Sources: BMXup #15 octobre 1998, Bmxicos magazine #4, Ride BMX UK #38 december 1998, Ride BMX US february 1999, 23mag #3
(report), www.dinamite.com, ...
If you want to add any info, please contact
buissonrouge@23mag.com.
Place: Portimao, The Algarve, Portugal
Date: september 16-20, 1998.
Organisation: B.M.X. FREESTYLE WORLDWIDE FOUNDATION in co-operation with: CLUB BICROSS DE PORTIMÃO, CÂMARA MUNICIPAL DE PORTIMÃO, RADICAL POWER, REBEL MEDIA.
www.dinamite.com/bmx,1998: The Worlds'98 will be held at Parque da Juventude de Portimão, centrally situated in Algarve (South of Portugal), one hour drive from the international airport of Faro, renowned for and experience with several international BMX contests ("BIG CONTEST", "RACE MASTERS" ), Portimão offers the best possible facilities for Flatland (the wood floor of a indoor Gym), Miniramp (on the Park ramp zone), Halfpipe (same place of the miniramp), Street course (ramp zone), BMX track (side by side with the ramp zone), Dirt jump (in the middle of the BMX track) and a BMX trail course (outside the Park).
Friday night spectacular lives .performances of BMX bands on the Worlds site !!!! Such as Ron Willkerson's Band from USA, the Cellofan Solution , and more bands that can still apply. At 24:00 the party will continue at the Praia da Rocha site until 4:00am.
250 riders signed up from all over Europe, Brazil, Japan, USA, and Canada.
Une équipe de nettoyage permanente balaie et recouvre les rampes de coca.
Sessions nocturnes jusqu'à 22h30.
Ride BMX US: THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS of freestyle has always been a European contest with a couple of American and Canadian pros flown in. For the '98 World's in Portugal a bunch of Americans and Canadians all made the European trip. The organizers even flew Ron Wilkerson's band over for a concert on Saturday night, too. Life was good. The beach, bars, and contest site were all within walking distance from the hotel. The flatland area was all right. The mini ramp had a spine with a taller volcano-spine on the side. The vert ramp was kind of slippery and had a lot of flat. The dirt jumps weren't very technical, but they were big. The street area was pretty basic with quarterpipes on each end with a fun box in the middle.
(...) Riders from as far away as Japan, Brazil, USA, Canada, and from ten European countries got together for this year's World's not only for the riding, but to have a good time. |
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| FLATLAND |
| Nobody had a perfect run in pro flat. Michael Steingraber (Germany) started off strong, but he failed to pull some of his secret weapons for fifth. Martti Kuoppa (Finland) had played the, "I'm insane. I'm gonna kill myself" game to get out of the Finnish army and wound up in fourth. Day Smith (USA) came in just ahead of Martti for third. Nathan "Mr. Consistent" Penonzek (Canada) scored second. Somehow Nathan manages to pull every trick, even when they go wrong. Andrew Faris successfully defended his '97 World Title on a pink Schwinn. Andrew's fullbarspin to hang-five and his slow-motion rolling tricks were very impressive. |
Day Smith. Photo: Kay Clauberg.
PRO FLATLAND 1-Andrew Faris 2-Nathan Penonzek 3-Day Smith 4-Martti Kuoppa 5-Michael Steingrabber 6-Phil Dolan 7-Effraim Catlow (tie) 7-Alexandre Jumelin (tie) 9-Lionel Cardoso 10-Akira Okamura(tie) 10-Jimmy Petitet (tie) 12-Alexis Desolneux |
| VERT |
| The vert ramp was kind of slippery and had a lot of flat. There were eleven riders from six different countries in pro vert. Fourth went to Hoffman's Kevin Robinson (USA). Kevin had a black eye and was feeling sick, but was doing scary high 540's. Germany's Stefan Geisler only started riding vert two years ago but he still scored third place. It's incredible how talented this guy is. He's good at flatland, does truckdrivers and flips on jump boxes, and now he has set his mind on vert. He takes his flatland skills to the platform and does nose-wheelies, hangfives, and all that good stuff. The battle of the contest was between Simon Tabron (UK) and Jay Miron. Simon Tabron looked very concentrated and was going to take it seriously. Jay was laid back because he had already won mini, but he still doesn't like to lose. Simon went OFF! His style has changed for the better and he does his variations at ten-feet plus. Jay Miron had a solid first run as well, and it was going to be hard for the judges. In the second run Simon did the highest 540 I have ever seen-nine, ten, or maybe even higher. A hard landing moved his bars forward in the beginning of his run and five Allen keys were thrown at him. One trick later the same thing happened. He put nine fingers in the air and we all knew what was coming up. A huge 900 attempt followed, but a crash was the result. The crowd went nuts and Simon was okay. After seeing Simon's second run Jay knew that another solid run would do it. His tailwhipsupermans, barspin540's, and dog-piss airs were rad. Jay passed on the 540-tailwhip-no need for "idiot-trick" points now. Another gold for Canada and The Beast. |
Jay Miron. Photo: Ron Wilkerson.
