Steve Lemig, www.lat34.com: BMX Dirt has become one of the most exciting events at this year's Dew Tour. Points leaders Luke Parslow, Anthony Napolitan and Ryan Nyquist have been neck and neck all season in the overall points standings. So, a lot is riding on this last leg of the Dew Tour in Orlando at the PlayStation Pro. And that was pretty obvious at Thursday's Dirt Prelims.
Anthony Napolitan, Ryan Guettler and Corey Bohan all brought out some of their biggest tricks to quell any question of their dominance in this sport. Napolitan threw down his patented run starting with a no-handed front flip, followed by a double whip, a big turndown, and ended with a 360 double whip on the big 4-jump straight course. His high-energy run was enough to qualify him in 1st place going into Friday's Finals. Napolitan is currently ranked 2nd in the overall points standings.
Ryan Guettler let everyone know that while he may be out of the running for 1st place in overall points he is far from out of the race for a podium placement for the season. Guettler launched a 360 right off the bat on the drop-in to the first jump. Then he pulled a front flip, followed by a tail whip, a double whip and 720 on the last set as an exclamation point. He qualified 2nd. Guettler is last year's Dew Tour champion in both Dirt and Park, and is ranked 5th in the overall points standings for Dirt.
Corey Bohan, Ryan Nyquist, Colin Mackay and Allan Cooke rounded out the top six qualifying positions. Nyquist is ranked 3rd overall in the points race for the Dew Cup and looks ready to end the season with a serious fireworks show.
Twenty-seven riders competed in Thursday's Dirt Prelims. Only 12 moved on to Friday's Finals, which are shaping up to be an amazing showdown among the giants of BMX. The course is made up of four sets in a row with a drop-in start. These are some of the hardest sets we've seen on the Dew Tour literally. These things are like concrete again, literally. The sets here at the PlayStation Pro are made out of sand mixed with concrete due to the lack of available quality dirt in Florida. This fact weighs heavy on the riders' minds. Mike Clark said, "Every fall, you're going to feel it. It"s going to hurt bad.'
James Foster felt the wrath of the concretized Florida sand firsthand while trying to pull his signature truck driver downside tail whip. He face-planted big time and came to a sliding halt underneath his bike. He lay motionless for several minutes, but gestured that he was OK by flashing horns to the crowd as we was pulled away on the stretcher.
But, the best trick of the day goes out to T.J. Ellis for pulling a near-flawless double back flip on the last set of his second run. Luke Parslow, who qualified 7th and is currently ranked 1st in overall points, ran up to Ellis to give him a heart-felt congratulations. And it can't go without mentioning that Morgan Wade pulled off the second best trick of the day: a super smooth bike flip, after several failed attempts. It was during a practice run, but still drew big applause from the crowd. With performances like that, you know Friday's Dirt Finals will be insane.
