MTN Bmx rider Sifiso "Skizo" Nhlapo was looking for his fifth straight win and first one for the first round of the UCI Bmx SX rounds which was held in Coppenhagen, Denmark Saturday 9^th May.

Quarter finals the whole way around had a big mixture of names with some big names not making it through like 5th fastest qualifier Junior World Champion Sam Willoughby. In Skizo's quarter final he used his strength to holeshot again and rode a safe race eventually finishing in second spot behind Stan van der Putten.

In Sifiso's semi-final he was up against some top names like NZ rider Marc Willers, Martijn Scherpen, Rob van den Wildenberg and Mtbér World Champion Prokop who is a regular at the BMX events. Skizo got a clean jump out the gate and was nearly two bike lengths in front by the first corner a gap he seemed to hold onto right till the finish. In the second semi-final of the day Raymon van der Biezen took the top spot.

Going into the final MTN Bmx rider Sifiso "skizo" Nhlapo had lane 1 gate choice. With his explosive speed and good run upto the final he was tipped by the commentators as the favourite to win the final and set a record of 5 straight wins. Bmx being the sport it is so unpredictable, when the gate dropped Skizo had a slower start than normal but pulled back to second by the end of the first straight. Starting to set himself up for a pass and make a challenge for the first position French rider Damien Godet came up the inside and Skizo had to run up the turn. This unfortunately put Sifiso into 5th place where he eventually finshed up in the final.

Results for the Final:

1. Stan van der Putten (qualified 12th)

2. Martijn Scherpen (qualified 17th)

3. Damien Godet (qualified 3rd)

4. Raymon van der Biezen (qualified 10th)

5. Sifiso Nhlapo (MTN) (qualified 29th)

a disappointed Skizo says, "im proud of Dean the way he rode today, qualifying on the bubble puts you in stacked gates so its always going to be hard but he made it through every lap fast and smooth. Myself I felt really good today and felt I could win. The motos and semi went really well, I am disappointed about the final but the season still has 3 more rounds of the UCI SX events and my goal is to win round two at home in front of my home crowd and my sponsors Intense, Oakley, Redbull, Fox, Shimano, S&M, SRM and then the main guys that allow me to race overseas for my second season now MTN, without them living this dream would not be possible."

Picture courtesy of Jerry Landrum – www.bmxmania.com

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Mark Squire