Hot, Hotter, hottest. BMX Elite challenge the heat at Papendal

Jun 21, 2025

Written by Bart de Jong

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Heat wave or no official heat wave, Round 3 of the UCI BMX Racing World Cup was hot over at Papendal today. The BMX Racing community had gathered in The Netherlands the weekend after the two opening rounds in Sarrians, France where Dutch athletes Jason Noordam (U23 Men), Michelle Wissing (U23 Women) and Elite racers Arthur Pilard (FRA) and Molly Simpson (CAN) left as leaders of their specific classes. With a record number of athletes for the 12th edition of the UCI World Cup at Papendal it was harder than ever to get through the rounds to make it to the final race of the day.

With a win in the quarter finals Jason Noordam, Casper Pipers, European Champion Alexis

Pieczanowsky and Clément Rocherieux showed they were the favourites in the Under 23 class. That long first straight sure helped get the strongest riders get out front early on. The U23 Women quarter final saw Michelle Wissing and Renske van Santvoort cross the finish line in first in front of their home crowd with two more rounds to go on Saturday. The Dutch had more to look forward to with Jaymio Brink winning his quarter final beating none other than 2024 UCI BMX World Cup champion Izaac Kennedy. Rico Bearman (NZL), Hugo Marszalek (FRA) and Switzerland’s Cédric Butti were also looking sharp heading into the semifinals of Round 3. The competition in Elite Women wasn’t less interesting in the quarter finals with two Olympic Gold medalists grabbing wins (Bethany Shriever and Saya Sakakibara) and also Laura Smulders (27 UCI World Cup wins) and red plate holder Molly Simpson (CAN) scored a #1.

The field in each class was now brought down to 16, with only 8 making it to the final and 3 getting the rights to step on the podium at the end of the day.

In the first final of the day current U23 leader Jason Noordam had a tough challenge with Dutch U23 national champion Casper Pipers for the win. Jason had to push hard all the way till the end to hold off Pipers who had to settle for 2nd with Jason winning 3 in a row at Papendal. If that wasn’t enough, the U23 Women final was almost a carbon copy of final one giving the Dutch crowd something to cheer for, again. Renske van Santvoort scored an amazing 2nd right behind Michelle Wissing who also made it three UCI World Cup wins in a row strengthening her lead in the series after just three rounds. Lily Greenough of New Zealand made her trip worthwhile scoring a podium on Saturday.

When the gate dropped of the Elite Men final again the crowd got on their feet with Jaymio Brink being on Izaac Kennedy’s tail coming out of the first turn. Jaymio had the momentum to get alongside Izaac on the third straight. In the final turn Kennedy went down which caught Jaymio off guard which sent his rear wheel over the edge and lost all his speed. This opened up an opportunity for an unexpected podium with Rico Bearman (NZL) winning his first UCI BMX Racing World Cup win taking Holland’s Mitchel Schotman with in in 2nd and Sylvain André (FRA) grabbing the last podium spot.

Enter the Elite Women final where it was Laura Smulders who took the holeshot and never looked back. She completed the lap in first making this her 28th UCI BMX Racing World Cup victory. Paris 2024 Olympic gold medalist Saya Sakakibara (AUS) crossed the line in 2nd with UEC European Elite Women champion Zoë Claessens getting 3rd.

What a day of BMX racing at Papendal. Round 3 in the books. Round 4 tomorrow.