FINALS
Steve Lemig, www.lat34.com: Despite it being Friday the 13th, good fortune was on Anthony Napolitan's side. Napolitan squeeked out a giant win in a super tight, nail-biting contest at the PlayStation Pro Dirt Finals in Orlando, and took home a big $90,000 check for all his hard work. He won $15,000 for winning Friday's Finals and another $75,000 for winning the overall points race yielding him the coveted Dew Cup and the prestige of winning the grueling five-stop Dew Tour. When asked how he did it Napolitan said, "I don't even know. It's crazy. I just went out to have fun." Napolitan came out of relative obscurity on a national scale to win the first stop of the Dew Tour in Louisville. He placed 2nd in Denver and 3rd in Portland, but had a rough time in San Jose where he placed 9th. No one ruled him out of the overall contest, but it appeared that his grip on the lead was slipping. Until Orlando, that is. Most 20 year-olds would crumble under the pressure, but not Anthony. He said, "I knew if I just stayed calm I'd do well. I've been working on new stuff, but I didn't have to use it, so I guess I'll save it for next year!" Corey Bohan threw down two unbelievably hard runs, the first scoring him a 92.5 and the second scoring him a big 94.0. But, it wasn't enough to beat Napolitan's 94.25. Bohan's stellar performance bumped him up to 3rd in overall points for the Dew Tour, up from 6th coming into Orlando. Luke Parslow, who has been Mr. Consistency all season long with 2nd and 3rd place finishes at every stop, finished 3rd again with a searing 93.25. He pulled a back flip tailwhip on the first set, a front flip, a super tweaked back flip turndown, to a 360 whip. That run puts him 2nd overall in the points race and the motivation to step it up one more notch next year. Ryan Nyquist finished in 4th at the Orlando Dirt Finals. He difficulty with his first run but still fit in a back flip double barspin followed by a double barspin. He pulled it together for his second run, which started with a back flip barspin, a suicide double truckdriver, a 360 followed by a 720 barspin. In other words: nuckin futs. Nyquist's Orlando performance put him in 4th for the season in overall points. Ryan Guettler had some problems with both his runs but still ended the season 5th in overall points. Also of note, Stephen Murray threw down what could have been one of the biggest runs on this evil Friday. He started off with a 360 backflip followed by a front flip on the second set, a 360, and ended with a double back flip that he over-rotated. Murray is the only rider to ever pull off a double back flip and 360 flip in a single run.
1st Napolitan, Anthony 90.75
2nd Guettler, Ryan 90.25
3rd Bohan, Corey 90.00
4th Nyquist, Ryan 89.00
5th Mackay, Colin 88.75
6th Cooke, Allan 88.25
7th Parslow, Luke 88.00
8th Murray, Stephen 87.25
9th Doyle, Chris 87.00
10th Darden, Rob 86.75
11th Dillewaard, Dave 85.50
12th Marks, Joey 85.00
13th Ellis, TJ 85.00
14th Gerber, Chris 83.25
15th Young, Gary 83.00
16th Cleveland, Michael 81.75
17th Kintner, Paul 81.50
18th Wirch, Scott 81.50
19th Pinter, Heath 80.25
20th Hancock, Thomas 79.75
21st Erickson, Reuel 77.50
22nd Clark, Michael 76.00
23rd Foster, James 75.50
24th McCann, Steven 75.00
25th Hall, Tim 74.75
26th Wade, Morgan 74.00
27th White, Cameron 72.75
Dirt finals results:
1. Anthony Napolitan
2. Corey Bohan
3. Luke Parslow
4. Ryan Nyquist
5. Colin Mackay
6. Chris Doyle
7. Allan Cooke
8. Dave Dillewaard
9. Rob Darden
10. Stephen Murray
11. Ryan Guettler
12. Joey Marks
www.dewactionsportstour.com: The BMX Park Prelims at the PlayStation® Pro went down on Saturday afternoon with all three of the overall points leaders making the cut, ensuring that the chase for the Dew Cup will go down to the wire. The big news, however, was that Mike Spinner, the winner of the Free Flow Tour (the Dew Tour’s amateur series), earned a spot in the Orlando comp and made it count by beating out all the pros for the top qualifying spot. Spinner is also an Orlando local, so that was just icing on the cake. Austin Coleman squeaked in at twelfth, throwing his crowd-pleasing decades over the box and downside whips on the big quarterpipe. Young gun Kevin Kiraly (last year’s Free Flow Tour winner) made his first Dew Tour Final with tricks like a 720, flairs, and a barspin to footjam nosepick. Marcus Tooker was relatively unknown at the beginning of the season, but he’s made some impressive showings on the Tour this year; he qualified for the Finals in Denver, and did it again here in Orlando. Look for him to go for the 360 whip to barspin on Sunday. Garrett Reynolds made his fourth Final in a row, pulling clean barspin 540s and pocket tailwhips. Coming in eighth was Gary Young, who took advantage of the speed-friendly layout of the course and touched just about every inch of ramp in the building. In his second run, he took a few cracks at burning around the entire curved wallride; if he gets