40-feet wide vert ramp. Undervert on one side, over on the other.
A huge rollin ramp and two big four packs for dirt.
Mark Noble, www.ridebmx.com, april 2000: Sponsored by the largest soft drink company in the World. Organized by a snowboard company. Set in a London park. PR agencies. Advertising campaigns. Perhaps the Urban Games had the ingredients for a BMX disaster, but the proof was definitely in the pudding. The vert ramp was 40-feet wide, the dirt contest featured two big four-packs, and the street course was massive. Paul Roberts made sure that BMX was properly represented amid all the other sports, and by all accounts, BMX basically took over. All three days had qualifiers and finals, and Saturday also saw round two of the European King of Dirt series.
Dirt: The jumps were constructed from dirt which required a little work to get right, and the sets were built slightly up hill. But once a huge roll-in ramp was made and the jumps were hardened by cement dust and an army of shovel-wielding riders, the stage was ready. Riders had to go left or right after the roll-in, and you could transfer from one set to another using big gaps which were not for the squeamish. Since this was a European KOD weekend, the amount and quality of riders was amazing. Add into the mix of elite European riders a certain American by the name of Chris Stauffer, and you know that a jumping contest of epic proportions was about to take place. Bibi, BlackJack, and Julien Rochissani. I could have made all these names up and you'd be none the wiser—but I didn't. These guys rule Euro KOD contests. S&M's Bibi won the Urban Games final on Sunday, and also got second during the Euro KOD. Bibi's got incredible trails skills and style, and big tricks to boot (tailwhips, 720's), but he hadn't accounted for Haro's Stephen Murray during the Euro KOD. Stephen was transferring, getting the nose down, flipping the first set and landing with enough pump to smoothly trick the second. Rochissani got second just ahead of Stauffer, who was up to his "usual stuff." The guy is liquid.
Vert: These weren't the best vert contests ever (a separate comp was held each day). The ramp was built on a slight slope which made it under-vert on one side and over on the other, but most riders didn't have too much of a problem. Include in that group one Matt Hoffman. All the big stuff came out of Matt's bag of tricks, and he scared a lot of young girls who had drifted into the arena to see what the fuss was all about. Suffice to say, Matt took first place in the vert final on Saturday, but he pulled out of the vert contest on the next day.
Sunday's vert contest was all about Jerry Galley. So much power, yet so effortless at the same time, and unpredictable? You never know what's coming next. Jerry gets the nose down on his 540's so hard that his second 540 is often higher than the first. Apparently he once tore the front end off a bike hanging up his front wheel up on one. He does 360-airs about four or five feet out landing fakie, inverts, brakeless nosepicks—he just goes for it, and nails it. First place.
Flatland: The original site for Sunday's flatland contest was beside a basketball court behind the dirt jumps, but the riders soon discovered this area was bumpy and no good. The only area left was the flat ground in the street course, which limited the size of the arena since riders had to avoid ramps during their runs. It sounded like flatland got the shaft again, but it did bring the comp indoors in front of a lot more people, and the five riders in the finals seemed to ride all right. The tight, difficult area suited Phil Dolan's riding. He kept it clean and fast, and the stands erupted each time he completed one of his switching, bike flipping front wheel combos. First.
Street: The street course that greeted the riders was certainly the biggest and best of any contest in the UK so far. The large area was filled with something for everyone—banks, gaps, quarterpipes of all sizes, wall-rides, spines, rails, grind boxes, and guard-rails—more on those in a minute. Hoffman's Mike "Rooftop" Escamilla was on hand, and was finding lines everywhere. He nailed a fufanu to icepick on a five-foot guard-rail behind one of the bigger quarterpipes, then rode straight across the floor into an abubaca on a six-foot tall guard-rail on an even bigger quarter. Scott Malyon was also in there, and no one goes bigger over a jump box. Stuart King made a welcome return to the contest scene, and he fufanu'd the big guard-rail that Rooftop did an abubaca on earlier (but not before falling over the back on one attempt, 16 feet to the floor). Fids was something else, though. He looked at one ramp, saw another one in the next time-zone, and decided it was a bridgeable gap. Jerry Galley didn't ride street on Sunday, yet he won the finals on Saturday—but not before knocking himself out crashing a fufanu on the biggest guard-rail on the course, then coming back to pull it clean a minute later.
