Nyhaug wins first BMX World Cup time trial in Argentina
Feature photo: Nyhaug races his way to gold on Day 1 of TO2015 competition in Etobicoke. (Alexandra Fernando).
Tory Nyhaug raced to the time trial title, at the first UCI BMX Supercross World Cup event in Santiago Del Estero, Argentina on Friday.
The London 2012 Olympian, won his first World Cup time trial event, after registering the second fastest start time of the competition. Nyhaug’s fast turns, allowed him to take over the leader position from France’s Damien Godet with a time of 31.026 seconds.
Related: Tory Nyhaug wins BMX Pan Am gold
The next rider on the track was the reigning two-time Olympic Champion and top seed in the competition, Maris Strombergs. Despite registering the quickest start time, the Latvian’s time of 31.318s was only enough to move into second place.
The last rider of the competition was the 2015 World Champion Neik Kimmann. After the first two turns the Dutch rider was ahead of Nyhaug, however Kimmann crossed the line in a time of 31.119s, which fell short of first place, but was enough to knock Stombergs out of second.
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On Saturday, Nyhaug competed in the men’s BMX final, finishing fifth. Corben Sharrah from the United States won the event in 30.973s, followed by his teammate Connor Fields (+0.175s). Amidou Mir of France (+0.587s) finished third ahead of Argentina’s Exequiel Torres (+1.203s) and Nyhaug (+1.448s).
Last season Nyhaug came back from an injury, to win the Pan Am BMX gold medal in front of a home crowd. The Canadian’s strong showing at the first World Cup competition of the season, will make him one to watch with less than five months to Rio 2016.