| July 21, 2007 North Coast Harbor - Cleveland, Ohio. | |
| DIRT | |
| Ryan Fudger, www.ridebmx.com, july 2007: Dirt finals just ended and it seemed like the level of riding was really out of hand. It almost blurred together in a huge mesh of front flips, triple whips, flip variations, and 720s. Basically, my mind is mush. But so is everyone else’s, I’m sure. Corey Bohan seemed to have the contest on lock after back-to-back 90-point runs. One of which included a one-footed no-hander to whip over the first set, multiple three variations, and a barspin-to-whip on the last set. But then Ryan Nyquist came in and stole his thunder with his usual combo of three and flip variations, but with a 720 in the middle of the set and another 720 on the last set, giving him the ‘ol two fer two in this year’s Dew Tour series. And, being the amazing guy he is, Ryan announced on the podium that he’d be donating his prize money (it’s $15,000, right?) to help Stephen Murray. Cheers all around for an amazing event and a tremendous act of charity. www.dewtour.com: Even though this is just stop number two of the tour, there was still a lot at stake at Dirt Finals in Cleveland. Ryan Nyquist won last month in Baltimore, so another win would give him a comfortable lead in the points race for the Dew Cup. Cameron White, Corey Bohan, James Foster, Allan Cooke, Luke Parslow, and Ryan Guettler had all made finals in both Baltimore and Cleveland, so good showings here could jack up their points tally and allow them to gain some ground on Nyquist. However, Nyquist is used to the pressure and made off with another win, making him two for two so far on the tour. He pulled it off with double truckdrivers, suicide no-handed 360s, and multiple 720s, including a barspin version. Bohan held the lead position for a bit thanks to no-handed one-footers to tailwhips, opposite truckdrivers and 360 whips, a barspin to tailwhip, and truckloads of style. Luke Parslow rounded out the podium with his trademark massive flipwhips, frontflips, and flip turndowns. James Foster pulled off an incredible feat on Friday in Cleveland. He had landed the very first triple tailwhip in competition in 2006, but apparently wasn't satisfied with that accomplishment today. He pulled a triple in Qualifying this morning, then pulled triples over the first set in all three of his runs in the Finals. He didn't exactly get the rest of the tricks he wanted so he ended up settling in 7th place, but still got mad respect for his streak of triple tailwhips. Cam White finished just off the podium with two solid runs including a flipwhip, truckdriver to x-up, double tailwhip, and 360 whip. Anthony Napolitan also delivered a couple of strong runs including his signature no-handed frontflips and double tailwhip 360s. Allan Cooke landed one of his dream runs with a one-footed x-up flip, tailwhip, 360 whip, and double tailwhip, so he was stoked, to say the least. Diogo Canina did the same with a big flipwhip, regular and opposite 360s, and a double tailwhip 360, but a couple of slip-ups in his earlier runs kept him at 8th. Nyquist has won just about everything there is to win in the world of dirt jumping, but there's still some space in his trophy case for his first Dew Cup. Things are looking good, because this is actually his third contest win of the year, and when Nyquist gets on a streak, he's hard to bring down. Check out the Vans Invitational in Portland next month to find out if he continues to dominate. |
Dirt final results: 1. Ryan Nyquist 2. Corey Bohan 3. Luke Parslow 4. Cam White 5. Anthony Napolitan 6. Allan Cooke 7. James Foster 8. Diogo Canina 9. Cory Nastazio 10. Joey "Whitesnake" Marks 11. Ryan Guettler 12. TJ Ellis |