The crowds dispersed following the street contest, and for all intents and purposes, the Urban Games were all about BMX. Word has it that this was the first of an annual event, and the organizers plan to make it bigger and better for next year, and we can't wait.
Jerry Galley invert on the cover of Ride BMX UK october 1999.
Place: Londres, UK.
Medias: Cream #8 october 2000, Clicked 05.
URBAN GAMES 2000 (clicked 05)
Medias: Freedom #40, Clicked Compzine video one.
xup.co.uk report: The Urban Games 2001, what can I say? It was one hell of a event, the best weather imaginable, the best riders and people, if you didnt make it then bummer, you missed one hell of a good weekend, I wont go into every trick that was pulled, chances are you were nearly all there anyway, judging by the crowd that was massive it was a good turnout, well done to Board-X looks like they gave Zach Shaw and Shaune Scarfe a pretty free hand to do as they liked but they ran the show really well, bang on time with all the events, good to see the ambulance crews on site of all the running comps, lesson well learned and good on them for listening after last years mishap.
All in all the weekend went real well, Friday was slow but the sun was out and it was begging you to grab a few beers and just chill all day. Saturday was better, larger schedule to get through so more running about, Flatland was good with plenty of riders although some music for them would have been better, if anyone needs music they do, huge turnout for the dirt, and they all rode to a very high level. Vert was much better than usual, a few different faces trying a lot of tricks they were struggling to pull, what its all about.
Sunday was the last day and similar to the Saturday, Street final 2 went off big time as usual, similar to Saturday with riders trying impossible gaps that they were managing to do. Dont make sense but you know what im on about if you were lucky enough to see, the most popular event by far, couldnt get a seat if you wanted. Vert highest air and final was run like a jam format, Zach hurt himself earlier in the day so wasnt commentating, Shaune got all the riders busting huge air and they all seemed to be enjoying the way it was running, perhaps this was why it was so successful this year? We hear it more and more but we all ride better in a relaxed atmosphere and it seemed to show.
Like I said earlier well done to Board-X and all involved in running the weekend, it took a couple of years to get it sorted but this was by far the best yet. The bigger it gets the more riders they bring in, next year it would be good to see more foreign flatland riders, the french scene is massive, bigger retail area similar to Bike would be good, Im sure these are all thing they are looking at but this all costs money. Leave it at that and see you next year for sure.
www.myspace.com/clickedbmxvideo: URBAN GAMES 2001 (clicked compzine 01)
SATURDAY
Street: 1.Colin MacKay (aus) 2.Clint Millar (aus) 3.Sebastian Keep 4.Benni Korthaus 5.Chris Mahoney
Highest Air: 1.Simon Tabron (13 ft) 2.Jason Davies (12.5 ft) 3.Shaun Eglington (12ft)
Vert: 1.Simon Tabron 2.Stephen Geisler 3.Shaun Eglington 4.Alex Reinke 5.Leigh Ramsdell
Dirt: 1.Kye Forte 2.Colin MacKay 3.Cyril Dangeul 4.James Weston 5.Dean Hearne
Flatland: 1.Nathan Penonzek 2.James White 3.Jorge Gomez 4.Alexis Deolneux 5.Effraim Catlow
SUNDAY
Street: 1.Colin MacKay 2.Clint Millar 3.Billy Dexter (usa) 4.Scott Maylon 5.Chris Mahoney
Highest Air: 1.Simon Tabron (13 ft) 2.Shaun Eglington (12 feet) 3.Alex Reinke (11 ft 3 inches) 4.Chris Mahoney (7 ft)
Vert: 1.Simon Tabron 2.Stephen Geisler 3.Sebastian Keep 4.Alex Reinke 5.Shaun Eglington
Dirt: 1.Colin MacKay 2.Cyril Dangeul (fra) 3.Noirot Romauld (fra) 4.Timo Pritzel (ger) 5.Toby Forte
Ce qui fait la différence...
