| Date: August 2-5, 2007. Place: Los Angeles, CA. |
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| VERT | |
| Some of the top BMX trick riders in the world put on a spectacular display today at the BMX Freestyle Vert competition, part of ESPN X Games 13. Brit Jamie Bestwick's eye-popping first run scored a 93.66, and despite intense competition from Simon Tabron and others that number held throughout the second round and Bestwick walked with the gold. Bestwick's first run was a high-energy group of complex tricks, including an opposite flair and a one-footed opposite double flair. But the big moment came when he did a regular whip, then went straight into an opposite double tail whip - which has never been landed in competition before. "I love being at the X Games. I get great treatment," Bestwick said afterwards. Finishing with this particular combo was something he's wanted to do for a while, he said, adding, "Everybody was just riding so well - how could you not get inspired with all the great athletes out here?" Tabron, meanwhile, busted a precedent of his own: he hit two back-to-back 900's, which has also never been landed in competition. (He also threw a no-handed bar spin 540° in for good measure.) In between, though, he did straight airs off the vert ramp during the rest of his second run, which Tabron acknowledged was probably the cause of him winning silver, not gold. "It's been a dream of mine to do [the 900°] back-to-back since I learned it. When I landed it [today], the first thing I thought was, 'Did I win?' " Tabron said. "But I can't take anything away from Jamie. He's been a lifelong friend of mine, and today he was magnificent." Lloyd Ramsay, www.fatbmx.com, august 2007: Over on the vert ramp the trend of spraying your whole bike day glo colours was catching on. The ever modest Jamie Bestwick took the win while taking some if his big tricks and doing them opposite. John Parker banged it up a notch by landing a bike flip. Francisco "Coco" Zurita took X Games 13 literally and had a bad day going for the triple whip in both his runs and not landing them. The second attempt left him on the ground for a bit which we never like to see but he walked off under his own power shortly after. Fat Tony, www.ridebmx.com, august 2007: Jamie Bestwick is whom some would call the best vert rider in history—and judging by his first run tonight, they may be right. Jamie's first run was flawless…high inverts, flairs in both directions, whips in both directions (maybe even an opposite double whip—can't remember, but we'll show you the footage), fastplant flair, and a ton of other variations. Simon Tabron had an amazing first run and an even better second run. He made BMX history this evening by throwing out back-to-back 900s to end his second run! Wow. Kevin Robinson won Big Air last night and put on a hell of a show tonight as well. He tried a double flair to start his second run but couldn't quite stay on the bike. His runs included a no-handed flair transfer, huge 540 variations including a 540 tailwhip, and lots of other bangers. Zack Warden went for a bikeflip to start off his first run but couldn't roll out. However John Parker did land one, which (I think) made it an X Games first. Francisco "Coco" Zurita tried a triple whip on the first air of both of his runs and nearly landed both—key word being nearly. He was putting it all on the line with a "go big or go home to Chile" attitude. Respect. After crashing on a double tailwhip in his second run, Zack Warden tried a whip to whip back (winshield wiper) just for the crowd, but went down—still an awesome attempt. |
VERT RESULTS 1. Jamie Bestwick / Derbyshire, Great Britain / 93.66 2. Simon Tabron / Newquay, Great Britain / 92.66 3. Kevin Robinson / East Providence, RI / 88.33 4. Jimmy Walker / Gilberts, IL / 86.00 5. Dennis McCoy / Kansas City, MO / 84.66 6. Steve McCann / Melbourne, Australia / 84.66 7. Jay Eggleston / Denver, CO / 84.00 8. John Parker / State College, PA / 83.66 9. Zack Warden / Woodward, PA / 81.00 10. Francisco Zurita / Santiago, Chile / 76.00 Jamie Bestwick's winning run. |
| PARK | |
| 22-year-old Daniel Dhers was in top form at the BMX Freestyle Park Final today, posting a 90.66 in his first run, then a winning mark of 91.66 in his second. He held off stiff competition from reigning Freestyle Park champ Scotty Cranmer, as well as from the most decorated athlete in X Games history, Dave Mirra, to take home the gold. In only his second X Games appearance - he won bronze at last year's BMX Park event - Dhers was beyond consistent, hitting tricks like a no-footed can to whip air, a triple whip, and a double whip. He also stuck a 360° flip with a tail whip, which wowed the judges and put him over the top. "I started watching X Games in '98. It was always a dream just to come here," Dhers said. "Last year I came on