Laura Smulders, Diego Arboleda victorious in Sakarya as BMX Supercross World Cup comes down to wire
Dutch rider Smulders wins her third race of the year, while Arboleda wins Colombia's second straight men's World Cup race in Turkey, ahead of Sunday's season finale.
Cycling BMX Racing
Both the men's and women's elite categories of this year's UCI BMX Supercross World Cup will come down to the last round in Sakarya, Turkey, on Sunday (31 October) after a pair of incredible finals in Saturday's seventh round.
The annual BMX racing circuit, visiting Sakarya for the second time in as many weekends, crowns its 2021 champions in the Turkish city tomorrow with as many as four women and seven men still mathematically in with a chance of winning the title.
On Saturday, Dutch rider Laura Smulders won her second straight race in exactly the same style after staging a finish-straight comeback to overhaul American Felicia Stancil.
Stancil was out of the gates strong and fast, and appeared to be well clear coming down the second straight. But Smulders, this year's world championships bronze medallist, powered out of the final turn onto the fourth and last straight to overtake Stancil – just as she had done last Sunday in round 6.
"I was chasing again but happy I got another win, number 22," Smulders said after the race, noting that her sister Merel – the Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist – wears jersey number 22.
"Gate wasn't great but I knew I was fastest on track so just kept chasing and did it again on the last straight. I know my last straight always is a good one. I was in her back wheel and knew I had to pull it out again, just be smooth, put a few pedals in again and I caught her."
Colombia's Mariana Pajón finished third to extend her lead at the top of the overall standings over Russia's Natalya Afremova to 65 points.
With 150 points for a win, only Afremova, Laura Smulders (620), and Stancil (575) can mathematically catch Pajón tomorrow.
In the men's race, there was more history made for Colombia.
After Carlos Ramírez, the two-time Olympic bronze medallist, took his country's first men's World Cup victory last weekend, there was an incredible 1-2-3-4 finish for Colombian riders today.
Diego Arboleda was the quickest out of the gate and held his lead over teammate, and Pajón's husband, Vincent Pelluard, to the line.
Ramírez had an awful start but still managed to recover lost ground to finish third, meaning he leads the men's standings on 625 points ahead of Switzerland's Simon Marquart on 590 and Pelluard on 542.
"It's crazy, it's an amazing thing we've just done," Ramírez said of the podium sweep. "It's something that we can show how good we're getting, how Colombian riders are pushing and we're battling out there."