Jamais on ne se lasse. On revoit toujours les mêmes riders de contests en contests, il refont souvent les mêmes tricks et pourtant à chaque fois; on s'émerveille devant un whip bien replaqué, un truck ou un fufanu bien propre. Ce qui fait qu'à chaque fois ça à l'air nouveau c'est le lieu, jamais le même, l'aire de street ou les bosses de dirt, toujours différentes. Rien n'est semblable. Ici, aux Urban Games , c'est l'ambiance qui fait la différence. Ce n'est pas l'aire de street qui vaut le coup d'oeil, mais plutôt les conneries que font les riders anglais au stand Eastpack. Exemple: mettez une peau de banane par terre. Prenez deux gamins qui feraient n'importe quoi pour avoir des stickers, ajoutez un porte voix pour des commentaires débiles et bruyants, regardez, rigolez. Pendant plus d'un quart d'heure le jeu à consisté à mimer une chute en glissant sur la peau de banane. Qu'est-ce qu'il faut pas faire pour avoir des stickers... ou des t-shirts. Aire de dirt, 15h, la finale va débuter. Tout le monde s'amasse derrière les barrières, mais le spectacle n'est pas là où on l'attend. Il se trouve en bout de parcours, avec un rangée d'anglaises bien chaudes pour un concours de t-shirt mouillé. Ca finit à poil... et en plus elle sont fières de montrer leurs nichons... Remarque, c'est franchement hilarant, elles font ça avec tellement de conviction...
Le riding
Malgré toutes ces distractions, on ne peut pas passer à côté du riding. Imposant et massif, il a plu des tricks tout le week-end (liste ci-dessous). Le timing était d'ailleurs calculé pour qu'il n'y ait aucun temps mort: deux contests en trois jours, ça veut dire deux qualifs et deux finales en street, dirt, flat et seulement des finales pour la vert. Bref, ça rigole pas. Surtout qu'il fait très chaud et que le moindre effort se transforme vite en calvaire. Ah, qu'est-ce c'est bien l'Angleterre quand il pleut pas quand même... Et puis en plus il y a une fille qui a fait le contest: Rosy Hilly , et attention, elle était pas là pour rigoler. La warrior attitude, sans protecs...enfin si, le casque puisqu'on est obligé de le mettre pour le contest.
Trêve de plaisanterie, voila, en résumé, quelques uns des tricks du week-end.
Dirt Samedi:
Kye Forte: turndown x-up sur le deuxième et 3/6 sur la troisième, ou pour son dernier run: 3/6 puis 3/6 puis 3/6.
Adam Strieby: seat-grab puis 3/6 puis whip ou alors flip sur la première et suicide sur la dernière.
Brad Grant: turndown puis 3/6 puis superman ou des trucs bien chaud genre: decade air sur la deuxième et whip sur la dernière ou encore 3/6 sur la seconde et whip sur la dernière.
Bibi: x-up/bus to bus/no foot can can to no foot can can et pour son ultime passage: no hander sur la seconde et superman 1 hand sur la dernière.
Deane Hearne: x-up puis 3/6 x-up puis nothing.
Josh Harrington: x-up 1 hand puis bus to bus puis no foot can can.
Dirt Dimanche:
Bibi: ah bien, le petit frenchie, bien ! Alors le bibi qu'est-ce qu'il nous a concocté pour cette méga finale ? No foot puis no hand puis superman seat grab et dans un autre passage: flip sur la seconde et bus sur la troisième. Alors content ? " Ben ouais " répond l'intéressé, normal il finit 2nd.
Kye Forte: unlookdown puis superman, et pour son dernier run il s'est acharné à faire un 3/6 sur la première et un whip sur la seconde.
Deane Hearne et ses " fuck off " quand il plante réussit quand même à rentrer x-up puis truck puis no foot can can.
Ray Bradbury: 3/6 sur la première et flip sur la dernière.
Street samedi:
Josh Arrington: pas logique le gars, il roule avec un casque intégral en street et un casque normal pour le dirt !!! heu ??? Enfin, ça l'empêche pas de tout déchirer. Over ice pick sur le sub rail, barspin en redescendant du wall, méchant truck sur le spine, 1 hand fufanu sur le sub rail.