it done in the Finals, expect the other riders to lose their marbles. Next on the roster is Ryan Nyquist, who squeezed stylish alley-oop 360s out of the curved wall and a 720 over the box. He was topped by Scotty Cranmer, who double-whipped the spine, flaired a couple of mellow wedges, and frontflipped the box. Dave Mirra returned from an injury earlier in the season, easily making the cut with flipwhips over the spine, a wild 720, and a turndown flair. Daniel Dhers, who held the overall Park points lead until last month, qualified in fourth with his signature tailwhip attack, so he’ll be able to see what Nyquist and Cranmer dish out in the Finals before he takes his runs. Tough man Steve McCann delivered a great run packed with 720 variations and a double tailwhip air despite smashing a couple of teeth out several hours prior to the Prelims. Alistair Whitton predicted a less-than-stellar showing for himself since he felt the course didn’t suit his riding style, but he wound up earning the second-place qualifying spot without breaking a sweat. As we said before, the top of the roster was held down by Mike Spinner. His first run posted an unbelievable 92.75 score, and the other 32 riders couldn’t top it. A 720 whip over the box, a 720 turndown over the spine, a 360 double whip over the box, and turndown and tailwhip 540s made him untouchable, and he’s got at least two more amazing tricks in his arsenal for the Finals. The Spinner show may even overshadow the points chase between Cranmer, Dhers, and Nyquist; check out the Finals on Sunday, because Spinner just might drop a move never unleashed in competition: the triple-tailwhip 360.
Steve Lemig, www.lat34.com: BMX Park Prelims got off to a blistering start at the Dew Tour PlayStation Pro in Orlando Saturday afternoon. Over 30 riders competed in the best-of-two format contest to secure their place in Sunday’s season-ending Finals. The big news of the day surrounds two men who represent completely opposite sides of the spectrum. One is a legend in the sport and one of the most respected riders in the history of BMX. The other is a brand new rider, who rocketed into the limelight today with his very first pro contest performance. We’re talking about Dave Mirra and the appropriately named Mike Spinner. Mirra has been out most of the season due to injuries, but came to Orlando to test the waters. He threw out a giant back flip whip, a big 720 over the box, and tweaked out turndown flair. And on his second run Mirra attempted an unbelievable no-handed 360 back flip, a new trick for him. So, after qualifying in 5th place we’ll be seeing more of Mirra at Sunday’s Finals. Mirra’s been nursing a lacerated liver since X Games that doctors said he wouldn’t recover from until November. And then there’s Mike Spinner. This Orlando local amateur blew up at the Free Flow Tour in Portland this summer. Spinner is the only rider in the world – pro or amateur – to pull of 720 tail whips. And he throws them out in the park like they’re candy. He was the first competitor to drop in at the Prelims and put down a phenomenal run that scored him a 92.75 and kept him in the 1st place qualifying position for the entire contest. The big grins on Spinner’s face after his run said it all. “I’m so psyched! I just practiced my run piece by piece by piece and put the puzzle all together and it worked out.” It’s not so much that the torch has been passed on to the younger generation as the bar has been raised yet again. All we can say is that Sunday’s Park Finals are going to be off the hook with amateurs qualifying first in pro contests. Alistair Whitton showed up to Prelims treating it like it was the Finals. A big back flip turndown and no-handed foot jam nose pick on the spine were enough for him to qualify 2nd. Steven McCann qualified 3rd and put together a strong run, especially considering he busted out some teeth in practice earlier in the day. They said one of his teeth was still embedded in a ramp when Prelims started up. He nailed a double whip on the quarter pipe followed by a 720 to no-hander over the box and an amazing turndown 720 over the spine. Daniel Dhers, who is 2nd in the overall points standings, had a super intense run that qualified him in 4th place for Sunday’s Finals. This is basically how it went: 720 over the box linked to a double whip linked to 360 whip, a flair, one-foot can can to tail whip, and on and on and on. Plus, in practice Dhers was pulling off front flips over the spine. Dave Mirra saw him pulling off the loco trick and shook his head saying, “Nobody does front flips over spines.” Scotty Cranmer, currently 1st in overall points, showed up to Orlando looking for a big payday. Cranmer qualified in 6th place behind Mirra. And Ryan Nyquist, the Dew Tour’s #3 man in the overall points standings, qualified 7th with a solid run. Nyquist is still riding with a torn ACL, and won’t get surgery for it until after the contest season.
