Stefany Hernandez gave her all to take third place and her first UCI Supercross World Cup podium of the season on Sunday in Manchester. Setting off from position number 4, the Venezuelan finished the Final lap under a second back from the untouchable Australian Caroline Buchanan. The American Alise Post was second.
“Third pace after putting up a good fight… it is a good start to the World Cup season,” said the trainee from the UCI World Cycling Centre (WCC). Another UCI WCC trainee, Natalia Suvorova, of Russia, finished a very commendable fifth place. In 2014, Hernandez achieved exactly the same result at British Cycling’s National Cycling Centre, showing she is at ease on the indoor Manchester track. The athlete from Ciudad Guyana confirms her strong start to the season: At the beginning of April she won the second round of the BMX European Championships in Zolder (Belgium), in front of Alise Post, in excellent form since the beginning of the season, and Denmark’s Simone Christensen. A month earlier she took second place behind Christensen at the British BMX Supercross Open, another C1 category event, before confirming her excellent condition a few days later at the first round of the 2015 British BMX Series.
Permanently based at the UCI WCC in Aigle, Switzerland, Hernandez, coached by Thomas Allier, has high ambitions for this season: “My goal is to finish in the top 3 (of the World Cup). We’ll see if I can confirm my early-season victories,” declared the Venezuelan who was a little frustrated at the end of last season (6th in the UCI World Cup and a crash in the Final of the UCI BMX World Championships in Rotterdam). Mariana Pájon’s rainbow jersey will be up for grabs at the end of July in Zolder, a track where Hernandez traditionally rides well. She has reason to feel confident. Her next challenge is the second round of the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup in Papendal (the Netherlands) on May 9 and 10. Follow the UCI World Cup on BMXlive.tv and on @UCI_BMX_SX