Date: july 12-16, 2006.
Bart de Jong, www.fatbmx.com, july 2006: The Dirt set-up for the tenth FISE was nice. A big 40ft container was used to get speed for the drop-in. Three big sets followed and then a 80 degree left turn brought you to the final jump that you could jump either straight, at 120 degrees or the full hip to the left at a 90 degree angle. The pro class went straight to the finals on Saturday night. The vibe was great with a loud (drunk) crowd, some fireworks, loud music and Lionel Cardoso on the MIC. As always the riders made the show. Each one of them had 4 runs of which the best three counted. This left room for trying out new tricks but you still had to be consistent to end up high on the score sheets. Alejandro Caro was riding a borrowed bike but it didn't seem to hurt his riding. He had four super consitent runs with big bangers like 720-s, x-up flips and 3-whips. The Colombian scored first but left straight after the comp with Markus Hampl to finish up the Dirt jumps for the BMX Masters.
Now that we mentioned Markus, he scored 2nd place. His first run was a miss so the pressure was on for the Suzuki rider. He got back with 360 turndowns, 360 tables and a front flip. The German has added that trick to his bag. He also pulled opposite 360 lookbacks and turndown flips just so you know. We all hated our own teams being eliminated one by one in the World Cup. The only happy BMX pro is Alessandro Barbero. He even spray painted his white hat in Red/white/green to show where he's coming from. Alessandro isn't messing around lately and pulled front flips, 3-whips, truckdrivers and flipwhips for bronze. First French rider in the results list is BB. He had 3 good runs in the bank when he finished with a 360, a flipwhip and a no footed cancan one-hander. Ben Wallace (5th) hadn't touched dirt for over a year but decided to ride a bit with fellow Mike Miller. He simply moved over his tricks from the street course to the dirt and showed front flips, double tailwhips and no-handed flips. We say that Ben should enter dirt comps more often because when he pulls his shit he's a contender. "Good old" Patrick Guimez was on fire wearing nothing but his Pull-in boxers (just kidding). I've got the judging sheets here with me so I can list a few of his tricks too: tailwhip, turndown flips, 360-x-up and a no-handed flip were done by "Patoche" at one point or the other. William Conry got 7th and Mike Miller rounded up the top 8 with more style than should be allowed. After three good runs he rolled the dice and made his last run a scratch after 360-ing the big first set. All good dirt jump contests finish with an extra train session. The one in Montpellier lasted forever. Fabien Francois got close to pulling a barspin to tailwhip and Mathis Bienaime pulled a "backy to fronty" and got the crowd going. And Yanick, I like your style.
Nicolas Berthier superman seatgrab. Photo by Bart de Jong.
PRO DIRT: 1.Caro Alejandro 2.Hampl Markus 3.Barbero Alessandro 4.Noirot Romuald 5.Wallace Ben 6.Guimez Patrick 7.Conry William 8.Millar Mike 9.Cayet Stephane 10.Eloudjedi Yacine 11.Bienaime Mathis 12.Bertier Nicolas 13.Langlais Nicolas 14.Francois Fabien 15.Pittard Gaby 16.Agniel Nicolas 17.Lebert Jacky 18.Cartier Yanick 19.Cordier Berenger 20.Massardier Vincent 21.Incorvaia Ludovic 22.Damien 23.Pillin Nicolas 24.Janusz Pietruczuu 25.Anthony 26.Carrez Cedric
DIRT AMATEURS:
1- Vincent MASSARDIER
2- Jéremy BERTHELOT
3- Raphael HAZEYRAT
4- Alexandre BOYRGUIGNON
5- Laurent SERVE
6- Hugo COPPOLA
7- Cyril GAY
8- Roland PELLEGRIN
9- Chran
10- Clément DURAND
11.Simeone Yann
12.Bussot Victor
13.Barrau Olivier
14.Collin Térence
15.Halleux Olivier
16.Thibaut Geoffrey
17.Spangenberg Benoit
18.Eikel
19.Martin Edouard
20.Eguienta William
21.Mansiet Valentin
Thierry, www.eastreet.fr, juillet 2006: Le vendredi 14 juillet, c’est la fête nationale, et c’est aussi la fête sur l’aire de street pour la finale amateur. Les petits jeunes sont ultra motivés et ça envoi du gros rapidement, 3.6, Whip, big airs, tous les derniers tricks à la mode sont présentés à la foule hurlante, harangué par un Lionel Cardoso qui n’a qu’un seul mot d’ordre, il faut gueuler pour encourager les riders. Et ça fonctionne bien avec un Raphaël Hazeyrat qui tente à de multiples reprises un transfert du spine au plan incliné en flip et surtout Joris Coulomb qui passe un énorme front flip au 3e essai.
