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Veterans Cup 2017: A wonderful day with (in retrospect) a little melancholy!

On 08-Sep-2018 it was Veteranencup time again! The 23rd event was coming up and of course many oldschoolers came to Weiterstadt again to present their bikes in the beauty show or to cheer on the oldschoolers at the races. Unfortunately, this time there was a permanent farewell, but nobody knew that at the time. More on this topic later in the report.

Unfortunately, Uwe J.u.n.g. had a serious crash at the start of the Veterans' Cup. During his first training lap, he rolled over on the first straight and suffered a fracture to his pelvic bone. This not only sounds very painful, but it is; Uwe was therefore unfortunately unable to take part in the subsequent race. Fortunately, he recovered well in the weeks that followed and is now able to ride again.

As always, we were able to welcome many old-schoolers as onlookers in Weiterstadt in 2017, including Ivi V.i.d.a.k.o.v.i.c, Rainer S.c.h.a.d.o.w.s.k.i and Jürgen T.i.s.s.m.e.r. As is so often the case here in the centre of Germany, the weather was very good and there were many tents with lots of beautiful bikes on display. In addition, there was a lively trade in old-school parts between the private individuals, but the dealers also sold a lot of parts again. Special praise goes to the team from Berlin led by Martin G.l.u.e.c.k, Frank U.n.t.e.r.s.t.a.b, Robert I.w.a.n.o.w.s.k.i and Steffen J.a.n.d.e.r who travelled the furthest and stayed overnight twice. On the Friday before, they paid a special visit to the BMX Museum of the S.c.h.a.d.o.w.s.k.is in Karlsruhe.

Daniel J.u.l.i.n.g., an old acquaintance from the 1980s, took part in the Veterans' Cup for the first time and started straight away. I was delighted that Daniel has now also joined the select field of Veterans' Cup participants. As in the past, he was travelling on GHP and in his first veteran race he immediately took 3rd place in the veteran class. Congratulations!

This time the races were organised with transponders. These are small transmitters that are attached to the front fork in order to measure the exact lap times and determine the riders' finishing times more precisely than with the usual judges' eyes.

As in previous years, the beauty contest was again supported with prizes from Dieter S.c.h.a.d.o.w.s.k.i.. The judging committee consisted of Dieter S.c.h.a.d.o.w.s.k.i, Lothar K.a.s.p.r.c.z.i.k and Robert I.w.a.n.o.w.s.k.i. As always, Dieter personally conducted the award ceremony. What we all didn't know at the time was that this Veterans' Cup would be the last one that Dieter would be able to experience and organise. Unfortunately, Dieter passed away a few months after this Veterans' Cup; a heavy blow in the history of the Veterans' Cup and German BMX in general. Dieter was a mainstay of the BMX sport and a special personality; he will be greatly missed by us all as a BMX member but also as a friend and person. A very sad and emotional look back at the pictures and moments we were able to experience with Dieter in 2017.

Now back to the beauty show, which was always very close to Dieter's heart and which he supported intensively for years with prizes and technical expertise. More than 80 bikes of a very high quality level were judged at the beauty contest. A March from England and a champion from the USA were on show for the first time. Alfons S.c.h.u.s.t.e.r drew attention with the Centurion brand, Jörg A.r.n.o.l.d had once again set up his special red Hutch stand, Thomas K.a.u.f.f.f.e.l.d.t showed his collection focussed on Mongoose bikes and Patrick V.o.e.l.k.l invested fully in CW and Torker in his team tent. You can read the individual rankings of the most beautiful bikes under the results. I would like to emphasise two categories in particular: The "King of Oldschool BMX" with the rankings 3rd Stefan P.r.a.n.t.l on Skyway, 2nd Jürgen W.a.g.n.e.r on SE Racing and 1st Patrick V.o.e.l.k.l on Torker. Markus G.r.ü.n.e.w.a.l.d won the "Best of Bike Show" category with his red Redline from 1978.

The races went off without any serious crashes. All 28 active riders came through well and had a lot of fun on the track in Weiterstadt, which was once again excellently prepared. There were 4 pre-race groups of 5 riders in the oldies class and one pre-race group of 8 riders in the veterans class. The following pictures show the pre-race groups and a few impressions of the races.

The finals were eagerly awaited at the end of the race. In the veteran class, the drivers finished in the following order: 1. Gido H.i.n.z 2. Steffen S.e.n.g.e.r 3. Daniel J.u.l.i.n.g 4. Kevin K.a.r.l 5. Thomas K.o.l.l.e.r 6. Uwe B.u.r.d.a.c.k 7. Alfons S.c.h.u.s.t.e.r 8. Christian S.t.a.m.m.b.e.r.g.e.r. The oldie class had to qualify for the final via a semi-final. The finish of the Oldie class final was: 1st Olaf K.l.e.i.n 2nd Ralf M.a.u.r.i.t.z 3rd Stephan P.r.a.n.t.l 4. Mark B.a.l.t.r.u.s.c.h 5. Hamdi A.b.b.a.s 6. Jürgen W.a.g.n.e.r 7. Michael B.a.l.i.n.t 8. Dirk W.a.e.h.l.e.r.

Award ceremonies for the veteran and oldie classes

Oldie class final

Final veteran class

As always, I would like to end by thanking my home club TSV Braunshardt. Once again, the team around Tino S.e.i.d.e.l has put together a very good framework organisation for the Veterans' Cup. We will continue this next year and organise the Veterans' Cup again, then for the 24th time. See you in 2018 at the next Veterans' Cup in the centre of Hesse, the "Home of Oldschool BMX" in Weiterstadt!

Ralf M.a.u.r.i.t.z.

P.S.: The photos in this report were taken by Ralf M.a.u.r.i.t.z and Marijus B.u.n.t.i.c.