04.07.10 - UCI Supercross 2010 Round one-Tory Nyhaug finishes 10th

The first of five UCI SX World Cups was held in Madrid, Spain on March 28th. The event was held indoors in front of a stadium full of load excited Spanish fans. Time trails for the event were moved from the regular Friday time to Saturday morning to create a short compact one day event. The day didn’t start well for the small Canadian team at the event, in the end it got a lot better. First up Danielle Brisson had a bad fall in her time trail and ended up breaking her ankle in the process. Up next came junior rider Nick Benetti, Nick had a great practice on Friday, dialling in the track including the big step-on-step-off jump on the second straight that was giving many of the top athletes problems. However, in his first SX World Cup Nick’s nerves got the best of him and he overshot the first jump and crashed. Nick was able to walk away with some bumps and burses but would be watching from the sidelines come race time. Lastly, Tory Nyhaug set the time trail record, when time trails were finished he slid back to 21st. “It wasn’t a good lap” said Tory. 21st out of 140 of the World’s best BMX Elite athletes, I guess it couldn’t been that bad. With Time trails finished there was a three hour break before racing, enough time to grab a bite to eat, relax a little at the hotel and make sure our injured athlete was OK.

In the 1/8 qualifiers Tory wasn’t getting the best starts but he was able to still finish in the four by some amazing track riding and passing. In his 3rd round Tory cut his chin open on his handlebars, like the true Canadian/hockey player he is a quick clean up and band-aid and out he went, stitches would have to wait until after racing. Tory made it easily though his ¼ final with a 2nd place. The his semi final his slow starts caught up to him, Tory was in 5th place trying to find a line into 4th and just couldn’t make the pass before the finish. Finishing 10th place overall and his best performance and Canada’s best male performance at a SX World Cup event.

Next stop Copenhagen May 7th & 8th

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