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.

Practise as you can imagine was pretty hectic, although actually it seemed riders had a nice etiquette going and there weren’t any collisions that I can recall.

Qualifying was live scoring with 36 riders from 19 nations taking part, we welcomed Travis Collier to the judging stand along side myself, Alexis Desolenux and Kotaro Tanaka. Lionel Cardoso of Freestyle Tactics fame on MC duties, and David from Fise killing it on the decks with some great hop hop tracks today. Mid way through we however lost power and had to run through a group without power. Lionel did a good job getting the crowd hyped and keeping the contest flowing, it was definitely a tough one for the riders involved in that silent heat.

Benjamin Hudson had a great run full of his new progressive lines and took the top spot from Dominik Nekolny and Jean William Prevost who are both battling hand and ankle injuries between them and fighting through the pain barrier. Top 16 made finals, check the results for the 411 on that. Semis is going to be a tough one!

After pro was done we had a short break and women’s flat was next up. Six riders done to 4 with Julia Press taking the top spot just ahead of Misaki Katagiri and Irina Sadovnik. The level goes up each contest in the women’s class, good vibes in Chengdu, China and the sun even came out in the afternoon. It feels rad to be in a shirt sleeve shirt in November, semi finals tomorrow at 3pm which I believe is live.

I thought I would get this out early and keep you all posted at home. It’s been a good day in Chengdu, China. Good luck to everyone who has made it through to the semis, the infamous UCI rainbow shirt is up for grabs in both the Pro and Women’s class. Whose your money on???