Willers wins, Walker second in London Olympic BMX test event

BikeNZ BMX star Marc Willers sounded a major warning to his competition a year out from the Olympics when he won the rain-affected test event in London today.

Willers, who led to the first corner, was then forced to come from behind on the third straight to claim the victory.

Compatriot Sarah Walker also impressed finishing a close second behind Great Britain’s Shanaze Reade in the women’s final of the event that doubled as the third round of the UCI Supercross World Cup.

Walker is in a virtually unbeatable position in the Supercross standings while Willers closes to within 56 points of leader and world champion Joris Daudet with one round remaining in Chula Vista near San Diego next month.

There was a four hour rain delay today that threatened to rule out any racing, before competition finally got underway after 5pm local time. The usual three-moto qualifying was reduced to a single elimination round with only a few minutes of warm-up.

“It was just a matter of waiting around really. I didn’t think we would get any racing. We had 10 minutes warm-up but we had a crash in ours so I got in one lap,” said Walker.

“Then it was straight into racing with only three races in total. So it was a matter of preparing well out the back and getting the focus right.”

Walker said she was pleased with her performances, especially the semifinal effort when she came from behind with a superb third straightaway to overtake Reade, the two-time world champion.

She drew level with Reade going into the first corner in the final but got squeezed out, and then tried the same manoeuvre on the third straight but narrowly missed pushing underneath the British star and had to settle for second.

“Overall I am proud of my performance. I know what has to be done and I am confident that I will be really competitive here in 12 months time.”

Willers again drew a loaded moto comprising two world champions, teammate Kurt Pickard and former world junior champion Sam Willoughby (AUS).

Pickard impressed to finish second ahead of Willers in the moto but made a slight mistake in the quarterfinal to finish fifth and was eliminated.

Willers showed all his class in a brilliant final, getting the hit out of the gate before he was overtaken by Willoughby and then battled alongside Frenchman Joris Daudet, who edged the kiwi for the world title two weeks ago.

The kiwi fought back superbly on the third straight to work underneath the Australian and then rode clear to claim the victory, showing a rare sign of emotion as he punched his hand in the air.

“Yes I thought the occasion deserved the fist pump,” Willers said.

“It has been an emotion couple of weeks after missing out at the world championship. Today with the weather was a real mental thing. It was totally crazy out there in the final.

 It was probably the hardest race I have been in,” Willers said.

“There were passing chances here which is great. I gave it everything. This time that third straight, which was my undoing at the worlds, was my saviour here and I went for it. I knew Sam did not have the speed after his line to pass me.

“I have worked so hard and this confirms that I am on the right track. I don’t want to get ahead of myself. There’s still a year until London and there’s is a lot of racing and so much more hard work to do, but this is pretty satisfying.”