The 2010 UCI BMX World Cup series kicked off to a great start in Madrid, Spain. The indoor arena in the centre of town drew a big crowd with record numbers of riders attending. Elite Women had 39 riders competing with the top 32 qualifying through the time trial. The Australian team arrived early into Madrid, giving us more time to adapt to the time zone. Having an extra few days than the other countries helped in our favour. Security was tight to get into the stadium so we only saw the track the day before racing started. Tom did a great job designing the track with a new box jump idea for the guys. The girls 2nd straight was quite technical with tall dirt jumps. All the time the Australian team spent at Luke Madills house on the time trials really payed off. I finished in 2nd position in the time trial starting off the weekend with great Olympic points and confidence for racing. I knew that I just had to focus on the processes over the weekend to get the outcome of a podium result, which was my goal. I took each race as it came and focused on riding smart to qualify. I made it through the heats dialling in my lines. I drew a really hard semi final and knew it would be tough. The Jnr World Campion Mariana Pajon didn't even make it through our semi final. I placed 2nd in the semi in front of Shenaze Reid, former World Champion, to progress to the final. It turned out that the top 3 from my semi were the top 3 in the final. I was really nervous on the gate and miss timed it. This put me in 4th into the 1st corner, I got myself into 3rd down the next straight almost passing Shenaze with alot of elbows and bumping. I again almost pssed her on the line, but finished in 3rd spot on the podium. Last years World Cup series started slow... but not this year!! I'm on a mission to prove I'm the best in the world and qualify for the 2012 Olympics. The EDS Aus team now head to the UCI headquarters in Switzerland for training, then off to France for a UCI round.

CB

• By Allan H