One month after the UCI BMX World Championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, the world’s elite meet up again in Santiago del Estero this weekend.  The Argentinean city hosts the fourth of five rounds of the 2014 BMX Supercross World Cup after a break of nearly three months. The third round was held in Berlin, Germany, mid-June.

Riders in Argentina will be looking to position themselves in the overall rankings before the final round in Chula Vista (USA) at the end of the month, and to collect important Rio 2016 qualification points for their nations.

Elite Men: Narrow lead for Phillips

Great Britain’s Liam Phillips currently leads the Elite Men’s rankings by a narrow margin. With 455 points, he leads Joris Daudet (France) by just 40 points. Australia’s Anthony Dean (405) and Dutch athlete Twan van Gendt (395) are also within striking distance. After a disappointing early elimination at the UCI World Championships in his own country Van Gendt will be looking for a better result in Santiago.

Local riders Ramiro Marino and Frederico Villegas will rely on the encouragements of their home crowd to help them move up in the standings.

Latvia currently tops the nations rankings, and will count on double Olympic Champion Maris Strombergs and fellow Latvian Edzus Treimanis to hold on to that advantage.

Elite Women: Buchanan looking to confirm

Australia’s Caroline Buchanan has had a strong World Cup season so far but admits that anything can happen in BMX. She will try to focus in Argentina in order to hold onto her 110 point lead over Laura Smulders (the Netherlands) and Venezuela’s Stefany Hernandez who is just 10 points further back.

The Netherlands leads the nations ranking thanks to consistently strong performances of Laura Smulders and Merle van Benthem, both of whom will be present in Argentina.

Racing kicks off with the time trials and qualifying event on September 6th followed by the UCI BMX Supercross race on September 7th.