FINALS
www.vitalbmx.com: The Park finals in Orlando turned out to be a bloodbath. Scotty Cranmer busted some teeth out on an under-rotated double-flip over the box to take him out of the contest, and Mike Spinner took a shot to the dome that made him pass on his second run. The real bloodshed was the slaying Daniel Dhers did to the course. Where do we begin? Carving front-flip over the spine, ridiculous box and air variations, and everything back to back. Daniel walked away with the win and the $75,000 bonus that goes with it. Other highlights: Marcus Tooker had two amazing runs and finished second. He’s Nyquist’s roommate, so it seems like it was only a matter of time. Dave Mirra let a flip-whip-one-hand-one-foot catch fly, along with his amazing no-handed-360-flip (after time was up). Steve McCann fired a no-handed-720-to-turnndown and a big 540-whip on the ten-foot quarter. Ryan Nyquist pulled a 720-barspin after his run.
www.dewactionsportstour.com: Whoa, nelly. You couldn’t have asked for a more dramatic end to the 2006 Dew Action Sports Tour than the BMX Park Finals. The spectators packed into the arena, fresh from the FMX Final event outside, eager to score a seat for the hotly-contested Dew Cup race in BMX Park. The twelve-man roster featured riders like Dave Mirra, who made the big show in his first contest after recovering from a serious injury, Kevin Kiraly, who qualified for his first Final of the Dew Tour, and Mike Spinner, a local ripper who qualified first in his very first pro contest. Add to that the fact that Scotty Cranmer, Daniel Dhers, and Ryan Nyquist were a mere 14 points apart for the Dew Cup prize, and you’ve got the makings of one crazy contest. Even practice was nuts. In most cases, riders use practice sessions to loosen up, stay warm, and dial in the line they’ve planned, but with an hour left to go until the comp, riders were throwing bangers every time they dropped in. Double-tailwhip 360s, 360 tailwhip tailtaps to tailwhip out, and 720s were common sights, and the crowd was definitely getting into it. Once the lights went down for introductions, the spectators were on the edges of their seats, ready to roar. The first big thing to happen was Marcus Tooker's first run. He threw a crazy 360 tailwhip to barspin over the box and followed it with a double tailwhip on the quarter, and he didn’t let up for the rest of the run. He even topped it with his second run, adding a 360 tailtap to barspin over the spine rail to place second, his best Dew Tour finish by far. The next surprise was an uncharacteristic crash at the beginning of Nyquist’s first run. He recovered and managed to fire out a few big tricks, but crashed on the same trick in his second run and didn’t get the performance he had in mind. By far the worst thing that happened was Cranmer’s crash on a double backflip attempt. His rotation was super slow, and he came up short and went straight to his face, blowing out a number of teeth and ringing his bell in the process. Unfortunately, he wasn’t up to taking his second run, so his shot at the Dew Cup was gone. Spinner, who was set to deliver perhaps the most anticipated run of the contest, suffered an extremely rare crash on a tailwhip 720 at the beginning of his run, also taking himself out for the rest of the comp. Both Cranmer and Spinner had some serious tricks to deliver, so it was extremely disappointing to see them stuck on the sidelines. Mirra blasted flipwhips over the spine, a no-handed 720 over the box, double whips, and a crazy flipwhip to one-hander one-footer high over the box. He took to the course after his time was up and threw a no-handed 360 flip, the first one he’s done outside of his private warehouse. Steve McCann also unveiled a few new tricks, including a tailwhip 540. Add in his multiple 720 variations over the spine and double whips on the quarter, and he was able to settle into fifth behind Mirra. Ali Whitton delivered two strong runs with solid flip turndowns and 360 lookback transfers to place just behind Tooker after a tiebreaker. Dhers was able to take a commanding lead after his first run, finishing a full three points ahead of the rider in second place. When it came time for his second run, he was already the winner of the Dew Cup, so he could have just taken a victory lap and hoped his lead would hold, but he had something else on his mind. He wasn’t leaving Orlando without frontflipping the spine, which he did perfectly. He went on to nail trick after trick, besting his first run score by another three full points. It was an authoritative win, and an amazing way to end his year.
