| Date. July 1st 2007. Venue. Whistler, BC, Canada. |
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| QUALIFIERS | |
| Bart de Jong, www.fatbmx.com, july 2007: The Elevation qualifying day was pretty insane. The course dried up in time to start at 15:30pm. Some riders that were invited never made it there (Cam White, Ryan Guettler, Dennis Enarson, Steve McCann and TJ Lavin) where some showed up and pulled out for several reasons (Anthony Napolitan, Alejandro Caro, Heath Pinter and brakeless Kym Grosser). The course was nice and the last set was big (40 feet long and the landing must have been 15 feet high). We’ll take you through qualifying starting with the riders who did not make it. SE’s Fernando Sabat had some problems with the last set. He had not jumped it in practice but tried to clear the distance in his qualifying runs. He went for it but ended up on the wrong side of the jump and called it a day. Elevation has been pushing the level of dirt jumping with multiple berms, transfer possibilities and big hits on a slope style course (down hill). To be able to make it to the finals you at least have to clear everything. In 27th we had Rob Darden, who simply did not have his day. His runs down the mountain ended up on top where he threw in enough tricks but couldn’t keep it going. Biz Jordan froze up during his runs too. He had been waiting to ride the Elevation comp for a few years but once there Biz had a hard time keeping things smooth. You need to land everything well to be able to clear the next set. Biz had some problems doing that and said: FFFUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKK!!! a few times before pulling off the course. It wasn’t Brad Bonar’s day. The Canadian showed great skills in practice and was one of the few riders who actually transferred between the several lines up top. A face-first crash in practice had his face bleeding but since he’s Canadian he made it back on top of the roll-in for qualifying. Brad pulled great turndown flips in practice but needed a few too many attempts in the contest to make it through. He ended up on place 25 which was 13 spots away from making the finals. Alex Dropsy had put on a brake on his bike for the occasion. Smart choice. Dropsy is not afraid of big sets and 360-d his way down to the village where he simply skied the last set. Dropsy has great style and many skills but showed a few too little tricks in this field to place higher. Alex took his new Nikon camera and started shooting pics of the rest of the riders. Matt Beyers from Canada scored a 59.5 and had few good runs, but also a few scratches. With three runs out of four counting, it doesn’t help to have 2 bad runs. Matt made it down to the valley most of the time where he was greated by Jay Miron who was doing live interviews with all of the riders who were coming down. They could watch each riders’ run on the big screen in replay which was great for the riders and also for the Whistler crowd. Things were set up right at Elevation and the sun kept on shining. The Red Lobster was almost in the house again. Germany’s Markus Hampl made it to Canada with his custom painted machine. Markus builds a lot of the contests jumps in Europe and has pulled out of contests before because of lack of creativity that the jumps offered. There was reason to pull out in Whistler for that reason until his front wheel blew up in his last run. Traveling overseas, adjusting to the time change, dealing with jetlag in an unknown environment, getting little practice in on a demanding course, it all affected Markus in a way but you won’t hear him complain about it. He was stoked to be present. BiBi rode really well but also had a few sailers on the last set and even jumped off once on the big 40 footer. The wind didn’t help much on the last set and Bibi pressed the eject button before hanging up with his back wheel which would have been worse. Jay gave him compliments regardless and asked BiBi what was going on: “Sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you are not lucky,” was Bibi’s reply. Leo Forte was stoked he made it to Elevation together with his brother Kye. Leo styled his way through the bigger line on the upper section to blast double lookbacks in the village. On the microphone he was calling out his brother to the likings of Jay who kept the brother rivalry going. Leo flowed his way to place 20, missing