| PARK | PRELIMS www.dewtour.com: FINALS Ryan Fudger, www.ridebmx.com, july 2007: Let me first start off by saying that park finals were just three hours after park prelims, so I was plugging away editing footage up until minutes before the final. So when I ran to the finals, the stands were packed, access to everything was shut down, and people that didn’t make it in were pissed. This also meant that I had to stand about six people back and shoot between people’s shoulders. Luckily I’m tall, rude, and have a black eye, so I think people were willing to get out of my way. So, that’s my excuse for what looks to be the worst photos I’ve ever shot. At least the riding is good, right? So, yeah, Dew Tour. BMX. Finals. Money, money, money on the line. The format was a bit ridiculous: four heats of three riders rode in a jam format, one rider from each heat qualified to the “super finals,” and the two riders who had the highest scores outside of the already-qualified four got thrown in, too. That made for a weird little dynamic and some people really weren’t too psyched on the format. Who knows if the format will stick. 1. Daniel Dhers – 93.92. Front flips over spines, alley-oop flairs, wild inverted 720s, three whips, double whips, and more. 2. Ryan Nyquist – 93.25. He 720’d the step down, almost pulled a 720 barspin, double trucks down the step, 540 barspins, and a double barspin flip. So wild. 3. Garrett Reynolds – 90.50. All the street lines; wedge to wedge 720, tailwhips over the rail, fakie trucks, truck to turndown over the box, and a ton of other stuff. 4. Josh Harrington – 90.50. Barspin to fuf on the small sub, barspin to ice on the big one, cannonballs down the step, hangover tooths, barspin to double pegs, and blasted airs in between. 5. Dave Mirra – 90.25. Flip whips over the 20-foot driveway, double whips, blasted flairs, 360-no-handed flip (no alligator wrestler), and even tried to fire out a flip x-up to late tailwhip. So wild. 6. Morgan Wade – 87.58. Huge airs, double whips, 450-flips over the hip, 720s, nothing-to-tailwhip, tailwhip-to-icepick. “Probably the only guy there smiling.” 7. Allan Cooke – 90.00 (note the screwy format) 8. Steve McCann – 89.50 9. Kevin Kiraly – 87.67 10. Dennis Enarson – 86.83 11. Mike Spinner – 86.33 12. Diogo Canina – 83.17 www.dewtour.com: Daniel Dhers of Caracas, Venezuela narrowly edged out Ryan Nyquist to win the BMX Park competition. Dhers, last year's Dew Cup champion, finished with a 93.92 score, besting Nyquist’s effort of 93.25. Dhers, 22, donated his $15,000 prize money to the Stephen Murray Recovery Fund to help Murray who suffered a career-ending injury at the Panasonic Open in June. “All weekend I was thinking I have to make money to donate to Stephen, and now I’m glad to be able to say I stepped it up to do that,” said Dhers. With Dhers winning the first two events of the 2007 season, he leads the AST Dew Tour standings with 200 points followed by Nyquist with 124 points. |
Park Final Results: 1. Daniel Dhers, Venezuela, 93.92. 2. Ryan Nyquist, Greenville, N.C., 93.25. 3. Garrett Reynolds, Toms River, N.J., 90.75. 4. Josh Harrington, Greenville, N.C., 90.75. 5. Dave Mirra, Greenville, N.C., 90.25. 6. Morgan Wade, Tyler, Texas, 87.58. 7. Allan Cooke, Greenville, N.C., 90.00. 8. Steven McCann, Australia, 89.50. 9. Kevin Kiraly, Livermore, Calif., 87.67. 10. Dennis Enarson, La Mesa, Calif., 86.83. 11. Mike Spinner, Miami, Fla., 86.33. 12. Diogo Canina, Brazil, 83.17 |
| VERT | |
| PRELIMS www.dewtour.com: 2007 is proving to be an interesting year for BMX Vert at the Dew Tour. At stop one in Baltimore, top five regulars like Simon Tabron and Kevin Robinson placed uncharacteristically low, opening a spot on the podium for Jimmy Walker. Here in Cleveland, the shakeup continued at Vert Prelims, with Jay Eggleston, Francisco Zurita, and Steve McCann rounding out the top five after heavyweights Jamie Bestwick and Chad Kagy. Eggleston is a long-standing vet in Vert, often blasting some of the highest airs in the competition. He showed up in Baltimore with an even smoother flow and some new 540 variations, and he really shined at the prelims in Cleveland. Back-to-back moves, massive airs, and a turndown 540 helped put him in third. He even pulled a fakie air in his second run. Zurita has a great trails-inspired new-school style on the ramp; double tailwhips on the 15-foot extension on your third air make you look pretty good, too. Nosedive toboggans, flairs, and super whips landed him in fourth. McCann, already a regular in Dirt and Park, decided to enter Vert this year, and he already looks right at home. Big moves like no-handed flairs, barspins to turndowns, and double tailwhips put him in the top five. Luckily, Tabron and Robinson made the cut; we'll have to see if they pour it on in the finals to take higher spots. 