Thursday, 08 April 2010 23:53

The First rounds of the European Championship Series 2010 were held in Besançon, France on April 3/4th. With the races being held just 1 week after the World Cup in Madrid,a lot of the SX contenders stayed in Europe to participate, increasing the already high level of the European Rounds.

In Girls 13/14, Lucie Meerholz (Holland) showed she had been working on her gates this winter, last year's weak point. She took the fastest gate in the main, but was stuck on the outside of the track and got pushed up in the first turn, giving her 5th place.

French Junior Men's Rookie Bastien Merle was back on the track for his first race after his knee injury at the Worlds 2009. But one wouldn't believe this, seeing him riding out in front in most laps he made this weekend. He made the final on Saturday finishing in 8th place. On Sunday he was looking for another main with some smooth riding all day, but in the quarters being in third and qualifying position, he cased the last jump of the Pro Section losing his speed and got passed by 2 riders in the final straight. This putted an end to his race weekend.

Latvian's Sandra Aleksieva made her debute in Elite Women. With a 6th and 5th in the semis, she did well, but Sandra will certainly move up some places in the upcoming races.

Edzus Treimanis and Kevin Sprengers represented the Formula Europe Team in the huge Elite Men Category, which had more than 90 riders.

Edzus (Latvia) who was #6 in the last year's final EC Ranking, hadn't find his race rhythm yet. He finished in 5th in Saturday's quarter and 8th in Saturday's semi. Edzus is now ranked #23 after 2 rounds.

Kevin Sprengers (Holland) was riding consistent all weekend long. He was winning motos earning some points for his ranking. On Saturday, he made it all the way to the semis finishing in 6th. On Sunday, a photo finish in the quarters with Vice-European Arnaud Dubois had to decide with a difference of few thousands of a second that he wouldn't transfer to the semis.

Formula Europe is supported by :
Formula Bicycles, EuroBmx.be, Shimano, Alienation, Tioga, BES&T, SixSixOne and Navada.net