Steve Lemig, www.lat34.com: We keep saying that BMX has stolen the show all season long at the Dew Tour. The competition has never been more fierce or exciting. And Sunday’s BMX Park Finals at the PlayStation Pro in Orlando proved it once again. We saw big crashes, broken teeth, and even bigger tricks. Amateur Mike Spinner wowed the crowd in Saturday’s Prelims with an unbelievable 1st place qualifying finish. Alistair Whitton came into Sunday’s Finals in 2nd and Steven McCann qualified in 3rd. So, when the Finals got started it was anybody’s contest. But, it was Daniel Dhers who rose to the occasion to beat down all of the incredible competition. He put the smack down on his first run and scored a 93.75, a score that no one else could beat for the whole contest. But, apparently that wasn’t enough for the voracious Venezuelan because he went out on his 2nd run and scored a giant 96.75 just to prove a point. The big exclamation mark was when Dhers pulled a front flip on the spine, something nobody does according to Dave Mirra. One of the big upsets was Marcus Tooker taking 2nd place in Sunday’s Finals resulting from his smoking good run. Tooker used every inch of the course to beat out the likes of Dave Mirra, Ryan Nyquist and Scotty Cranmer. And Alistair Whitton cleaned up with a 3rd place finish, which landed him in 4th place in the overall Dew Tour points standings. And then there were the crashes. Scotty Cranmer, who came into Orlando fresh from a 1st place finish in San Jose tried to do the impossible: a double back flip over the center box. Cranmer, who put every last ounce of his soul into his run, face-planted big time sending shards of teeth all over the course. He didn’t come back for his second run. Cranmer still finished in 2nd in the overall Dew Cup points standings. Mike Spinner also crashed big during his first run. He went big on his first trick with a 720 tail whip, but fell hard – hard enough to keep him from coming back for his second run. Spinner, the amateur who won the Free Flow Tour in Portland, shocked everyone in Saturday’s Prelims when he qualified in 1st place. The PlayStation Pro was Spinner’s first pro contest appearance ever. We’ll be seeing much more from this kid in the future. One of the biggest tricks of the day was landed by none other than Dave Mirra. Mirra, who wasn’t expected to compete the rest of this year due to a lacerated liver, put down a solid run that put him in 4th for the Finals. But, his final run was missing something. That something was the no-handed 360 back flip. He went back out on the course after his run and put it all out there for the fans. And he landed it. The crowd gave the legend a standing ovation for the incredible show. The win in Orlando puts Daniel Dhers in 1st place for the Dew Cup race as well. So, that means that not only will he take home a check for $15,000 for Sunday’s win, but he’ll also take home another check for $75,000 for winning the Dew Cup. It’s an especially sweet victory for Dhers because his Mom, Dad and several other family members from South America showed up to watch him in his element.
