“I definitely gain a lot more confidence from racing in these conditions,” Buchanan said. “Rio is also on an outdoor track and this could happen at the Olympic Games so who knows. At the end of the day the next few world championships are all outdoors, the next few world cup’s are outdoors and Rio is going to be outdoors so anything can happen. If this does happen again in Rio I know I’ll be even more prepared. To walk away with how it went in Zolder and be on the podium, get really good Olympic qualifying points for me and for Australia is exactly what I needed.”
Buchanan and the rest of Australia’s high performance team are now on a mini-break in Europe before they go into camp in the Netherlands on Thursday ahead of the next round of the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup in Engelholm, Sweden on August 15-16.
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Pics by BdJ
BMX star Caroline Buchanan says the wild weather that she and Australia’s other riders faced at the weekend’s world championships in Zolder, Belgium may be the perfect preparation for next year’s Rio Olympic Games. The world championships’ final day at the outdoor track, set within the confines of the former F1 circuit in Zolder, was marred by a serious weather warning that led officials to make major changes to the format and schedule of competition.
Those changes included bringing the racing forward almost five hours and the decision to start all events from the 5m start hill used by the age group challenge classes instead of the elite 8m supercross start hill.
The altered schedule saw competitors hit the wet track in a condensed helter skelter program that put immense pressure on the riders, something Buchanan says is a possibility in Rio or at several of the important lead up events that are at the mercy of the weather over the next 12 months.
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