the scene and won Dew Tour, Boost Mobile - pretty much everything I was in - and at the end of the year somebody said, 'Oh, you did everything but X Games.' That was my goal for this year. Now I've got it all." Among other tricks, last year's gold medalist Cranmer landed a triple whip and a double tail whip 360. He also hit a front flip over the spine and was the only rider in the event to do so. His second run was his best, but the 90.33 he received from the judges wasn't enough to top Dhers' 91.66. Mirra showed off some of the magic that has made him an international superstar, including a tail whip backflip and an alley-oop tail whip, but had to settle for bronze after a few stumbles. "Today was Danny's day," Mirra said afterwards. "Danny filled more tricks in his 60 seconds than any of us out here. He totally deserved to win." Lloyd Ramsay, www.fatbmx.com, august 2007: Daniel Dhers' runs took park competition to the next step of evolution. Just 1 trick doesn't cut it anymore and he was sometimes throwing at least 3 in at a time. His consistency is nothing short of amazing either with him making very few mistakes. On the mic was Catfish who did a great job keeping energy levels high. Grotbags was also present doing his thing and it was good to see the event called by 2 guys who know what a peg stall is and not some middle aged "dude" in board shorts. Nyquist was visibly disappointed with his second run which was riddled with crashes. After a great run in the last 2 Dew Tours his goals were obviously set high. Dennis Enarson started off both his runs with triple whips on the drop in. A crash in his first run and another crash to end his second run hurt his chances. Also in his first appearance at the comp Mike Spinner was going for the double whip to tire tap with not much success. Rocking his baby blue bike Dave Mirra went whip crazy in his second run and one was thrown every few seconds. Armed with a full sleeve of rub on tattoo's Morgan Wade pulled a flair whip from quarter to bank. Scotty Cranmer finally pulled his front flip over the spine in his second run and finished second after his X-Games victory in 2006. Fat Tony, www.ridebmx.com, august 2007: Daniel Dhers put together two solid runs filled with back-to-back whip variations among other tricks—not a surprise if you've ever seen him ride a contest before. Some of his standout tricks were a no-footed can-can to whip on the quarter, alley-oop double whip, inverted flairs, his signature 360 turndown backflip, and putting in more tricks into 60 seconds than anyone else without ever putting a foot down. Scotty Cranmer was trying to defend his gold medal from last year's X, but took a step down to silver. He threw out a perfect triple whip over the box in each run. His first run was cut short after crashing on a frontflip over the spine, but on his second run he nailed it and kept packing in the tricks creating an amazingly solid run. Dave Mirra started the same way as Scotty with a tailwhip drop-in then proceeded to throw whips, double whips, downside whips, a flip-whip and plenty of other bangers that didn't involve whips. Gary Young, Morgan Wade, Dennis Enarson, Ryan Nyquist, and Garrett Reynolds all were on their way to stellar runs but crashed and lost momentum costing them valuable points. Dennis did a flawless triple whip air on the big wedge roll-in, Morgan did a few huge pocket transfer-type tricks, and Spinner did a dialed 540 tailwhip and 540 turndown along with a 720. Mike Spinner, www.mirrabikeco.com: After years and years of watching the x games on TV I got to be in it. This is My dream come true. I got to LA last week after a bunch Of plane delays. When I finally got to X I was super stoked. The next day we had practice and I am going to admit, practice was not going my way. The course was Crazy and something I was not totally used to. Some people looked good on it, some took some time getting used to the course. Finally today (Saturday) was the contest. I was a little nervous but right when I got there I did some tricks in practice and then I was stress free and just having a good time, My first run was alright. It was not what I wanted but I stayed on my bike. Next run I totally Blew it (ha ha ha). I was going to step it up, but I jumped the first jump, landed low and from that I just messed around and had a good time. Dave TOTALLY Killed it. He had a good first run, did a high FLIP WHIP that scared everybody (HA HA HA). At the End Dave ended up 3rd and I ended up 5th. I’m super pumped. It’s my first X games and I hope I get invited back for more !!!!!!!!!!! Dave Mirra, www.mirrabikeco.com: Bud, I’ll tell ya what! What a contest! It seemed pretty tame, right. Well, Daniel Dhers killed it as usual with a flawless run for a straight minute. It’s crazy because I joked in practice, the only thing different about Daniel’s