The 2018 UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cup returns this weekend for the third round of action, with the Great Britain Cycling Team sending a squad of seven athletes to compete in Edmonton, Canada.
About the BMX Freestyle Park World Cup
Set to make its debut as an Olympic sport in Tokyo in 2020, BMX Freestyle Park is one of cycling’s most thrilling and spectacular disciplines.
Riders compete on a 30x50 metre course with ramps, big transition sections and obstacles, looking to impress the judges with their two one-minute runs.
Riders are scored on the difficulty and height of their tricks, the flow of their run, their use of course, originality, execution, risk, style and the total number of tricks - riders will receive a score between zero and 100.
Hiroshima was the opening stop of the 2018 UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup - with Montpellier in France hosting round two.
The competition heads to North America this week, with Canada hosting the third round in Edmonton.
Round four takes place in Budapest, Hungary in September with the final round in Chengdu, China in November where overall world cup winners will be crowned.
The team
Alex Coleborn
Jack Clark
James Jones
Ben Wallace
Mark Webb
Charlotte Worthington
Emma Finnegan
A full squad of seven riders will be making the trip across the Atlantic, including Alex Coleborn and Charlotte Worthington who both placed sixth in the first round of competition in Hiroshima. After missing out on qualification for the final in Montpellier, the team are looking to build on a solid training block when they compete in Edmonton this weekend.
Rich King, British Cycling’s BMX Freestyle Park lead said: “Since the last round took place in Montpellier in May, we’ve seen some really promising progress from the riders who have been gaining results at smaller competitions which is serving to build their confidence and helping to build on what they’ve learnt already from the performance support team at British Cycling in terms of how to approach a competition.”
2017 UCI Urban Cycling World Championships silver medallist, Alex Coleborn, made a strong start in Japan and narrowly missed out on qualification for the final in Montpellier by a single point.
After missing the first two rounds of competition through injury, Declan Brooks misses out again as he continues his recovery. Emma Finnegan is once more included and will draw on the experience from her debut in Montpellier.
The venue
The world cup will be held in Louise McKinney Riverfront Park in Edmonton, Canada. The freestyle park world cup makes up one of the flagship events of FISE (the international festival of extreme sports). Last year over 25,000 fans and athletes gathered to watch or compete in the event.
The schedule (UK times)
Friday 13 July
Women’s qualification: 8.50pm - 10.20pm
Men’s qualification group 1: 11.20pm - 1.20am
Men’s qualification group 2: 2.20am – 4.20am
Saturday 14 July
Women’s final: 9.40pm - 10.55pm
Men’s semi-final: 11.40pm - 2am
Sunday 15 July
Men’s final: 11pm - 12.30am
How to follow
- Live coverage of the semi-finals and finals on the British Cycling website
- Updates on Twitter
- Report from the finals on the British Cycling website
