Collin Blatchley Finishes 8th at BMX Worlds

Sorry, Niwot Elementary second graders. It’s going to be hard to top Collin Blatchley’s “What I Did Over Summer Vacation” story this year.

On July 26th, the seven-year-old Niwot resident beat out 68 competitors from around the world to finish eighth overall in his age group at the 2017 UCI BMX World Championships in Rock Hill, S.C. For the next year, Collin will preside as “World #8”, and ride with a special number plate on his bike during races.

“It was an awesome experience,” said Rob Blatchley, Collin’s father. “There were kids in his group from all over the world including Australia, Latvia, Chile, Puerto Rico, Peru, Bolivia, Switzerland, Zimbabwe, Canada, and many others.”

Collin’s journey to the sport’s second-biggest stage began four years ago, when the then three-year-old started riding with neighbor Reid Porter at the BMX track in Dacono. Since then, he has competed in local and national races with Pedal 2 The Mettle, a state champion BMX team.

Collin punched his ticket to the World Championships earlier this year when he took first place in his age group at the Lone Star Nationals in Austin, Texas, one of four world qualifying events held between February and April. In the weeks since, Collin spent “a lot of time at the track” preparing for the international race, said Blatchley. “Almost every single weekend this summer has been a BMX race, along with an additional one to two days during the week for practice.”

Making the trip to Rock Hill with Collin and his dad were his mother, Heather, and younger brother Aven, 5. They were joined there by Heather’s brother and nephew, who made a “surprise” trip from New York to see Collin race.

Going into the race, the family had “no expectations.” As for Collin, “You could tell he was getting anxious about the race as we got closer,” explained the elder Blatchley. “We tried to take the pressure off by letting him know what a great accomplishment it was just to qualify for Worlds, let alone have the guts to get up onto the start hill and actually compete.”

In BMX racing, each round consists of “motos” or heats of eight riders. The top finishers in each moto advance until just eight remain in the “main” or final round. “We were really hoping he’d make it out of the first round,” explained Blatchley. “After he won the first two motos, we started to think that he might have a chance to do really well. Then he kept having great gate starts each round and we were getting more and more hopeful.”

Collin finished fourth in the semi-main to secure his spot in the main and claim his place as one of the world’s top seven-year-old BMX racers.

“That gives him the title World Number 8 until next year’s championship in Baku, Azerbaijan,” explained Blatchley. “Collin is also automatically qualified to attend the world championships next year….Sounds exciting, but we’ll see if we actually decide to go all the way there.”

Though other kids might celebrate a world-class performance with a trip to Disneyland, Collin didn’t even take the weekend off. “World #8” was back at it on July 29 and 30 with races in Carbondale and Eagle. The Blatchleys then head to Grand Junction for the Mile High Nationals on Aug. 4-6, where Collin will like face many of the same American riders he saw at Worlds.

As for next year and beyond, Blatchley said he and Heather will support Collin’s ambitions until “he stops having fun.”

“BMX is a big part of our lives now and we have a lot of great friends that we’ve met through the sport.”