Tour de force
By TMX Archives on 14th Aug 03
the UK's finest extreme sport athletes converge on the Royal Bath and West Showground for the National Adventure Sports Show - and this year is no exception. EVERY SUMMER the UK's finest extreme sport athletes converge on the Royal Bath and West Showground for the National Adventure Sports Show - and this year is no exception. And for freestyle motocross fans attending this year's festival the NASS organisers have brought in the finest Euro riders from the IFMXF Pro Tour to battle it out for big money and bragging rights over the Bolddog.com ramp.The entry's certainly impressive with riders coming from the far corners of Europe to decide who's best on the night. Representing Norway are Ailo Gaup and Oystein Kjorstad, Frederik Johansson's here from Sweden and Switzerland has two top riders in attendance - Thamer Engali and Kuno Berner. Looking to defend British pride are our own boys Chris Brock, glamour-boy Gary Taylor, Jamie Squibb, Frazer Swanson, Steve Cousins, Gary Norman, Ash Davies and Chris Birch.It's not just the rider entry with an international flavour - the panel of judges is equally exciting. BMX vert legend Mat Hoffman is drafted in as a celebrity judge alongside dbr's international playboy Battle and Bolddog.com team-rider Barry Wilson who's sitting this one out with a duff ankle.The qualification rounds see two qualifying runs per rider with the best run to count. Highlights of the qualifying rounds have to be Gaup's crazy combos, the Honda rider's best being a rock-solid to Indian-air to no-hander-lander. He's not the only rider throwing out combos though - Welsh madman Davies pulls a wicked lazy-boy to no-hander-lander.After everyone's had their two qualifying runs and Battle's figured out how to add the scores up using a calculator (we're so proud), the top six qualifiers are announced. It's no surprise that Taylor is top qualifier - his run's pretty much flawless. Combo-king Gaup's second with Brock, who's on the comeback from a broken scaphoid, third ahead of Kjorstad, Squibby and Johansson. Unlucky not to qualify are KTM star Engali and Bolddog's Birch who both miss out by a handful of points.Next up is the best whip contest that's always a favourite with the crowd. There's almost 42,000 people on site and while they may not all be watching the Saturday-night FMX finals it's certainly the biggest crowd I've ever seen at any freestyle event. Taylor, Gaup and Brock seem to have scrapped going for the flattest whip and instead are concentrating on getting their bikes sideways and on occasion beyond sideways - it's gotta be seen to be believed.Squibby and Kjorstad are throwing flowing, smooth whips but they don't have the same impact as seeing the Brock Star fully sideways, engine screaming, looking backwards at Taylor who's doing the exact same thing with Gaup in his wheel-tracks - madness! The winner of the whip contest is decided by the crowd's cheers and it's Taylor who's flavour of the night.As the darkness descends it's time for the Sick Trick contest - there's no time for a break but the riders are wired on adrenaline and Red Bull anyway and definitely don't need one. Taylor wins this one with an exceptional kiss-of-death - could he go all out and win the finals too?First guy to run in the final is Johansson who's sharing a '01 RM250 with Kjorstad after it becomes apparent it's impossible for them to borrow a bike each for the event. Unable to get into his usual flow with unfamiliar bar-positions and power-characteristics, Frederik still puts in a quality final run over the equally unfamiliar Bolddog landing system. His tricks include a Shaolin bar-hop and a stripper as well as the usual Superman and seat grab variations.Next guy to go is Squibby and he's riding as smoothly as ever. Jamie's more of a stylist than a trick-merchant which is perfect for demos but many of his tricks appear to be fairly repetitive which never goes down well with contest judges. Still, he pulls some perfect double-nacs and a switch-blade that the massive crowd lap up.Kjorstad goes next after some quick bike set-up changes needed after Johansson's run on their shared bike. Oystein isn't riding to his usual high standard but he's still throwing out some massive tricks and ends his run with a sterilizer - pretty ballsy considering he's landing on a rock-hard wooden downslope. Kjorstad's height makes his tricks look well-stretched and his Hart-attacks are out of this world.Newly-signed Red Bull rider Brock is next to perform - and perform he does. His injury induced-break from riding seems to have done him the world of good as he rides with even more control and style than ever. The best cliff-hanger of the night along with a flawless Flintstone, a whipped Indian-air and a McMetz to no-hander-lander puts the crowd into a frenzy. The pressure's really on now for the remaining two riders.Of the two riders left to run it's Norwegian Gaup who rides first on a borrowed Bolddog Honda. Ailo's fresh back from a dislocated shoulder sustained at the IFMXF World Cup in Salzburg but it doesn't seem to be giving him too much trouble as he tears it up in fine style. Riding as aggressively as ever - and with a few subtle variations thrown in - Gaup's run should be a high scoring one. However, he hasn't ridden as well as in his qualifier and it'll be interesting to see how the judges see things when the scores are calculated after Taylor's run.As Gary rides into the arena the tension's rising - can he finally win an IFMXF-sanctioned event? He's come close on so many occasions but this surely has to be his golden moment. He starts his run as he means to go on with style and flair, using some freshly invented variations like his one-handed-seat-grab to double-grab. A huge whip and a killer kiss-of-death end his run and he can only wait along with the other five finalists for Battle and crew to calculate the final scores.The six finalists are brought into the centre of the arena to wait for the results, announced in reverse order. Johansson's sixth and Squibby takes fifth - then, after a little dramatic pause to add to the already unbearable tension, the fourth place man is announced as Gaup with third going to his countryman Kjorstad. "I'm so surprised," says Oystein. "It's dark and maybe they didn't see every technical issue of every rider but I'm happy with third."So it's between Taylor and Brock - and while neither will admit it they're both desperate to win. When the winner's announced it's Taylor who's the disappointed one. "It went all right," he says later. "I don't like anyone beating me but Chris and I are good friends so it's better he wins than a foreigner."Brock's well-satisfied with his work. "I wasn't really expecting to win," he says with a smile. "I put together a little list of tricks and managed to pull 'em all off and take the win."