The Never Ending Race

2017 carolina Nationals Rock HIll , South California

- Gork

With the UCI World Champs coming to Rock Hill this July, everybody expected this precursor to the Worlds to be BIG. But nobody could’ve predicted it to be as long. With so much going on in one weekend - from the Friday Worlds Qualifier to the USA Cycling Elite National Championships (aka: The Race for the Sleeves), and then your regularly scheduled Carolina Nationals, this year’s three-day extravaganza was loaded to the hilt. It was non-stop racing, with very little rest or time to recover ...especially if you were on the USA BMX staff, who were lucky if they got six hours of sleep during a 72 hour period.

Also as expected, there were a ton of international contenders; who just like many of the American racers, were hoping to get a jump on the competition with some Rock Hill track-time. Everyone from Tommy Tucker from Australia to the many mini-Mariana’s from Colombia, foreign riders helped fill up Friday’s 257 motos, Saturday’s 365 motos and Sunday’s count of 305. Racers from 22 countries and 43 states accounted for the 1,679 unique participants. That’s some truly impressive numbers, folks! Despite what some non-racing internet trolls are telling you on social media, BMX is alive and well in 2017!