Ben Hennon: downside tyre tap barspin.
Baz Keep: opposite whip spine, opposite fufanu sub rail, manual en haut du wall, le seul rider à l'avoir rentré. Remarque, c'est le seul qui a essayé alors...
Chris Mahoney: comme à son habitude, des whips partout, un whip superman, un indian seat grab sur la fun et vas-y que j'enchaîne les no foot can can ...
Bibi: wall to bus, 3/6 table 1 hand sur le spine, bus to abubaca sur le sub rail.
Lorenzo Reed: mais quel fada celui là ! superman seat-grab foot plant, ouais, ça existe, la preuve ! Au début un foot plant seat grab merdé et à la fin c'était carrément un superman.
Martin Tambling: perfect wall to whip.
James Hitchcok: icepick fakie sub rail.
Street Dimanche, toujours plus sanglant, toujours plus gros, c'est l'ultime finale:
Baz Keep encore lui: footplant whip, opposite lookback, whip to x-up sur la fun et transfert du wall vers les quarters.
Chris Mahoney , je sais pas si c'est qu'il a trop bu de bière ou bouffé du lion, mais impossible de le retenir: whip superman, walltap 1 foot, wall table 1 foot, et les inévitables énormes whip en transferts.
Josh Harrington: 3/6 x-up 1 hand spine, tentative d'ice pick en haut du wall.
Will Jackson: smith grind to bus.
Clint Millar: nosepick wall.
Tobi Chenka le hongrois: flip turndown, whip tail tap to x-up.
Craig Stevens: tooth pick sub rail.
Autre trick bien chaud, mais je sais plus de quel rider il s'agit: 3/6 to feeble sur le sub rail.
BMX Dirt Final 2 (Sunday): 1)Brad Grantham 2)Romuald Noirot Bibi 3)Kye Forte 4) Dean Hearne 5)Scott Edgeworth
BMX Flatland Final 1 (Saturday): 1)Frank Lukas 2)Phil Dolan 3)Mike Steingraber 4)Effraim Catlow 5)Simon O'Brien
BMX Flatland Final 2 (Sunday): 1)Phil Dolan 2)Mike Steingraber 3)Frank Lucas 4)Effraim Catlow 5)Simon O'Brien
BMX Street Final 1 (Saturday): 1)Josh Harrington 2)Ben Hennon 3)Sebastien Keep 4)Chris Mahoney 5)Romauld Noirot
BMX Street Final 2 (Sunday): 1)Sebastien Keep 2)Chris Mahoney 3)Martyn Tambling 4)Josh Harrington 5)Craig Stevens
BMX Vert Highest Air:
1)Zach Shaw .11.25 feet
2)Simon Tabron .11.20 feet
3)Shaun Egglington .10.9 feet
4)Gary Hall .9.5 feet
5)Josh Harrington .9 feet
BMX Vert Sunday: 1)Simon Tabron 2)Zach Shaw 3)Shaun Egglington 4)Josh Harrington 5)Jon Taylor
Renato, www.fatbmx.com: July brings us the height of summer but it also brings the Sprite Urban Games to the City of the Big Ben, London. It's a huge freestyle event combining bmx, skateboarding, freestyle mx, breakdancing and grafitty freestyle.
I was there for the bmx flatland contest, and after a 45 minute plane ride, a 35 minute train trip and a 20 minute subway (Londoners call it The Tube) adventure i ended up at Clapham Common, the park where the event was being held.
Jason Forde and his girlfriend Marie Meuret invited me to stay with them for the weekend and Jay even got me on the media list (where i belong, filming for FLATtv) so i got in for free and was allowed to go where all the other reporters could go, so basically anywhere except the girls bathrooms. Thanks again Jay!
A lot of the euro big heavy hitters were there: Martti Kuoppa and Viky Gomez riding their KGB frames, Michael Steingraeber and Frank Lukas from Germany, Christophe Dassie from France, Hidekagu Kuga representing Japan and Nathan Penonzek, the 2003 World Champion was also there. And of course, the British riders like Effraim Caitlow, Phil Dolan, James White, Sam Foakes, Jason Forde, Dino Jeffers, Alex Vickers, James Smith and more London Locals.