QUALIFICATIONS PROS.
Thierry, www.eastreet.fr, juillet 2006: Samedi, 16h, il fait toujours très très chaud et tout le monde se prépare à voir les qualifications Street Pro. Le programme des contests étant énormes cet été, avec le Dew contest aux States et le Nass en Angleterre, certains étrangers se sont décommandés comme le team Premium. Mais quelques uns sont là comme les anglais Ben Wallace, Toby Grosswell, Mark Theaker, Mike Miller, des américains, Randy Brown, Eric Holey, Dave Freimuth, Josh Nedza, deux canadiens, John Heaton et Max Vincent et un italien, Alesandro Barbero. Côté Français, il y a Fabien François, Maxime Charveron, John Garcia, Mouton, Greg, Nico, Clément Garnier, les valentinois, Max Tatin, Pierre Tran et Damien Fleur, Tommy Lauque, Pascal Guerrard….
Le premier a s’élancer et Ben Wallace et d’entrée ça saigne. Le rider Haro rentre dans son premier run un double whip, un gros flair, un flip turndown et un barrel roll. Le public est déchaîné. Après c’est une véritable orgie de tricks. En vrac durant ces qualifs, Tommy Lauque double whip, Fabien François double whip, double whip to tail tape sur le spine. Greg gros foot plan sur le wall sortie whip to gros crash to recommence et le rentre. Max Vincent 5.4 whip transfert, John Heaton flair et gros flip et celui qui a enflammé le public, composé en grande partie par son fan club brandissant des pancartes à son nom. Thibault dit Mouton, qui nous tape un double whip bien stretch et un énorme front flip.
FINALES PROS.
Thierry, www.eastreet.fr, juillet 2006: Dimanche 16H00 il fait toujours très chaud, au moins 45° sur l’aire de street et les riders pour la finale pro s’échauffent. Ils sont 12, c’est Ben Wallace qui a terminé premier des qualifs, mais rien n’est joué. Le premier groupe est composé de Maxime Charveron, John Garcia et Dave Freimuth. Pendant que Maxime rentre wall whip, flair, et autres handplant, John passe le big fun box en 720 ou en gros superman seatgrab et Dave tricote tranquille à base de whip en transfert, over icepick to over, 360 nose pick sur la barrière. Kevin Kalkof, Tommy Lauque et Max Vincent forme le 2e groupe. C’est un groupe où les riders roulent bien smooth, que du beau et du propre. Manque de chance Tommy est obligé d’abandonner après s’être blessé sur son double whip. Max Vincent retape le 540 whip transfert, un big indian air seatgrab et un énorme superman. Avant dernier groupe composé de Mouton et sa horde de supporters, Mike Miller et Randy Brown. Les deux derniers sont pur style avec de nombreux trick en plus pour l’anglais. C’est un plaisir de le voir rouler. Il se contorsionne dans tout les sens pour pousser les tricks à fond. Enorme, le 360 whip sur la funbox de Mike. Quant à Mouton, bien, c’est mission boucherie. Gros gap en whip à partir du wall, Big double whip, flip, gros fufanu sur le module central et grosse tentative de ce qui ressemble à un transfert to fakie wall tap sur la barrière au dessus du gros plan incliné qui se trouve sur la plateform d’un gros quarter. En fait Thibault veut rentrer un fufanu sur la barrière. Il fera plusieurs tentatives, sans succès le vélo passant derrière le module d’une hauteur de 4m. Pendant l’arrêt au stand mécanique de Mouton, une espèce de crétin tire une fusée de détresse qui part à moitié dans les tribunes, brûlant 2 ou 3 personnes au passage et fini sa course dans les gradins, créant un petit mouvement de panique et risquant de créer un incendie. Je ne dirais qu’une chose, il aurait fallu traîner cette personne à poil sur le bitume brûlant de l’air de street et lui jeter des pierres. Stupidité quand tu nous tiens. Après cet interlude un peu violent, Mouton est prêt à repartir. Il abandonne son idée de fufanu pour nous refaire son gros front flip. Continue mon gars, tu nous à bien fais plaisir. Voici le moment tant attendu, le dernier groupe, composé de John Heaton, Alessandro Barbero et Ben Wallace. John est un peu plus décidé que pour les qualifs et envoi enfin du très gros. Whip en gapant du wall, transfert en flip, flip no hand, flip turndown, flair, tentative de manual au-dessus du wall. Alessandro part aussi bien à fond, avec une routine à base de double whip, 360 double whip, double truck, Flip bus, flip whip, flip et whip sur le spine. Enfin celui qui est sortie premier des qualifs, Ben Wallace avec des whips, double whip, un énorme flair au dessus de la barrière du quarter qui mesure bien 2,50m de haut, Barrel Roll, flip turndown, bref que du bien gras et au finale le vainqueur est John Heaton suivie de Alessandro Barbero, puis de Ben Wallace. Après le dernier run, John Heaton tentera à plusieurs reprises de rentrer flair to axle, mais sans le réussir totalement.