1st Spinner, Mike 92.75
2nd Whitton, Alistair 91.75
3rd McCann, Steven 91.75
4th Dhers, Daniel 91.50
5th Mirra, Dave 91.00
6th Cranmer, Scotty 90.75
7th Nyquist, Ryan 90.00
8th Young, Gary 89.25
9th Reynolds, Garrett 88.75
10th Tooker, Marcus 88.00
11th Kiraly, Kevin 88.00
12th Coleman, Austin 87.50
13th Cooke, Allan 87.25
14th Harrington, Josh 87.00
15th Kachinsky, Brian 86.75
16th Darden, Rob 86.00
17th Semling, Quinn 85.25
18th Doyle, Chris 85.00
19th Hale, Jimmy 84.25
20th Wade, Morgan 84.25
21st Sieg, Dan 84.00
22nd Kagy, Chad 83.75
23rd Walker, Brett 83.50
24th Hunt, Brian 83.25
25th Cleveland, Michael 81.75
26th Mast, Craig 81.00
27th Mackay, Colin 80.25
28th Fanberg, Jeremy 79.25
29th Dillewaard, Dave 79.00
30th Kraft, Koji 75.75
31st McCoy, Dennis 72.50
32nd Foster, James 70.25
33rd Haugen, Tom 70.00
Daniel Dhers carving front flip over the spine. Photo by Mark Losey.
Park finals results:
1. Daniel Dhers
2. Marcus Tooker
3. Alistair Whitton
4. Dave Mirra
5. Steve McCann
6. Garrett Reynolds
7. Kevin Kiraly
8. Austin Coleman
9. Gary Young
10. Ryan Nyquist
11. Scotty Cranmer
12. Mike Spinner
www.dewactionsportstour.com: The first of the Finals events of the PlayStation® Pro went down on Friday, with twelve of BMX Vert’s best riders taking to the big ramp in Orlando. Jamie Bestwick went into the comp with a sizable points lead and came out in first place, which gave him the overall Dew Cup award, as well. Kevin Robinson had a great first run, throwing a big alley-oop 540, a switch-handed one-footed 540, opposite and no-handed flairs, and a switch-handed to no-handed flair. He was sitting in third when he dropped in for run number two, where he pumped a few set-up airs before launching a double flair attempt. He came up short, ejected, and smashed his hip into the coping. Amazingly, he got up without so much as a limp; his weight-training definitely paid off on that crash. He gave it a couple more attempts, but didn’t have as much luck as he did last month in San Jose. The main battle went down between Chad Kagy and Jamie Bestwick. Kagy dropped in and spun a flatspin 540 whip on his first air, setting the pace for the rest of the run. His other highlights were a superman seatgrab Indian air, a barspin flatspin air, and a barspin superman seatgrab over the channel. Bestwick threw a downside whip flair on his second wall, then pulled a perfect barspin to no-handed 540, an opposite 540, a fastplant opposite flair, and a certifiably nutso alley-oop 540. Even with one solid run in the bank, he didn’t rest on run two. After another flair whip, he launched a barrage of back-to-back tricks in both directions; first flairs, then 540s, then whips, but he slid out on the opposite whip. His first run was still enough to keep him on top, though. Kagy used run two to make an attempt at a double tailwhip flatspin, but couldn’t get it done in the time allowed. He still came back and nailed one for the Orlando crowd, though. With his win, Bestwick repeated his four-win record from last year and earned the overall Dew Cup and a fat deposit in his bank account. Not bad for riding a kid’s bike. A few too many crashes happened throughout the course of the event (and when you’re talking about BMX Vert, even one is too many). John Parker slammed on a downside whip and Mike Mancuso went down on a no-handed flair, but Tom Stober took it the hardest. After a great run featuring a double tailwhip, a flair, and a topside one-footed seatgrab barspin, he crashed on an opposite flair and smacked his head on the flatbottom, opting not to take his second run. Riding vert on a bike is no joke. There were plenty of clean landings, however. Jimmy Walker carved around the ramp in both directions, dropping turndowns to tables, barspins to turndowns, flairs, and tabletop 540s. Francisco Zurita spun a clean double tailwhip and blasted smooth, stylish airs high above the coping. Jay Eggleston stuck to his customary 12-foot airs, peppering in big 540s and turndowns over the channel. Simon Tabron crashed in his first run on a 900, earning a hipper that kept him on the flatbottom for a few minutes before he could walk it off. He returned in his second run with a perfect 900 followed by a turndown 540, and added a flair and an alley-oop 540 to earn fifth-place bucks. Dennis McCoy dropped in for his second run and uncorked the biggest, smoothest 900 of his career. He was so amped up for the rest of his run he could barely control himself, but he managed to squeeze out a flair and an x-up 540 before flying out on the deck for fourth.
