| Date: September 15-19, 2004. Place: Cleveland, Ohio. | |
| RIDING HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE DIRT FINALS | |
| After the preliminary rounds for Bike Stunt Dirt were cancelled due to brief rain, contest officials and riders worked steadily all afternoon preparing the course for riding. When they were done, all 20 riders entered a finals-only contest Thursday night, throwing down four runs with their two best scores averaged for their final score. Nyquist, the defending gold medallist in the event, wasn't affected by the delay at all. The 25-year-old from Greenville tallied the best score of the night on his first run, a 94.2, and continued to set the pace through his final three, eventually seizing gold for the second straight year. Aussie Steven McCann kept the pressure on Nyquist throughout, taking home the silver medal with an average of 93.2, while Steven Murray left with the bronze. The first go-round for Nyquist began with a backflip and 360 variations, and ended with an impressive 720. With his second run of the night, Nyquist drew quite a response from the rowdy Cleveland crowd as he laid down a suicide backflip on the final jump. With a second-round score of 93.2, Nyquist was practically assured a spot on the podium with two runs remaining. It's definitely good to start off the contest with a good first run. I think it was one of the best scores of the contest so it's definitely good to have that one in the bag as you go through the rest of the run. McCann kept the pressure on the whole night. It was kind of like a waiting game. I just had to wait and see what he was going to do before my run. Nyquist didn't waste his final two runs, earning a 92.6 before taking a glory run with the contest wrapped up. The competition, which drew athletes from all other events as spectators, was not so kind to the rest of the Greenville riders. After suffering a sprained wrist during practice, Aussie Corey Bohan's first run was a solid one (86.0), but his second go-round had the Cleveland crowd on its feet. Capping a run filled with 360 variations with a barspin to tailwhip, Bohan was awarded a 93.0, the second highest score of the night. But an attempted 360 tailwhip on his third run sent Bohan crashing to the ground hard. He never recovered, and finished in ninth with an average of 85.46. Former Gravity Games silver medallist Allan Cooke started the night strong with an X-up flip to tailwhip and a double truck driver 360 to earn an 86.2, but fell hard on the final jump of his second run, which earned him a 78.2. Cooke bounced back with an 85.8 in his third run, however, starting with and X-up backflip and ending with a tailwhip to barspin. His average of 86 was good enough for a top 10 finish. Scott Wirch, the only rider competing in all three disciplines of BMX at Gravity Games, had a tough night throughout. After losing control on the final jump of his first run, Wirch fell to 19th place after the first round and had trouble recovering. His second run featured a no-foot can-can, earning him an 83.6. Tallying an 85.8 in his third run, Wirch pulled himself back into medal contention, but his final go-round was not enough, as he placed in the bottom 10 with an 84.7. Rob Darden laid down two solid runs in the opening two rounds, featuring a double tailwhip and a 360 taiwhip, but got little help from judges, scoring an 84.6 and an 85.4. Darden was a little disappointed with an 82.6 in his third run, but rebounded with a solid 86.2 in his final run to claim 10th with an average of 85.8. Immediately following the rain that forced the cancellation of the prelims, many of the riders competing in Bike Stunt Dirt tossed their helmets and bikes aside and began helping officials clear the water from the course. The extra work obviously paid off for everyone, as the muddy course was quickly restored and ready for competition in a couple of hours. While his finish was nothing to brag about, Indiana's Joey Marks pulled off the first-ever double downside tailwhip 360 to send the crowd into a frenzy during his final run of the night. |
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| RIDING HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PARK FINALS | |
| Nyquist settles for silver. The Greenville rider, who already captured gold in Bike Stunt Dirt, came up just short in his bid for double gold, taking the silver medal in Bike Stunt Street on Sunday night at Cleveland's North Coast Harbor. Morgan Wade, a rider from Tyler, Texas, claimed gold in the event with a tremendous first run, while Aussie Steven McCann earned bronze. "It's not bad, but it's definitely not what I wanted," Nyquist said. "It's not really that satisfying when you know what you can do and you make a mistake on something like I did." The mistake from Nyquist came on an attempted flair on the quarter pipe during each of his two runs. With barrage of 720's, flair transfers and truckdrivers, the 25-year-old was able to score a 90.2 on each of them for the silver, however. "Every time in between my runs during practice I pulled it, so it's a bummer that it didn't happen," Nyquist said. Fellow Greenville rider Allan Cooke had a solid showing as well, placing sixth. With a first run that featured a backflip over the box and tricks on virtually all parts of the course, Cooke scored an 86.2 to finish just outside of a podium spot. I was pretty psyched on my first run. My goal was to get to the finals in each of the contests I was in, so finishing top 10 in both has me pretty psyched. Greenville's Mike Laird, Rob Darden and Scott Wirch also had respectable finishes. A double tailwhip over the box, accompanied by a 180 transfer and a tailwhip transfer earned Darden a top 15 finish. I was satisfied considering I didn't have much practice. I know it wasn't a top 10 finish, but I'm happy with it. Darden was a last minute replacement for Jeremy Fanberg, who separated his shoulder during Saturday night's vert competition. Wirch also earned a top 15 finish, throwing down a huge no-handed flair at the end of his second run. Meanwhile, Laird didn't waste any time going for the big trick. Just seconds into his first run, Laird launched into a big flair but fell on an attempted double tailwhip over the box. A big backflip transfer from Laird still satisfied the crowd. Laird went back to the double tailwhip in his second run, along with a few 360 transfers, another big flair and a 360 tailwhip. After my first run when I tried the double whip I started thinking about it and I just wanted to lay something solid down. Usually it's my style to kind of lay it on the line and go for it all right away. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Colin Mackay's second run was also worthy of a finish in the top 15. While he struggled with a tailwhip from the block, Mackay later nailed it to go along with a solid run and earned an 82.6. But none of the Greenville guys had enough for Wade, who pulled the rare bike flip over the box during his first run, which scored a 91. Wade later tried the bike flip over the spine, but was unsuccessful. Greenville's Josh Harrington could never get over his bad ankle. Although he was the only rider to pull an icepick on the high wall, Harrington fell during an attempted 360 early and aggravated his injury. The 21-year-old was unable to ride for his second run. My ankle was just bothering me too much to do what I wanted. Harrington and the local riders will have little time to rest, considering the next contest for most is this weekend. Many of the riders will not even make the trip home before heading to California for the third stop of the Vans Triple Crown, the last contest before the offseason. Nyquist almost didn't get the opportunity to ride Sunday after a head-on collision with Mackay during practice runs. The two were shaken up momentarily when the collided, but recovered and hit the ramps for each of their runs. |
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| RIDING HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE VERT FINALS | |
| After suffering a separated shoulder during Saturday night's Bike Stunt Vert final, Fanberg was back in Greenville resting Sunday. It's not that bad, but it's just bad enough. I was so disappointed that I just had to get away from there. Fanberg says that he will be unable to compete this weekend in the VTC event but expects to be fine for his trip to China for demos a month from now. | |