the finals by 8 spots. The riders in place 20-28 in qualifying had a feeling they were not going to make it to the finals of the 2007 Red Bull Elevation contest. This is a different story for the riders who placed 13th – 19th. With a bit of luck or a few more pulled tricks, they could have made it. Maybe some should have but this is how the experienced judges (Fuzzy, Osato, Montgomery, Beringer and Barrett) saw it. It’s a trails contest, more than a King of Dirt huck fest. Different lines can be taken transfers are possible if you have the skills to do them. Tricking every set is a good bonus too though. Here are some more riders who did not make it, starting by qualifying place 19. Colin MacKay had bad luck as his bike did not show up and he was without a bike for three days. This limited his practice time and on a course like this, if you want to feel comfortable, you need to put your time in. Colin is a rider who likes to trick every set. With the amount of riding he got down before the comp, it was a gamble to see if he could stick it. 3-whips ain’t the easiest tricks to throw on the first set of a big 6 pack but Colin rolled the dice and went for it. Good attitude but it didn’t work out this time. 19th place was his. Josh Steed made it to the Valley and the Australian did some awesome tricks on the way down. With Dane Searls, Corey Bohan, Dave Dillewaard, Kym Grosser and Colin MacKay present, it looks like Australians are taking over. It could have been a bigger Aussie posse had the invited Cameron White, Steve McCann and Ryan Guettler shown up. Josh Steed represented Australia by getting 18th place. Local hero Darren Barrecloth had no problems with the big jumps. He’s actually used to jumping even bigger stuff on his MTB. He recently won over $ 100.000,= USD by winning a mountain bike tour in Europe and joined the BMX-ers (which is where he came from) on his home turf. Darren clicks turndowns like the best of them and did a giant superman seatgrab over the 40 feet gap of the last set that had the crowd going. Switching back and forth between his Specialized MTB-s and his BMX bike is not easy and to rule at both is next to impossible. It’s good to see that he gives it a try and hasn’t forgotten about his roots even when the prize purse is smaller than he’s used to. Paul Kintner has true trails style. The North-West trails rider had no problem with any of the distances or any of the lines. How he does it, I don’t know but he gets wasted at night, and simply gets on his bike to rip the next day. It might be his daily routine. Practice makes perfect. He throws mean 360 lookbacks too but missed the cut (16th). Jed Milden from New Zealand is one hell of a rider. I’d never seen him ride before but he left a strong impression on his first presence. Similar to what Dane Searls did last year when he came over for the first time. Jed’s riding is strong and he pulls the big tricks. He’s not afraid and received many rounds of applause for his efforts and 15th place in the end with a score of 75.1. Check that “Nothing” photo which I believe represents his style well: balls out! Kye Forte was looking forward to the Elevation so much. After his Empire of Dirt event got cancelled because of the rain Kye was happy that the sun showed up in time to get the contest started. Kye whipped and three-sixtied over the various sets and called his brother “Cocky” when Jay asked him what he thought about Leo. Kye placed better than his brother so he shut him down at Elevation. Kye’s 360 tables are one of a kind. Where Chris Doyle has his signature 360 turndown and Ryan Nyquist has his signature 360 suicide no-hander, you can recognize Kye Forte’s presence by miles away as soon as he busts his 360 table. Sweet. Finishing 13th, where they’re taking 12 to the finals, sucks. It happened to another true trails rider from the North-West who goes by the name of Darin Read. Correct me if I’m wrong but someone did a cancan lander on the big set and I think it was Darin. For sure he did cancan three-sixties and had the flow that others missed. Riding a lot of trails pays off at a contest like Elevation and Darin just almost made it into the big finals with all those big time sponsored riders. |