Steve Lemig, www.lat34.com: In a brutal contest that saw Tom Stober knocked unconscious and carried off on a stretcher – and horrific falls from nearly every other competitior – Jamie Bestwick claimed his fourth Dew Tour win in a row, sealing the deal for the overall Dew Cup points contest. “Tonight was probably the toughest vert contest of the year,” said Bestwick, as he accepted his trophy. He meant it literally: Stober went down the hardest, but he wasn’t alone. John Parker slammed hard on the first run of the night, Mike Mancuso went down on a no-handed flair, Francisco Zurita dropped in right after Stober got carried off and slammed in solidarity, and Simon Tabron wrecked on an alley-oop 900. And that what was just Round One. There’s more: Koji Kraft went down at the start of Round 2, followed by Mancuso jumping out of a tailwhip flair, Jimmy Walker and Jay Eggleston sliding out, Kevin Robinson smashing his signature double flair into the coping, and Chad Kagy wrecking his signature double-whip flat spin. Even Bestwick – seemingly invincible on this tour – took a rough spill in Round 2, leaving his first round score of 95.75 to stand for the win. Tonight’s competition was tough in other respects, too: Dennis McCoy and Simon Tabron each pulled 900s in their runs, which were only good enough for 4th and 5th place, respectively. Kevin Robinson was spinning all over the place in his third-place-finishing run, which included a no-hand flair, an alley-oop 540, a no-hand flair over the channel, and an opposite-side no-hand flair. Chad Kagy’s second-place run featured a tailwhip flatspin 540, and an insane barspin flair. He was working setup airs to throw the double-whip flatspin into the mix, but ran out of time (he landed one for the crowd after the contest). And then there’s Bestwick. His winning run was a perfect cap to a nearly perfect Dew Tour season (he placed 2nd at the Panasonic Open, but otherwise went undefeated). He hit huge tricks on nearly every wall, sending the TD Waterhouse Centre into a tizzy: Downside tailwhip flair… No-hand flair… No-hand 540… Barspin to no-hand 540... Opposite 540 into an opposite fastplant flair. With that, Bestwick not only won the PlayStation Pro and the Dew Cup for BMX Vert, but also °©°©– with the highest overall points in any discipline – °©established himself as the undisputed Dew Tour champion, making today a $115,000 payday. He’ll be able to exchange that for British pounds, rest on his laurels and spend the winter watching horror movies back in England. Friday the 13th, perhaps?
Chad Kagy, vert prelims.
Vert prelims results:
1st Kagy, Chad 91.25
2nd Bestwick, Jamie 90.75
3rd Tabron, Simon 89.00
4th Robinson, Kevin 88.25
5th Eggleston, Jay 86.50
6th McCoy, Dennis 86.25
7th Walker, Jimmy 85.75
8th Zurita, Francisco 85.50
9th Stober, Tom 85.00
10th Mancuso, Mike 84.25
11th Kraft, Koji 83.75
12th Parker, John 83.25
13th Warden, Zack 82.50
14th Brumlow, Dave 82.25
15th Williams, Danny 80.75
16th Snowden, Ben 78.50
17th Wirch, Scott 73.75
18th Fanberg, Jeremy 72.00
19th Harrington, Josh 70.75
20th Haugen, Tom 70.00
Vert finals results:
1. Jamie Bestwick
2. Chad Kagy
3. Kevin Robinson
4. Dennis McCoy
5. Simon Tabron
6. Franisco Zurita
7. Jay Eggleston
8. Jimmy Walker
9. Koji Kraft
10. Tom Stober
11. John Parker
12. Mike Mancuso