Shane Hill at Grands in the 2016 USA BMX Grands - Semi's

[ToddL]

You can log onto the webcast right now. In the next few minutes, Semi's for 46+ Novice will come up. Look for Hill in semifinals Moto 109 and my cousin, Breedlove in 110 right after him.

 

EDIT: Updated video link. Jump to: 7h 42m 39s for quarterfinals. Jump to 9h 52m 45s to see semifinals:

@BoneHead

 

[ToddL]

If you search for the Qtr's Moto 148, you can see his Qtr finals run. Not bad for a guy who got his collar bone rebuilt back in April.

[ToddL]

So, I've been watching the web cast off and on for the past few days. It is non-stop racing. They start the next moto while the current moto is nearing the final turn. The enthusiasm of the announcers have been off the chart.

 

I am not sure how many races Shane got to ride, but it looks like 2 rounds of motos, then quarter finals, then semi finals, so 4 at least.

[oldjeep]

You can still do that at 46? Haven't raced bmx since I was 16, and then the old guys raced cruisers.

[ToddL]

@oldjeep It seems that there are 20" and Cruiser divisions throughout. I think Shane had explained it all before but in BMX, there are Novice, Intermediate, Expert, and Pro groups. These are split by gender. Then by wheel size. Then, further split by age groups, lots of them.

 

Here's he list of age groups for males riding 20":

Age Class

5 & Under Novice / Intermediate / Expert

6 Novice / Intermediate / Expert

7 Novice / Intermediate / Expert

8 Novice / Intermediate / Expert

9 Novice / Intermediate / Expert

10 Novice / Intermediate / Expert

11 Novice / Intermediate / Expert

12 Novice / Intermediate / Expert

13 Novice / Intermediate / Expert

14 Novice / Intermediate / Expert

15 Novice / Intermediate / Expert

16 Novice / Intermediate / Expert

17-18 Novice / Intermediate / Expert

19-27 Novice / Intermediate / Expert

28-35 Novice / Intermediate / Expert

36-40 Novice / Intermediate / Expert

41-45 Novice / Intermediate / Expert

46 & Over Novice / Intermediate / Expert

 

With so many divisions, similar sized/skilled riders are competing together.

 

What is cool about BMX is that in any race, stuff happens and anyone can win. Someone get's the gate, best line into the first turn; someone drops a pedal or tangles; riders go down, positions shift. It is always a race and nothing is certain. The most skilled typically prevail.

 

 

[Bill22]

Skip to 36:00 to see 5 & Under!

[LeonL]

With that many divisions I can't see how there can be enough entrants to have competition. I may not be reading it correctly, but do I see 39 divisions of 18 and under. Add both genders and you have 78 and you mentioned wheel size? Wow, a lot of divisions!

[The_MS]

It looks kinda like Slalom skiing, after 10 minutes it all looks the same.

[ToddL]

@LeonL I don't know the numbers of competitors nationally, but I bet it is a few more than skiing... So, yeah, I guess there musts be enough kids on BMX bikes to justify yearly age divisions in that sport.

[ForrestGump]

@LeonL there were 3000+ racers at Grands. The biggest class is 19-27 boys expert and it had 104 racers. 8X, 9X, 10X, etc all usually have 50+. There are 36 National events and for those the kids will usually have 3-4 full gates of 8 racing each other. For boys from 5-16 there are 3 divisions for each age. For girls, they race with the novice boys until they get 10 wins and then go to the Girl class(the equivalent to Boys Expert). So in reality there are 4 divisions for each age group for class 20" bikes. Then each age in boys and girls has a cruiser 24" division. Then from 17 on up they start grouping multiple ages.

 

Had to race 2 motos, quarters and semis. Won moto 2 to transfer to quarters. That was at 2:28:20 in that broadcast stream. I made it to semi finals but got pinched off going into turn 1. It was either tap the brake or someone was going down. I'm still not ready to crash on my surgically repaired shoulder.

[ForrestGump]

For Grands(the equivalent to our waterski national championship weekend), the winners trophies were 7 FOOT tall and they do trophies all the way to 8th place. IE, if you make the main event in your age division you're going home with a trophy. Imagine being a 6 year old kid that's 36inches tall getting a 7 foot tall trophy to take home. Kind of beats the hell out of USA Waterski's dinky little medal for winning Nationals.

[ToddL]

@BoneHead - Just curious, what was the entry fee? (value for 2-5 rounds of racing, plus trophies for 1-8th place)

[ForrestGump]

Each class was $70. So if you signed up for Class 20 and Cruiser, it was $140. But if you booked hotel through their travel agent, $20 was knocked off.

[bikesrus]

Spent many a Thanksgiving in Oklahoma (1996-2009) at the Grands. Usa Bmx is a professional group, putting on Nationals almost every weekend somewhere in the lower 48 or Canada. Some great memories....unreal steak dinners, 21 hr straight drives from So Cal on Tuesday after work to get there in time to practice on Thanksgiving, butt numbing amounts of motos to wait thru til it was your kids turn, and the look on their face when they brought home hardware