Date 13. 05. 2010 (3468) |

Beginning of May, the Euro Team travelled to Perugia (Italy) for Rounds 3&4 of the European Championships Series, except for Lucie Meerholz. She broke her collarbone during the second National Race in Heiloo. We wish her a speedy recovery and hope to see her back on her bike soon. The Formula Europe Team was racing their brand new Race Kit with a new jersey design and Royal SP247 Race Pants. The Perugia track was very technical, even a bit dangerous and causing a lot of casualties. In Junior Men, Bastien Merle was putting in some good motos earning points for the ranking. He qualified easily for the main on Saturday in which he was in 4th position when he cased the first double of the Pro Section and lost his speed. He crossed the finish line in 7th place. On Sunday he looked like he was going to repeat his performance, but stranded in the semis. Bastien is in 10th place of the Junior Men Ranking after 4 rounds. Sandra Aleksejeva, Rookie in Elite Women, had an impressive weekend. She managed to pass some really though motos against some of the [UTF-8?]World‚s more experienced top riders. With some really nice moves in the semis on both days, she qualified for the main. On Saturday she had to settle for 7th place, but on Sunday, she passed several riders with some amazing turns putting her in 3rd position after turn number 3. She lost some track speed and was passed by 1 rider. Sandra managed to hang on till the finish giving her 4th place for the day. In Elite Men, Kevin Sprengers and Edzus Treimanis were representing the Formula Colors. Kevin was looking good and finishing his motos out in front. He passed the 1/4th finals on Saturday in which he got in contact with another rider on the Pro Section and was pushed back and his racing day was over. He made it up on Sunday, fighting it all the way to the final. He was up in the mix in the main. He was in 4th position turning on the flat going into the Pro Section barely having enough speed to jump. He fought to hang into his spot but had to settle for 7th. Kevin is now in 12th place of the Elite Ranking. Edzus Treimanis had a good weekend. He was 1 of the fastest guys on the track. With his gates improving, he was definitely 1 of the men to beat. Edzus qualified for the mains both days. Saturday he finished in 4th missing the podium by a few inches, Sunday he finished in close second. Edzus moves up to 3rd place in the Elite Men Ranking. Next stop event for our Elite Riders was the World Cup in Copenhagen the weekend after. The Copenhagen BMX Venue was in perfect shape but the weather was a bit of a spoiler. Sandra was looking good in practice but the side wind on the first double blew her of balance and the SX event was over before it began. In [UTF-8?]Friday’s Time Trial, Kevin took first run 66th in the second run and in the second run he landed sideways on the big triple into the first turn and went down. Edzus [UTF-8?]didn’t have a good first run and had to wait to qualify in the second run. He managed to finish with the top 64 and qualified for racing day. On Saturday the wind was a lot less and Edzus was ready for his race. He got drawn in a pretty stacked 1/8 final, but after some finishes in the top three he managed to get through to the 1/4 final. With the 7th gate pick there was no place for mistakes if he wanted to qualify to the semis. Things went his way and he took 4th place on the second straight and kept it save to the finish. In the semi final, after a pretty bad gate Edzus got stuck in traffic in the first turn. In the rest of the track he managed to pass some riders and with a nice high-low in the last turn he passed last years SX overall winner Sam Willoughby to strand in 5th place, just 1 place away from a spot in the final. Most important form him, he earned some points in the first race of the 2012 Olympic games qualification period. Upcoming race for our team are the European Championships Rounds in Weiterstadt, Germany. Formula Europe is supported by Formula Bicycles, EuroBmx.be, Shimano, Alienation, Tioga, BES&T, SixSixOne, Royal Racing and Navada.net.