Bart de Jong, www.fatbmx.com, july 2006: The 2006 street course was all new and looked great. it had something for everyone. Big wallrides, sub boxes, hips, a huge quarterpipe, lots of tech parts, curved wallride, spin, jump box and then add a few original obstacles. If you couldn't find a ramp to pull your tricks on, you probably couldn't do the trick in the first place. The best thing about the FISE street contest is the crowd. They know what's up and interact in the contest. They clap and cheer for good tricks even if they're just small things. No backflips needed but when Thibault Iser did his front flip in qualifying everyone got on their feet to show their respect. Tibo shot straight to the moon, made the tuck and somehow held on to roll out of it. That, together with his tailwhip drop-in from the container earned him a spot in the Pro Street final. It is so difficult to judge one person's riding against someone else's that it took heavy discussions of who made the top 12 pro final cut. In the end Gregory missed out and Maxime Charveron, John Garcia, Dave Freimuth, Tommy Lauque, Kevin Kalkoff, Tibo, Max Vincent, Randy Brown, Mike Miller, Alessandro Barbero, John Heaton and Ben Wallace were all in. Riding in the top heat isn't very pleasant but it just didn't cool down in Montpellier. There's even a heat wave going on in Holland at the moment. Tommy Lauque tried to ride the final but after one of his runs in the jam session he had to pull out with a hurting leg. Too bad because also last year Tommy showed what he's capable of. 11th was for Thibault who had his mind set on another big trick but after numerous attempts he couldn't pull the quarterpipe to fence transfer. He had big support from the crowd though. 10th was for Dave Freimuth. The course had quite a few ramps where he could shine but a few too many crashes held him back. 9th was for Maxime Charveron. The German judges loved this guy. He flaired the shit out of the quarterpipe and flipped the box in his own pace. Kevin Kalkoff started off strong and had a cool style using all the ramps on the course and doing good tricks on all of them. John Garcia got 7th place after qualifying in 12th. John did a huge 720 and an awesome superman and is a well rounded rider. He got some cash for his efforts. Eastern Bikes' Randy Brown had a unique style in where he rides with speed and sees lines that others don't. His sub rail "wallride" and transfers were sweet. Max Vincent is a FISE regular. The Canadian finished off strong in his final turn of the jam session. He's tech and can be burly on demand. 5th. Mike Miller from the UK did very well in Montpellier. His 360 lookbacks and turndowns are priceless but his 3-whip on the box was insane. The top three was hard to decide on. If there would be place for three first places then Ben Wallace, Alessandro Barbero and John Heaton would have got it. The riding of all three was ridiculous and it was hard to decide who got what place. Achim Kujawski, Andy Zeiss, Paul and I were the judges and had heavy discussions that could got up to 45 minutes about 8th or 9th place in dirt or 12th or 13th in street qualifying. With these riders being so close I was fearing a 2 hour debate of who got what. In the end we all thought the same and had the same riders on the same spots for the same reasons. Sure it was close and there was only one point difference between each rider but on third place we had Ben Wallace. He ripped in prelims and qualified first. After a good night of partying and missing his hotel bed, he had to go straight to the finals in the bloody heat. He was sleeping only 30 minutes before the comp started but Ben amazingly recovered and showed huge flairs, barrel rolls, opposite 360-s, turndown flips, and tailwhips everywhere. He wasn't as sharp as in qualifying but sure he had a good time and his riding still rocked. Alessandro Barbero has got the tricks. It's hard to believe that Alessandro only rides spine ramps and bank to walls at contests as there are non available in Italy. He flip whipped, trucked, 3-whipped, flaired and did a wallride to whip and big 3's over the spine. He had an awesome run but the riding of John Heaton showed a little bit more variety. He was the one hitting the rails on the course and did all the other tricks too all over the place. Heaton won street two years in a row now and needs to come back next year for Nokia FISE 11.