The floor looked pretty shabby, wooden floorboards nailed together, curled up by the rain and humid weather but the riders had to make the best of it. On saturday they did prelims in the early afternoon but the finals had to be cancelled because it started raining. Sunday showed better weather with lots of sun and they did a jam session in the early afternoon and later on a contest.
What went down? Well, let's see...
London Locals James Smith had a very good run, doing all his stuff, Alex Vickers did some very cool things like pedal steams, g-turn steamroller pumps and crazy spinning on the back wheel. Other Londoners like Iain Young and Gareth Hawkins had a chance to show their stuff and they looked pretty darn good too! James White is a living legend by now and he made sure everybody got the message that he is still alive and kicking! Hitchhiker jugglers to barflip out, no-handed backpacker to no-handed hitchhiker to halfhiker kickflip out!
Jason Forde had some trouble with the floor but ripped it up anyway with very smooth and snappy full barflips from lots of different positions, cliffhanger turbines, crackpacker to hitchhiker, all in supersmooth Forde-style! Phil Dolan rode very good pulling all kinds of crazy links, showing off his Dolemite frame which looks very funky indeed!
Effraim Caitlow did his outragous backwheel combo's with complicated switches and tricks like kaboose, gerators, backpacker g-turns and more, plus he pulled some awesome front wheel links with nice kickflips and more complicated switches. Sam Foakes and originality go hand in hand: superman steamrollers, time machine to decade and no-handed halfpacker!
Frank Lukas and Mike S. did what you could expect from seasoned contest riders like them, pulling all their crazy stuff, especially Frank did very long links and rode very solid.
Vicky told me he didn't ride for two weeks but after some practise he was pulling mad-ass shit again, Nathan flowed around like a hovercraft switching in and out of tricks like there was no tomorrow. Christophe didn't do so well, but he probably had some trouble with the floor which i can imagine because his style is pure rolling. Cool stuff though: whiplash to hitchhiker, backpacker to cross-footed hitchhiker, barflips and pedaling deathtruck.
Martti won the contest but i won't sum up his wizarding skills again, just look up any of my contest reports on the site, basically it boils down to this: cross-footed insanity, the hardest switches and flips in the book and originality with a capital O. When he has a good day and keeps it together during a contest run, like he did now, he is a very hard man to beat.
Mel C, www.agoride.com, august 2005: BOUM. Jeudi, veille des Urban Games, la messe BMX Londonienne 3 bombes explosent. Deux dans le métro, une dans un bus. Jour J, voila la mouize pour se rendre sur place. Pas de métro, seulement des bus qui bouchonnent de partout. Remarque en ce vendredi l'activité est plutôt réduite du coté de Clapham Common. Pas grand monde aussi bien niveau rider que public. Aie. L'après midi se déroule lentement. Juste quelques trainings du côté du flat, des qualifications amateurs sur l'aire de street et en fin d'après-midi juste avant de se faire virer très sèchement par la sécurité, les qualifications dirt.
L'aire de dirt est composée de 3 doubles dont la dernière tourne légèrement façon hip. Les français sont là, cocorico, quelques anglais et pas un seul américain. Peur des bombes ? Sûrement car on ne verra pas l'ombre d'un rider US de tout le week-end.
Béou rentre un nothing qui le qualifie direct pour les finales, Dropsy aime le public anglais et les Urban (360, x-up, turndown) qui le lui rendent bien. On le retrouve aussi pour les finales. En fait peu de riders sont présents donc on retrouve tout le monde en finale, c'est pas difficile comme ça. Après manque plus qu'à établir un classement.
Samedi retour sur place tout aussi chaotique que la veille. Toujours pas d'activité perceptible. Ah si, du côté du flat tous les pros sont arrivés.
Côté street rien car l'aire de street est réservée au skate. Pour le BMX il faudra attendre Dimanche. Donc on se dirige vers le dirt. Ca se met en route lentement mais sûrement... avant que la pluie ne vienne interrompre plusieurs fois le flat.