40-year-old Dennis McCoy got pushed out of the top ten shortly before his second run, so he fired out bangers like a barspin 540 to fight his way back in. Jimmy Walker had the same thing happen to him in round two; his barrage of two-stage variations and turndown flairs got him back in, as well. Koji Kraft wasn't so lucky. An impressive run filled with back-to-back tricks, a double barspin, and a double tailwhip wasn't enough to save him from being squeezed out at the last second. Baltimore's first and second-place finishers Bestwick and Kagy took the same spots in Qualifying here in Cleveland. Kagy pulled a barspin superman seatgrab, huge alley-oop turndowns, and even a handplant, despite a stomach bug that's kept him in his bed at the hotel since he got to Cleveland. He's got until Sunday to rest up for Finals, so hopefully he'll be at 100% for the big showdown. Bestwick looked like his usual relaxed self, looking down the barrel of no-handed 540s and turndown flairs with complete comfort. Some of the riders will definitely be looking to shake the roster up a bit at Sunday's Final event. There will be a lot more tricks getting thrown, so get yourself to North Coast Harbor if you've got the chance. FINALS Ryan Fudger, www.ridebmx.com, july 2007: Vert Finals went off in front of a capacity crowd of…40 people. Yeah, the Dew Tour shut down, the vendors packed up, and the people were gone, but the contest went on… Some weren’t really psyched to be there riding, and it showed. In the end, Simon Tabron took the win with his first run holding strong as others couldn’t pull out a full run. Simon’s run included a no-handed 540 to late barspin, super smooth 900, turndown 5’s, and tons more. Dennis McCoy rode solid, but went down pretty damn hard on a 900. Steve McCann made finals in Park, rode good in Dirt, and killed it in Vert. He’s good. At everything, apparently. Jay Eggleston boosted every wall and nosed in his 540s like no one else in the contest. Kagy fell on a flair whip in his first run, but pulled it out on his second run and got himself third. Jamie Bestwick didn’t seem to be too happy to be riding at 10pm at night. Kevin Robinson fired out no-handed flairs, switch-hand 540s, opposite flairs, and no-handed 540s. Francisco “Coco” Zurita pulled a banger—a triple tailwhip on vert. To the pedals, clean, amazing. |
Vert prelims results: 1. Jamie Bestwick 2. Chad Kagy 3. Jay Eggleston 4. Francisco Zurita 5. Steve McCann 6. Simon Tabron 7. Kevin Robinson 8. Dennis McCoy 9. John Parker 10. Jimmy Walker Vert finals results: 1. Simon Tabron – 91.67 2. Steve McCann – 90.83 3. Chad Kagy – 90.67 4. Kevin Robinson – 89.33 5. Jay Eggleston – 88 6. Francisco Zurita – 88 7. Jamie Bestwick – 87 8. Dennis McCoy – 83.33 9. John Parker (didn’t ride) 10. Jimmy Walker (didn’t ride) |
BEST TRICK |
| www.dewtour.com: NEW YORK – August 1, 2007 – The AST Dew Tour, the world’s premier season-long action sports tour, today announced the winner of the PlayStation® Trick of the Week Award from the Right Guard Open. Voting began on Monday, July 23, the day after competitions ended. Fans were able to view video clips and vote online at www.astdewtour.com until Monday, July 30. Fans selected Francisco Zurita as the PlayStation® Trick of the Week winner after he performed the first triple tailwhip on a vert ramp in competition during the BMX Vert Finals. Zurita finished in sixth place in the finals. “This truly surprises me and it is a blessing,” said Zurita. “I don't really know what to say except thank you to all the fans who voted for me, thank god, and of course thank you to the crew at the AST Dew Tour for putting together great events like the Right Guard Open!" Zurita faced stiff competition for the PlayStation® Trick of the Week Award. Other Trick of the Week nominees included: Bob Burnquist (Skateboard Vert), completed a frontside 540 during Finals, Ryan Sheckler (Skateboard Park), completed a Backside 360 Ollie, which helped him secure his second consecutive victory, Ryan Nyquist (BMX Park), performed a 720 Stepdown in his second place run in the Finals, Corey Bohan (BMXDirt), executed a flawless No Hand One Foot to Tailwhip. Zurita wins $5,000 and his trick will compete for the PlayStation® Trick of the Year versus all the Trick of the Week winners from other AST Dew Tour events, including the upcoming Vans® Invitational in Portland (August 16-19). Online polls open on the Monday following each event. | |