Red Bull Elevation 07 Qualifiers Elevation 2007 qualifying results: 1. Corey Bohan 88.4 2. Ryan Nyquist 84.9 3. James Foster 83.3 4. Brian Foster 82.7 5. Chris Doyle 82.4 6. Dave Dillewaard 81.7 7. Allan Cooke 81.0 8. Gary Young 80.9 9. TJ Ellis 79.5 10. Mike “Hucker” Clarke 78.4 11. Adam Baker 78.4 12. Dane Searls 78.3 13. Darin Read 76.7 14. Kye Forte 76.0 15. Jed Milden 75.1 16. Paul Kintner 74.7 17. Darren Barrecloth 74.1 18. Josh Steed 74.1 19. Colin Mackay 72.3 20. Leo Forte 70.3 21. Romauld “Bibi” Noirot 68.3 22. Markus Hampl 63.9 23. Matt Beyers 59.5 24. Alex Dropsy 56.2 25. Brad Bonar 47.3 26. Ryan “Biz” Jordan 46.9 27. Rob Darden 43.6 28. Fernando Sabat 40.3 |
| FINALS | |
| Keith Mulligan, www.ridebmx.com, july 2007: Whistler Village was the place to be today as the 2007 Elevation finals went down and didn’t disappoint. With five runs (taking best three) to lay down all they had, twelve riders put on a show. Coming down to their last runs, Corey Bohan and Ryan Nyquist went head to head to battle for the win, and when all was said and done only .1 separated the two, with Nyquist coming out on top. Directly following the last runs, the best trick comp went down. James Foster topped everyone’s moves with a truckdriver-to-downside tailwhip. Bart de Jong, www.fatbmx.com, july 2007: The Red Bull Elevation contest is the best dirt jump contest of the year. A team of professional dirt jump builders spends weeks in Whistler prepping a course that the riders actually enjoy riding. Things looked terrible weather wise. Some outdoor events had already been cancelled earlier in the year and the forecast said rain all weekend. It did rain but it also stopped. The trails could handle the rain drops and qualifying on Saturday might turn out to be the final score if Sunday would be a grey rainy day. Fortunately the sun showed up on Canada day and it gave all finalists the chance to ride the trails one more day. It was windy though which made things difficult on the last set. Each rider had five runs with the best three scores counting towards an overall score. Jay Miron was at the bottom of the course and interviewed the riders after each run. Paul Roberts was commentation on top. Both did a great job informing the big crowd what BMX is all about. They called the right names for the tricks and had no stupid questions. It made BMX look pretty damn cool. The Freeride footage looked great and we can't wait to see it on TV or on a DVD. The 2007 Red Bull Elevation in Whistler might have been the last one. Three years in a row it was and the 2007 version will go into the history books as the closest final between the 2005 and 2006 winners. The course was demanding. 2 of the finalists had to ride a different bike because their own ride did not survive. Ryan Nyquist wasn't looking good in practice. He had a sprained wrist and was thinking about dropping out. Brian Foster took 8 Advils on Sunday so he could ride. He had a blue ankle which he had taped in. The blue falcon was flying again but might not have passed the 2010 Olympic doping rules with all the pain killers he took. Gary Young had a gnarly crash on the last set and jumped oof mid-air. TJ Ellis cased the 15 feet high landing with his front wheel and took it hard. Allan Cook cased the step down in his final run but thought a little pedal would be enough to clear the 12 meter gap. Not only did he try to clear the distance, he went upside down on his attempt too. A horrible case resulted in some bruised ribs for the Merlion. James Foster had crashed many times and was limping whenever he was off the bike. On the bike he was killing it. Doyle had crashed in practice (on the last set) but looked fit for the finals. Dane Searls took serious hits but they got back up like it was nothing. Tough guy indeed. Riders were pushing the limits. To do well in a field like this, you had to ride at your best. Adam Baker had fun and was stoked to make the finals. It didn't really work out for him on Sunday but he survived and was okay with that. Elevation might just be the only contest he's entering in 2007 and he sure picked the right one. Mike "Hucker" Clark has a new fan. It's me. He rides with a smile on his face and doesn't mind goofing around. He rode in some baby blue surfer shorts with no pads. Only for the last run he padded up and he pulled a double flip, attempted a frontflip and did another one of those bow legged backflips over the last set for the fun of it. At the bottom the smile was still on his face. Dave Dillewaard is a ripper but even rippers with bags