riding from practice to contest is the people in the stands. He layed everything out from day 1. Scotty Cramner surprised all of us because he was struggling in practice but then when it came down to it he really stepped it up. Scotty threw a perfect triple whip over the second set and finished out in second. For me, I was off to a good start and then out of nowhere I flipped over the bars on a flair. That was the last thing I thought I would crash on but, oh well. So I squeaked my way to the podium. One more year down at X and hopefully the crowds keep growing. I had a good time this year and I really felt good competing in only one event. Overall, it was a mellow X-games in terms of commitments for the media and I really didn’t get a chance to see much of the other events, but in the end I’m healthy. |
PARK RESULTS 1. Daniel Dhers / Caracas, Venezuela / 91.66 2. Scotty Cranmer / Jackson, NJ / 90.33 3. Dave Mirra / Greenville, NC / 88.00 4. Garrett Reynolds / Tom's River, NJ / 86.66 5. Mike Spinner / Miami, FL / 85.00 6. Ryan Nyquist / Greenville, NC / 82.00 7. Gary Young / San Diego, CA / 82.00 8. Josh Harrington / Greenville, NC / 81.33 9. Dennis Enarson / San Diego, CA / 80.33 10. Morgan Wade / Tyler, TX / 79.66 |
| BIG AIR | |
| The BMX Freestyle Big Air Final at X Games 13 on Thursday was a barn-burner, and veteran rider Kevin Robinson was the one who came out on fire. Making his 12th X Games appearance - he competed in the very first X Games in 1995, and has only missed one year since - Robinson squared off against a field comprised of mostly young bucks at STAPLES Center, and emerged victorious. After reaching verts of 18' and 20' on earlier runs, Robinson landed the winning trick on his fourth run: a no-handed backflip over the gap, followed by a flair that sent him soaring 18' above the quarterpipe. The judges gave him a 95.33, which held through the last round and granted Robinson his second BMX Freestyle Big Air gold medal in as many years. "I'm so happy to be here at this event. I really care about it a lot," the East Providence, RI native said afterwards. "I've been at the X Games since the beginning. It's been really great to see the events grow, and to grow with them." Steve McCann locked in the silver on his last run with a back flip tail whip over the gap into a double tail flip with a 12'7" vert. The judges gave McCann a 93 flat - just barely giving him the edge over Anthony Napolitan, who snagged a 92.66 on his last run. "I'm stoked on my first medal ever at the X Games," McCann said. Considering the massive dimensions of the Big Air ramp, "I was pumped I could even hold it together" to complete the trick that launched him into second place. Fat Tony, www.ridebmx.com, august 2007: Last year was Big Air's first appearance at X Games and this year it came back with a bang. Six of the most courageous riders in BMX dropped in on the 80ft tall roll-in, hit the 50ft (or in some cases 70ft) ski jump, then aired the 27ft quarterpipe. Having the ramp indoors this year was a huge advantage for the athletes as the wind was no longer a factor for them. Kevin Robinson came through with the win, defending his title from last year. Here's what each guy threw down… Kevin Robinson: No-handed flip, no-handed flair, flip over the 70-footer, 21ft air on the quarter, 18ft high flair out of the quarter, and on his last run that he didn't need to take because he had already won he flipped the 70-footer and then did a 20ft air. Steve McCann: No-handed flip, double whip on the quarter 12ft out, superman seatgrab on the quarter, superman seatgrab over the gap, 14ft high invert, flip-whip. Anthony Napolitan: No-handed frontflip, no-handed double tire grab frontflip, flip-whip, flip double-whip, tailwhip on the quarter, no-hander on the quarter 11ft out. Morgan Wade: Superwhip, superman seatgrab over the 70-footer, 21.5ft invert on the quarter. Allan Cooke: X-up flip, x-up flip to no-footer, high x-ups on the quarter held for a long time, superman seatgrab backflip. Mat Hoffman: Nothing over both gaps, lots of high airs, huge no-handers on the quarter, and a bail from 18ft high to land on the quarter deck—scary. rideukbmx.com: It seems the wait is over and Kevin Robinson has walked away with the Big Air title.. I liked this quote from the X Games website, "Kevin was the top gladiator this year". That sounds about right. Anthony Neopolitan did a tyre grab to no handed frontflip over the huge gap and Steve McCann did a double tailwhip over twelve feet out of the quarter. Goodbye to Vert riding? Jamie Bestwick thinks it's a possibility... |
BIG AIR RESULTS 1. Kevin Robinson / East Providence, RI / 95.33 2. Steve McCann / Melbourne, Australia / 93.00 3. Anthony Napolitan / Youngstown, OH / 92.66 4. Morgan Wade / Tyler, TX / 92.33 5. Allan Cooke / Greenville, NC / 89.00 6. Mat Hoffman / Edmond, OK / 86.00 |