PRO HALF-PIPE 1-Jay Miron 2-Simon Tabron 3-Stefan Geisler 4-Kevin Robinson 5-Rob Sigati 6-Alex Reinke 7-Jason Davis
MASTERS 1-Jonas Malmberg
20 ANS et PLUS 1-Romuald Noirot |
| STREET |
Street. No street contest happened because of the rain. The purse was divided among those who entered the pro class-roughly $400 for everyone, even for Rob Nolli who was out with an injury from qualifying. Nice surprise.
Ruben Alcantara 360 double tailwhip attempt.
Jay Miron 360 superman seat grab
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| DIRT |
There were two sets of jumps, one big set followed by a step-up. The landing on the first set was pretty flat and didn't give you enough speed to clear the step-up if you didn't land right. Racers were in favor here, but there were not many racers around.
Last place went to, believe it or not, Jay Miron. Jay is not a racer and his bike weighs a ton. That combined with no practice might explain why he didn't get very far. Third place went to Thomas Wullschleger (Switzerland) who was pissed that he didn't pull his nothing on the first set to 360-X-up on set number two. Ryan Brennan (USA) did the fattest no-footed cancan ever-his legs were just too far away from the pedals to pull it off, but he did. This year there was no American champion because Timo Pritzel took the gold back to Germany. Timo did a clean flip on the first set and a no-footed flip on the second set, but it was the style and height that gave him the win. As Ron Wilkerson put it, "There's Vic Murphy, there's Dave Voelker, and there's Timo Pritzel." | DIRT 1.Timo Pritzel 2.Ryan barspinner Brennan 3.Thomas Wullschleger 4.Olivier Renard 5.Chad Kagy 6.Nick Cox 7.Marco 8.Patrick Guimez 9.Jacobs 10.Jay Miron |
| MINI RAMPE |
The mini ramp had a spine with a taller volcano spine on the side. This was pretty rad. Everyone gathered around the ramp, the lights were on, no waits for cameras, some good music, a bunch of loud drunks, and good riding from the pros. Jason Enns 270 alley oop axel grind on the spine. Rob Sigaty (Canada) had good tricks including some attempted flairs that probably scored him some "idiot-trick" points, as Jay Miron stated it. Fourth place was for Dave Osato (Canada). The Hot Guy had some problems with his balls (literary) and was in pain whenever he rode, but he toughed it out anyway. Only three points separated the riders in first through third: Jonas Malmberg (Sweden), Alex Bender (Germany-last year's winner), and Jay Miron (Canada). Alex Bender was going off with bus drivers over the tall spine, truckdrivers -you name it, he did it for third. Jonas and Jay tied for first in qualifying so they had to pull out all the stops to get the win. Second place went to Jonas Malmberg, who has his flairs down, flows on the ramp, and has a good future ahead of him. Jay Miron won. Jay used everything near the ramp and completely went off-360 tailwhips and truckdrivers over the spine, peg-bonks here and there, and a no-handed flair attempt for the "idiot-trick" points. With Fans winning flat, this made two gold medals for Canada.
Jay Miron 360 tailwhip and truckdriver over the spine, 360 sur toute la largeur, and a no handed flair attempt. |
Alex Bender. BMXup #15 octobre 1998.
Ruben Alcantara. Photo: Kay Clauberg.
PRO MINI RAMPE 1-Jay Miron 2-Jonas Malmberg 3-Alex Bender 4-Dave Osato 5-Rob Sigati 6-Ruben Alcantara 7-Markus Wilke 8-Jason Enns |