Thibault Iser Mouton roulade avant.
FINALE PRO STREET: 1.John Heaton 2.Alessandro Barbero 3.Ben Wallace 4.Mike Miller 5.Max Vincent 6.Randy Brown 7.John Garcia 8.Kevin Kalkoff 9.Maxime Charveron 10.Dave Freimuth 11.Thibault Iser 12.Tommy Lauque
AMATEURS STREET
1- Joris COULOMB
2- Raphael HAZEYRAT
3- Justin FOUQUE
4- Eric LAFFONT
5- Aurélien MILINAIRE
6- Geoffrey THIBAUT
7- Xavier MAGNAN
8- Jéremy BERTHELOT
9- Alexandre BOURGiGNON
10- Karl HEITZ
11.Faraj Kamal
12.Stefanec Alex
Aude Cassagne, flashturttles.skyblog.com, juillet 2006: Ah, le FISE, perso, j'ai trouvé ça bien chouette. (...) Quand on arrive sur l'aire de flat, il fait mega chaud et presque tous les flatlanders sont partis a la plage; on roule avec Marksou, Krapule et un autre lyonnais, tous sympas, puis avec Yuki, qui roule à une vitesse supersonique, c'est fou, des turbines, barwhips dans tous les sens, crackpaker turbine, switch feet pedal steamroller en fin d'enchainement mega long, stylé et rapide... Marksou fait des purs rollings bien tendus, amazon no foot regular et oppo, cliffhanger... Krapule tout smooth qui squatte tous les vélos avec un frein avant et fait des candybar to euh...essais de passages de fou, et le lyonnais (merde je sais plus son nom) des trickotages en karlkruser, des hitchikers bien sympas. Les glandeurs de la plage (bon d'accord j'exagère) rentrent petit a petit et reprennent leur vélo, Alex Jumelin et son cadre KHE à 1.55kg qui nous fait son crakpaker spinning no hand avec un pied sur le guidon enchainé avec le cliffhanger spinning pied sur le guidon, c'est fou. Matthias Dandois se met a rouler, et ça fait très mal les tricks de fou passent facile comme hang five seat grab jump to inside halfpacker whip to turbine halfpaker normal, après je crois qu'il fait une turbine, puis une autre dans laquelle il se retrouve en inside halfpacker... je sais plus et aussi un spinning inside halfpaker whip to spinning crackpaker, hitchiker spinning en pompant en tenant le peg derriere son dos... Alexis Desonleux roule un peu aussi, des purs walk around avec des x footed hitchikers dans les deux sens, bwd halfpaker avant un whiplash à l'envers... Dennes Katona, le gars qui a gagné le contest amateur fait des whips en x footed hitchiker, death truck sur la pedale etc... Je vois Bachir et Mustapha Mohammedi rouler vite fait, des jumps brake less en rolling pour Bachir, des trucs trop technique en x foot pour son frère; vive la famille. Eric Monvoisin est pas trop en forme dommage, il fait quand meme quelques turbines bien stylées. Thomas Noyer est sec parce qu'il est trempé de sueur, il a roulé toute la matinée et il n'en peut plus hehe. Etienne tient bien le bwd crackpacker, trop chaud! Frank Lukas roule un peu: turbine crackpacker, inside halfpacker spinning etc... Hiro commence à s'échauffer alors qu'on doit partir, dommage. (...) Quand on arrive le dimanche, l'aire est toute mouillée, soit disant pour enlever la poussière, donc on attend... quand c'est sec, on roule juste un peu, on se pose, c'est la practice pro, la finale est dans pas longtemps. Hiro défonce tout au practice, il rentre son mc cricle bunny hop tailwhip to mc circle dans un combo et j'en passe... Taka déchire tout aussi: des pivots