full of tricks have off-days. Canada day wasn't treating the Australian well and he did more than enough dead sailors over the last set that pissed him off. 2 runs were dropped but unfortunately Dillsy had more than 2 "bad" runs. Gary Young needed a few too many tries to get that 360 tailwhip pulled over the last big set. Gary did three sixties both ways with several variations and his no-footed cancans were stretched. The MacNeil rider is keeping the SD Dirtbros spirit alive and limped away after the comp. He gave what he had and got 9th for his efforts. What can you say about Dane Searls? The Australian is just 19 years old and in his second year of doing comps in Northern America. If you don't know who he is, you should remember the name because you'll be hearing more from him soon. Allan Cooke keeps pushing it. He pulled that double tailwhip over a middle set on the top and did various flip variations over the giant set. The 25 years old Specialized rider finished 7th. He knows when to push it and does it at the right times. Good job Merlion! TJ Ellis is keeping the TJ name up for sure. He'll replace the name TJ Lavin soon with the way he is riding. Definitely not scared this young man from Moreno Valley, California. Fronties, Indian seatgrabs, no-handed backies and tons more. Check the footage when it comes out and you'll be rewinding the disk with that remote when TJ is on the tube. There was a three-way battle going on for third place. In the mix were Brian Foster, Chris Doyle and James Foster. Positions changed constantly during the finals with the lowest scores being dropped. With two good runs in the bank after 2 attempts, BF was looking for another good one so he had at least three decent runs. He delivered three more good runs and basically had no bad scratch. The FIT rider was one of the few riders that transferred from line to line and in the finals he did a huge table 360 transfer, a lazy superman one-hand and one-footed 360 table over the last set. It had been a while since the Blue Falcon had beat Chris Doyle but it happened in Whistler. Doyle rode on a different bike that had a shorter back end making his three-sixties a bit harder. You couldn't really tell though as his turndown and table top 3-s are the best in the business. Chris turndowned from line to line and also 3-whipped on his way down to the Canadian crowd. 5th for Doyle. Youngster James Foster was riding very well. He had taken a couple of hits in practice but when it mattered in the finals he made it count. The KHE rider even pulled a triple tailwhip on the step up set in the middle line and continued to bust tricks on the way down to the village. James made history at the first edition of the Red Bull Elevation contest in 2005 by pulling the first triple tailwhip on the final set, now he's doing them mid-run. James definitely deserved fourth place but it was close between him (87.2), BF (87.4) and Doyle (86.9). The battle for the win was between Ryan Nyquist and Corey Bohan. Both riders had won one edition of the Red Bull Elevation before and really wanted it bad. With place 3-5 being in the 87 point range, Ryan and Corey were in the 92 range. Corey Bohan is dialled. I can't remember seeing him crash hard once all weekend. He has the style, has the tricks, rides smooth, spins opposite and goes a couple of feet higher than anybody else. Corey pulled a tailwhip to barspin on the top section and blasted incredible superman seatgrabs down in the village. Ryan Nyquist is one damn professional rider. He hurt his wrist, borrowed a bike, and still managed to pull all the tricks he wanted to do. That includes a barspin flip and an opposite 360-whip. It was close between Corey and Ryan and only 0.1 point was the difference. Advantage Nyquist. Ryan was obviously stoked to win the most prestigeous dirt contest of the year, especially considering the circumstances. Thanks goes out to Jay Miron and his crew and everyone at Red Bull for pulling off the awesome event. If Elevation 2008 is going to happen remains to be seen. It's hard to believe this great Dirt Jump event won't be on the calendar next year. |
Results: 1. Ryan Nyquist 92.1 2. Corey Bohan 92.0 3. Brian Foster 87.4 4. James Foster 87.2 5. Chris Doyle 86.9 6. TJ Ellis 86.6 7. Allan Cooke 86.0 8. Dane Searls 85.7 9. Gary Young 85.7 10. Dave Dillewaard 83.6 11. Mike “Hucker” Clark 83.1 12. Adam Baker 81.6 |