Pas de stress hein comme qui dirait. Gareth Wilson est le premier à tenter 360 whip sur la dernière double. Dropsy se balade: 360, 360 turndown, 360 table, flip table. Lilian Conry est la aussi: no foot, x-up, 360 x-up puis x-up, seat grab et gros nac nac. Dans la deuxième poule Bibi fait sensation: x-up 1 hand, 360 X-up ou encore: whip, x-up, superman 1 hand. Bon on a aussi vu un condor (Béou l'a aussi rentré). On regarde mais quand même, il manque un truc. Le soleil ? Hum, non il y en a rarement en GB. Le public ? Il est la mais pas en grand nombre. Les gens ont pas mal déserté. L'ambiance ? Définitivement. Le cœur n'y est pas. Pas d'éclat de joie, de grands cris quand un trick est rentré. Snif snif que c'est dommage. Colin Mc Kay à l'aise 360 x-up, x-up, bus to turndown. Kye Forte chute en backflip et se fait voler la vedette par son frère et ses jeans taille fillette. La grande mode, plus c'est serré, mieux c'est. Le plus ridicule ? Un gars avec chemise à jabot et ses pantalons velours marrons au dessus de la cheville. Magnifique, à croquer. A côté de ça les tatouages étoiles ont aussi la cote. Le must: quand ça entoure le coude. Pour finir avec le dirt reste à parler du sud africain Matt Macleod qui se lâche sur toutes les bosses et dans tous ces runs: turndown to x-up, bus, 360 bus. Il gagne les qualifs avec un flip no hand sur la dernière. En finale il rentre une jolie combinaison sur la dernière: 360 table to x-up. Mais il finit quand même derrière Bibi.
Même pas le temps de dire ouf, tout le monde a évacué l'aire de dirt. On se dirige vers le flat. Le contest se déroule entre les gouttes.
Plus tard la vert attirera le plus de monde, comme toujours, quand il y a danger le public répond présent. Voila pour le samedi.
Constat un peu décevant pour ce début de compétition. C'est peut-être pas une si bonne idée que ça d'avoir réservé l'aire de street au skate et de repousser toutes les épreuves du BMX au lendemain ; car le temps est trop incertain à Londres pour que l'on puisse être sur que tout se déroule correctement. La preuve: les skateurs auront eu leur contest alors que les BMXeurs devront se contenter de qualifs à cause de la pluie.
1- Matt Fairbairn
2- Ronnie Remo
3- Benni Kopp
4- Ricky Rokh
5- Aze Etzold
6- Mark Whitfield
7- Shaun Egglington
8- Chris Mahoney
9- Paul Jones
10- Kev Pilgrim
BMX DIRT:
1- Romauld (Bibi) Noirot
2- Matt MaCleod
3- Colin Mackay
4- Alex Dropsy
5- Scott Edgworth
6- Leo Forte
7- Nicolas Bertier
8- Ricardo Laguna
9- Dan McGeary
10- Maritn Murray
BMX FLAT:
1- Terry Adams
2- Justin Miller
3- Sam Foakes
4- Alex Jumelin
5- Michael Steingraeber
6- Frank Lukas
7- Effraim Catlow
8- Lee Musselwhite
9- Jason Forde
10- Christophe Dassie
BMX STREET:
1- Colin Mackay
2- Mark Webb
3- Ben Hennon
4- Craig Stevens
5- Ben Wallace
6- Markus Wilke
7- Chris Mahoney
8- Ben Manuel
9- Martyn Tambling
10- Stefan Lantschner
BMX YOUNG GUNS:
1- Joe Fox
2- Rob Reed
3- Tian Moses
4- Rob Stacey
5- Luke Towey
6- Gary Wells
7- Glenn Wood
8- Tom James
9- Joe Dodd
10- Gaz Cave
The 2006 Sprite Urban Games sent over some more up-to-date information on this summer's upcoming event. Here's what we now know about the comp, aside from the date and location:
1) This is the eighth year of the comp.
2) There will be live DJs on hand all weekend, plus a public street course for everyone in attendance.
3) The BMX comp will feature street, vert, dirt and flatland.
4) So far, Ryan Nyquist and Colin McKay are set to attend, among others.
5) £40,000 in prize money is up for grabs, and.... there will be break dancing.
6) www.spriteurbangames.com for more info.