Defending champions Kye Whyte and Beth Shriever took ninth and fourth place respectively at the 2023 UEC BMX Racing European Championships in Besançon, France, while teammate Emily Hutt came away fourth in the under-23 women’s category.

After winning three out of four world cups so far this year, racing started well for Shriever, as she comfortably made her way straight through to the semi-finals. Continuing her good form, Shriever set the fastest lap time to earn her place to defend the 2022 European champion’s jersey in the final. Unfortunately, it was not to be and Shriever crossed the finish line behind Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Merel Smulders, just missing out on the podium and finishing the weekend’s racing in fourth place overall.

Under-23 rider Emily Hutt had another strong weekend of competition. After qualifiying directly to the semi-finals, where she crossed the line in third place, the young rider put in a strong performance, narrowly missing a podium spot, coming away with fourth place overall.

In his first race back following a shoulder injury sustained from a crash in round six of the European cup in Latvia, Kye Whyte was focused on doing all he could to retain the European title for another year. Starting strong, he took the win in round one to go straight into the quarter finals, which he confidently won again to take a semi-final place. However, this would be where his competition would finish, as a fifth-place finish on the fast and technical track was not enough to see him defend his jersey in the final.

Teammates Paddy Sharrock and Ross Cullen both made their way through the rounds of competition to get to the quarter finals, with Sharrock finishing 19th overall and Cullen finishing in 23rd place.  

You can follow the Great Britain Cycling Team’s BMX Racing squad as they continue through the 2023 season and head to the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow next month by checking out Behind the Bike. Episode one is now available and episode two will be released next week.