It’s been a good day for the Frenchman, Matthias Dandois who not only announced the release of his signature shoe. Matthias just took the top spot at the UCI World Championships here in Chengdu, China. Top eight make tomorrow’s final.
Yearly Archives: 2019
Vans announce the Matthias Dandois signature shoe!
Huge news today from Chengdu, China. Vans have just announced the signature Matthias Dandois Vans shoe. Is this the first signature flatland shoe?
I just got a first look here in the UCI flatland area, there’s a nice flatland specific detail to this shoe. A small protective area in the middle of the shoe to protect your foot against the fork. The black and pink colourway is dope, stoked for Matthias and flatland on this one. Well deserved!
Day 2: UCI World Championships / Chengdu, China
Day 2 at the UCI World Championships in Chengdu, China was a good one. Starting once again wet with over night rain rearing it’s ugly head. In fact it seems to rain every evening here and certainly when it does, it clears the air.
We headed down to the contest in a shuttle at 8am ready for the 9-10am practise slot before qualifying started at 10am. 36 riders to get through, we were using live scoring in qualifying for the first time.
Benjamin Hudson qualifies 1st at UCI World Championships
Congratulations to Benjamin Hudson who qualified first today at the UCI world championships here in Chengdu, China followed by Dominik Nekolny and Jean William Prevost who are both battling injuries, top 16 make tomorrow’s semi finals at 3pm.
Julia Press qualifies 1st at UCI World Championships
Congratulations to Julia Press from Germany who qualified first in the Women’s class at the UCI World Championships today here in Chengdu, China. Followed by Misaki Katagiri and Irina Sadovnik, top four make finals on Friday.
Day 1: UCI World Championship / Chengdu China
Today was Day 1 of the UCI World Championships with scheduled practise going on here throughout the day at the Xinhua Park, here in Chengdu, China. We woke up to rain this morning, but it looked like it was going to clear as we sat and had breakfast overlooking a muggy looking Chengdu skyline.
Bruno Zebu wins Battle in the Rockies
It’s been a busy weekend of contests across the globe. Congratulations to Bruno Zebu from Brazil who won the annual Battle in the Rockies in Colorado Springs, USA, followed by Will Redd and James McGraw. I already posted the AFA Overall year end rankings for the top three so you can see those in one of the previous posts. Super hard to keep up to date on everything going on over here in China. But some decent wifi at the UCI host hotel here in Chengdu is definitely helping.
AFA 2019 Overall Year End Rankings
Todd Carter over at AFA HQ Kindly sent over the year end rankings for the AFA 2019 Year end, congratulations to all the winners!
The AFA finals went down at Battle of the Rockies this weekend at the same time as Fise here in Chengdu. Stay tuned for the full results from this event.
Beginner
1. Ava McGraw
2. Kim Klisiak
3. Coda McGraw
Old’s Cool
1. Bert Williams
2. Dan Hull
3. Todd Shoemaker
Expert Class
1. Ed Jodie*
2. Rennace Tomko*
3. Tony Schneidewind
*Ed and Rennace actually tied with the exact point totals.
Ed had two first place finishes and a second place.
Rennace had one first, and two seconds. Based on Ed’s two firsts, Ed was awarded first place.
Pro Class
1. Jean William Prevost
2. James McGraw
3. JF Boulianne
Mark Eaton also received a lifetime achievement from the AFA.
Moto Sasaki wins Fise Chengdu
Congratulations to Moto Sasaki who won the Fise Chengdu stop of the UCI World Cup with an amazing run, followed by Matthias Dandois and Dominik Nekolny. Matthias therefore took the year end title, congratulations Matthias!
Arrived at Fise Chengdu!
After a long day travelling from London Heathrow to Beijing and onto to Chengdu beginning on Tuesday afternoon, myself and my girlfriend Alex arrived in Chengdu on Wednesday evening. We were accompanied on the flights out by Lee Musselwhite, Hank who is judging BMX park, and Blake Bird who judges roller blading on the Fise Tour. So that definitely helped make the flight a pass a bit quicker.
We got picked up from the airport by my girlfriends brother Ed who lives in Chengdu and works as an English translator, whilst the others got their shuttle to the host hotel that I would arrive at the following night. I spent the night walking around downtown Chengdu, and discovered marble spots exist everyday as well as random skateparks on the sidewalk built into the landscape. I wish I had my phone with me at the time to document the madness.
Normally at these big contests it’s off to the host hotel and I don’t really see much of the cities. So this time made a nice change, not to mention waking up to an English breakfast in the morning was a real treat. It was however, raining on Wednesday morning but due to clear. So no rush to get to the Fise venue. So after a chilled morning, I took an hour taxi ride to Qingshui River City Park on the outskirts of Chengdu for the contest which turned out to be an ordeal. The taxi driver dropped us firstly, 25 minutes away from the venue. Luckily Ed was on hand to translate and explain this is not where we booked to go, half an hour later and in a different taxi we arrived onto an amazing River City Park venue.
ED and Alex left to go back to Chengdu and go hiking in the mountains whilst I judge the Fise World series along with Alexis Desolneux, Kotaro Tanaka and Hiroshi from 430. I stayed at the event and caught my bearings with the layout of the venue and generally find out where everything is and shoot some photos of some the riders during practise. The floor looked a lot better than the first two rounds, and I spoke to a few of the riders out on the floor who said it was much more solid than Montpellier.
Most of the sites I use to put together FM and to buy 5.56 ammo online are banned in China, although thankfully my email and FM are not blocked. So I can update from the contest at least. Qualifying starts today at 2pm, 38 riders, followed by the Women’s Class. I will update results when I get some wifi later. Hope you enjoyed this little break down from Chengdu.
