‘I try to be fearless’: Samual Grace to make international debut alongside Loupos and AusCycling development team
NATThe next generation of Australian BMX Freestylers will have a rare opportunity to test themselves on the world stage when the second round of the 2024 UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup begins in Montpellier this week.
With no Olympic qualification points on offer and the first round of the Olympic Qualifier Series set to begin next week, AusCycling has opted to send a squad of predominantly development riders to France.
Led by ARA Australian Cycling Team regular Brandon Loupos, the development squad features six emerging BMX Freestyle talents, including Amateur National Champions Will Spedding and Xavier Gilbee, and 2022 Elite Women National Championship silver medallist Mylee Toohey.
Also included in the squad is newly minted Elite National Champion Samual Grace, whose feet have barely hit the ground since winning the national title at RampFest back in February.
While an online search suggests Grace has historically ridden with a fearless attitude, the 21-year-old revealed to AusCycling prior to his departure for the world cup that a recent change in his approach to riding has helped contribute to the recent success.
“I try to be fearless, but sometimes I feel like I am fairly calculated with what I do,” Grace said.
“I think in the last few years that I've really stepped up my game a lot, and this last year, I’ve really focused on staying on my bike rather than doing too much and risking falling in my runs.”
Aside from the sharpened focus, Grace also made the difficult decision to upend his life in pursuit of his BMX Freestyle dreams.
“I have moved recently to the Gold Coast and also I've been riding pretty much more than I ever have this year.”
“When I moved up here, it felt like I already knew so many people, because I’ve been up here on holidays and I rode with heaps of BMX riders up here, so it kind of felt like home already.”
Those riders include members of the ARA Australian Cycling Team, and Grace reveals how being around the performance environment further changed the way he thinks about the sport.
“The guys like Logan (Martin) and Alec (Danelutti), what I noticed is how they ride. So, they’ll ride for only like two hours, but in that two hours they’ll do everything.
“Usually when I ride, I’ll ride for like a long time and just slowly work up to the bigger tricks. But (how they ride) is what it's like in competition; you’ve got to do your tricks within the hour. So that’s really an eye-opener for me.”
The changes have so far paid off. After the national championship in February, Grace secured silver at the Oceania Continental Championship in March, and is now set for his first overseas competition at the world cup event in France.
“I’m feeling really good (about Montpellier). I’m pretty much as prepared as I could be going into it. So, I’m happy about that. And also, a couple of years back I did the FISE comp on the Gold Coast, so that pretty much gave me an idea of what it's going to be like.
“I've been looking at the map of the course for the last two weeks, trying to put together a run that I think is going to work on the course, but you can never really tell until you get there. But I've been doing that and then focusing on the tricks that I want to do in the run when I've been out riding.”
The Montpellier round of the 2024 UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup begins with men’s qualification later today, followed by women’s qualification on Friday, then semi-finals and finals across the weekend.
ARA Australian Cycling Team:
- Brandon Loupos
AusCycling BMX Freestyle Development Team:
- Keegan Pryor
- Mylee Toohey
- Will Spedding
- Cooper Wilson
- Samual Grace
- Xavier Gilbee
Development Team Riders were chosen from an EOI process. This is the first BMX Freestyle international development opportunity for an AusCycling pathways group.
2024 UCI BMX World Cup, France
- May 8-12
- Rives du Lez, Montpellier, France
- Competition Guide
Photos: Gorak Photos
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