2024 UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup: French and Japanese riders shine in Montpellier

French dominate Park, the Japanese take Flatland wins

Intense competition at the second round of the 2024 UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup - Park and Flatland resulted in victories for the French riders in the Women and Men Park competitions, while the Japanese delegation achieved the double in Flatland. Riders performed to stands packed with enthusiastic spectators.

FISE Montpellier provides the biggest crowds for BMX Freestyle competition; the five-day festival around the Lez River attracts around half a million people. For both the Park and Flatland competitions, fans could be seen in every nook and cranny trying to catch a glimpse of the action. The athletes did not disappoint!

While some of the Park riders had opted to focus on the first round of the Olympic Qualifier Series (OQS) in Shanghai, China, next weekend there was no shortage of talent in Montpellier to provide an excellent show.

Women Park: Perez outperforms Ozawa

In Women Park, 14-year-old Miharu Ozawa provided the surprise in qualification. The Japanese youngster beat the rest by 9 points – her truckdriver on the box, backflips, tailwhips and barspins to X-up were of an amazing standard.

In the final, Laury Perez started with a 360-barspin on the step-down spine, which she had not performed during qualification. The Frenchwoman added a backflip over the jump box and a tailwhip on the quarter pipe to put the pressure on the young rider from Japan.

Miharu crashed out on a backflip barspin in her first run and put everything in the basket for her second final run, turning it down a notch by doing a straight backflip without the barspin and omitting the truckdriver that was seen in qualification. It still put the teenager on the podium (second) in front of Great Britain’s Sasha Pardoe, who rode a solid competition to grab her first UCI World Cup podium.

Men Park: Jeanjean dazzles

The absence of some Park riders provided opportunities for others to shine in Montpellier. Australia brought their development team, and Japan had two young stylish riders in the final with Joji Mizogaki and Kaede Ozawa, the older brother of Women’s silver-medalist Miharu. Zoltán Újváry (HUN) made his first final as did Reef Way (GBR), and Sam Grace (AUS).

The battle for first place was between Brandon Loupos (AUS), finally back in top form following injury, and home favourite Anthony Jeanjean. Loupos had qualified in first, so he got to see how the Frenchman performed. Jeanjean did not waste any time when he dropped in and nailed every single trick, to the delight of the massive crowd.

Loupos’ response was to score 91.32 – just a little short to take over the lead – and when his second run didn’t go to plan, the number one spot stayed with Anthony Jeanjean. France is looking strong ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.

Great Britain’s Olympic bronze medalist Declan Brooks finished third.

Women Flatland: Suzuki leads the way

This year’s Women Flatland UCI World Cup competition drew a record number of entries, and the eight-women final at Round 2 was dominated by Japanese riders. Hungarians Anna Mondics and Veronika Kádár finished 7th and 8th respectively, and France’s Louise Seigneur rode smoothly to 4th place.

The remaining places in the finals all went to Japan. Kirara Hakagawa took bronze, Ayuna Miyashima silver, and Nina Suzuki took home the UCI BMX Freestyle Flatland World Cup win in Montpellier.

Men Flatland: Shoji wins as Dandois goes out in style

Montpellier was the last big competition for Matthias Dandois. The French superstar was already happy with a place in the final but with the support of the home fans he raised his riding to the next level, moving into first place with just three riders left…

When Yu and Kio Katagiri could not better Dandois’ run, it was up to 2023 UCI BMX Flatland World Champion Yu Shoji to see if he could do it. The talented rider managed to spin his tricks fast, switched feet quicker than everyone and rode in original fashion. The 92.33 points from the judges moved him up to first place and the UCI World Cup win in France.

The third and final round of the 2024 UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup will be held in Shanghai, China, from 17 to 20 October.