Germany once again dominated proceedings in the second round of the UCI Artistic Cycling World Cup, held in the Dutch town of Heerlen. The Single Women category finished in exactly the same order as the UCI World Cup opener in Prague. UCI World Champion Milena Slupina (TSV Bernlohe/GER) posted an impressive score of 184.51 to secure the win and extend her lead in the overall standings – a moment to savour after her surprise elimination from Germany’s European Championships qualifying at the beginning of June. Maren Haase (Hoffnungsthal/GER) finished in second place ahead of European Champion Viola Brand (Unterweissach/GER). In the Pair Women event, European Championship silver medallists Sophie Nattmann and Caroline Wurth (Gutach/GER – 126.27) finished ahead of European Champions and UCI World Championship runners-up Lena and Lisa Bringsken (Böhl-Iggelheim/GER – 123.94). Nattmann and Wurth retained the overall UCI World Cup lead after their second successive win. The third German pair, Marina Dullinger and Leonie Walter (Dachau), celebrated an impressive World Cup debut with a place on the third step of the podium. UCI World Champion Lukas Kohl (Kirchehrenbach/GER) also claimed his second UCI World Cup victory of the season, scoring a remarkable 203.60 points, leaving European Championship silver medallist Marcel Jüngling (Dornheim/GER) and Lukas Burri (Uzwil/SUI) in his wake. In the Pair Open category, UCI World Champions Max Hanselmann and Serafin Schefold (Wendlingen/GER) sent a message to their rivals by scoring 143.43 on their return from injury. Mixed team Anton Köhler, Nicole Kerner, Fabian Kerner and Maike Reinfurth (Erlenbach/Öhringen - GER) took the overall lead in the ACT4 Open event. After finishing third in Prague, the quartet were streets ahead of the competition with 188.47 points – the highest score from a mixed team anywhere in the world this year.
2018 UCI Cycle-ball World Cup #3, Hong Kong, China > 12 August
Nowhere is safe from Hungarian rider Martin Schön’s efforts to handstand his way around the world. Whether on fences, walls or the back of a horse, over birthday cakes, banisters or chimneys, in front of the Christmas tree or on car tyres and straw bales – the more extraordinary the location, the better. The 27-year-old has published 362 photos of his ‘Daily Handstand’ on Facebook featuring every conceivable variation of the handstand. The Physical Education teacher has been one of the world’s best riders for many years and finished in fourth place at the UCI World Cup event in Heerlen. Schön is his country’s best artistic rider by some margin and the only one to incorporate handstands into his free programme. Follow Martin Schön on Instagram