past few years. Everything went to plan during racing with Cristian winning the Semi-Final and taking the lead in the final. Unfortunately, last year’s World Champion, Kelvin Batey, put a move on Cristian going into the last turn, which meant Cristian had to defend the lead which ultimately resulted in both Kelvin and Cristian losing momentum and being passed. Cristian crossed the line in 3rd place and got a respectable bronze medal for his effort. We know that Cristian’s going to work really hard to have another shot at the title in Belgium next year.
Anthony Dean went into the World Championships in great form after a solid two weeks of training in Europe with the Australian National Team. As predicted, the Elite racing at the World Championships is always crazy – everybody wants a spot in the final and a chance to become World Champion. Anthony’s game plan was to take one race at a time and put himself in the last 8 and lay it all on the line. Well, that’s exactly what he did qualifying for the final is no easy task – Anthony made the main but unfortunately had to deal with lane 8, which was a huge disadvantage on the short first straight. Still, Anthony kept focused and put in a solid first straight and came out of turn 1 in 3rd place behind Connor Fields and Sam Willoughby. Anthony could see already there was a good chance Connor and Sam would make contact in the next turn – he kept on the outside and started planning for the high-low pass in turn 2 but unfortunately, Connor went down resulting in the whole pack going down including Anthony. Needless to say he’s disappointed that the World Championship podium was in his grasp but wasn’t meant to be this year. We know all he can do is learn from this and stay positive. Congratulations to Sam Willoughby on the Win.
Photo credit: BMX Holland.