In this post-Olympic year the UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup season will take specialists of both the Park and Flatland formats to France, China and Japan. At every round, 1000 UCI Ranking points will be shared out between the top 50 riders in each class.
Competition gets underway this week (28 May – 1 June) in Montpellier, France. It will be a first major international get together since the 2024 UCI Urban Cycling World Championships in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, last December. The second round in Shanghai, China, in October will be followed by the third and final round in Sakai, Japan, in November.
Park Men: full house of talent
No fewer than 72 BMX Freestyle Park athletes have entered the men’s competition for the first round in Montpellier, bringing riders in from all corners of the world including Australia, Japan, USA, Chile and throughout Europe. Among them are current UCI World Champion Logan Martin (AUS), Olympic gold medalist Jose Torres Gil (ARG) and former UCI World Champion Rimu Nakamura from Japan.
The 2025 season also brings a number of development riders to the scene aiming for those quota spots for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. But will anybody be able to beat last year's Montpellier winner Anthony Jeanjean (FRA) in 2025? Many will try!
Park Women: Chinese riders head home for round two
The Women BMX Freestyle Park competition welcomes a lot of new faces eager to perform at the beginning of this new Olympic cycle.
It is clear that the Chinese riders in Women Park are on top of their game – they finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th at last year’s UCI World Championships - and this year the talent looks to run deeper than ever. As they head to the second UCI World Cup on home soil in Shanghai, a lot of spectators will surely attend – although it will be hard to beat the size of the crowd in Montpellier which attracts hundreds of thousands each year.
It will be exciting to see how the Chinese fare in the face of strong competition, including the only woman to get the better of them in Abu Dhabi last December, UCI World Champion Hannah Roberts, and her fellow American, former UCI World Champion Perris Benegas.
Flatland Women: Japanese dominance under threat?
With a record number of women’s entries in the BMX Freestyle Flatland competition in Montpellier it will be interesting to see who shows early form in this year’s UCI World Cup.
Japan has been the dominant nation in Flatland riding, but with development programmes set up in countries such as Hungary and France, fans are hoping to see increasingly stronger competition coming up from these nations. The Japanese riders will have their home UCI World Cup round as the campaign’s final stop and their fans will be ready to support them in Sakai, come November.
Flatland Men: father-son cameo in France
For the first time in many years the men’s BMX Freestyle competition will be without multiple UCI World Champion Matthias Dandois (FRA) who has retired from competition at this level. Will that hold back the crowd in Montpellier? That remains to be seen but there are plenty of talented riders coming from France, with Anatole Rahain and Julien Baran the main revelations amongst them. And the unique combination of Alexandre Jumelin and his son Nathan both riding in front of their home crowd will help create an amazing atmosphere at the Rive du Lez.
But the Japanese delegation has big plans for 2025: starting off strong on the opposite side of the world in France, then setting up a thrilling finale closer to home in November. Yu Shoji (2023 UCI World Champion), Kio Hayakawa and Yu Katagiri could well be found on the podium in France. Whether or not that is the case, expect them to draw on their home support in the final stop in Sakai.
2025 UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup calendar
28 May-1 June, Park & Flatland, Montpellier, France
16-19 October, Park & Flatland, Shanghai, China
27-30 November, Park & Flatland, Sakai, Japan