de malade sur la roue arriere, si je les avais pas vus je le croirais pas. Adam Kun galère un peu à rouler mais fait quand meme switchiker jump to crackpacker, to 3.6 barwhip to halfpacker (:O) ainsi qu'un spinning hitchiker no hand en pompant! Dans la première poule, Hiro , Matthias et Adam commencent à rouler, Adam crève, Hiro pose quelques pieds mais fait des tricks de malade, Matthias rentre presque tout... dans la deuxième, Alex fait un gros caca, c'et domage il ne rentre rien, Benjamin Grossjohan pompe en death truck barbecue, cliffhanger.. .mais Taka est au dessus, il rentre presque tout aussi, et ce sont des combos de fou, qui se terminent avec un pervert tranquille, il fait des bike varials de malade, à voir en vidéo absolument! Dans la dernière poule on retrouve Adam, un peu plus en forme, ainsi que Frank Lukas et Alexis Desolneux, qui rate quelques trucs c'est dommage, mais vu la difficulté... Frank passe un peu plus de trucs, Adam aussi, mais il s'est bien chié au debut, dommage. on rentre donc peu après la finale pro, après avoir roulé sous le soleil de Montpellier qui tape très fort.
Hiroya Morizaki. Photo www.desillusion-mag.com.
Benjamin Grossjohann. Photo www.global-flat.com.
PRO FLAT: 1.Hiroya Morizaki 2.Taka 3.Matthias Dandois 4.Frank Lukas 5.Adam Kun 6.Alexis Desolneux 7.Benjamin Grossjohann 8.Alex Jumelin
AMATEUR FLAT: 1.Denes Katona 2.Yannick Chauvel 3.Mustapha Mohammedi 4.Seb Assimon 5.Vincent Gastellier 6.Bachir Mohammedi 7.JB Boil 8.Cyril Laurent
Max Vincent and John Heaton had just arrived at the ramp as well and Nicolas decided to join the vert posse. With Peter Geys, Toby Gresswell, Mark Theaker, Nicolas, Jan Valenta and Jean-Marie Baertsch on the ramp, the comp got on its way. 36 years old Mark Theaker defeated lip trick kings Max, Nicolas and John to finish 7th. Buddy Toby had the height and finished 6th behind the flown in duo of Eduardo Terreros and Tim Eichert who both ended up on fourth place. Edu had actually done some good runs until he crashed on a simple barspin air and knocked himself out in Tim's helmet. We hate it when that happens. Tim rode well on Achim's bike and pulled his one-handed 540, flair and tailwhip for a bit of prize money. Peter Geys from Belgium rode well after being injured for a long time. he got the pump and also a big bag of variations. He pulled a 540 (first one after getting hurt on one) and did his x-ups, no-footers, inverts in the 6-7 feet range. Jean-Marie Baertsch made the trip from Switzerland by train and made it count. 2nd place for the stylish rider. First went to Jan Valenta from Czech Republic. He simply put the best runs together in the jam session style contest. After his first run with a no-hander, flair and a tailwhip, it was catching up for the others but they never did. Congrats on the win Jan and you'll pull that no-handed flair at the next contest, they were super close.
Valenta Jan. Photo by Bart de Jong.
FINALE PRO VERT: 1.Jan Valenta 2.Baertsch Jean-Marie 3.Geys Peter 4.Eichert Tim 5.Terreros Eduardo 6.Grosswell Toby 7.Theaker Mark 8.Vincent Max 9.Nicolas 10.Heaton John
2- Nicolas DESCHAMPS
3- Térence COLLIN
4- Jimmy HADFIELD
5- Flavien CIPAROTI
6- Grégoire PRIEUR
7- Alexandre BOURGUIGNON