FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

Vans invited for a party at the Hardrock Casino in Las Vegas. FATBMX was present. Friday night saw an amazing dirt contest followed by a street comp the next day but first things first; Dirt. The crew had built up the stage again which had a small roll in followed by a gap into a landing and two huge sets of jumps. The landings of the jumps were at least 10 feet high and 14 feet wide, I don't want to know how many truckloads of dirt had to be brought in for this. Fuzzy, Elf and the building crew had built a monster course but the riders were ready to take it on. I have to admit, it had been a while since I attended a dirt contest in America. X-Games 2003 I believe. The level of riders in Vegas was off the hook. It was pro invite only and they sure had picked a high level of riders. The contest was going to be a head to head contest. Each rider jumped once and after that the scores were announced.

Two-time Mobile Skatepark Series Overall Best Trick Champion John Parker has long been one of the smoothest and most exciting riders on the pro circuit, but he’s been plagued by spectacular crashes this season, first during the X Games and then in September during the MSS event in Sacramento. When time expired on Parker’s first run in today’s pro BMX vert contest, however, both fans and fellow riders realized the respected veteran rider had just turned in a miraculous performance. Parker kicked off his run with a perfect opposite flair, a trick he only recently re-learned after removing it from his repertoire a decade ago following a horrendous spill (he still won't do regular flairs). He followed up the flair and sealed a gold-medal-winning performance with multiple huge supermans, multiple 540 variations and his signature double-tailwhip, a trick only a handful of riders in the world can land.

For the third time the FSO JAM was held on the 20th of August. Even though the weather gods seemed to have different plans for the day, a group of around 60 riders showed op at the Central Station. When we all got our shit together and the first beer of the day down us, we set off for an exploration of our nations capitols best street spots. Amsterdam does not offer you typical street spots and some of the spots provided a real challenge to some. To avoid a rundown of all the stops made and tricks pulled I will just sum up a few of the highlights of the day. For me the trick of the day was done by Rutger Pauw at the Amstel long ledge. This ledge is around 50 meters long, starts off at a good 80 cm above the ground and has a 3 meter or more drop in the beginning, 2 Years ago Rutger almost pulled it but ended up over the bars with a split knee, this year he pulled it clean.. and brakeless.

Spectacular championship Braun Flatground offers flatland the stage it deserves “Braun Flatground should serve as an example to all flatland competitionsâ€? Last weekend Amsterdam – Holland welcomed the world’s largest flatland event: Braun Flatground. After an opening party on Friday, with Dutch hip hop artists Pete Philly & Perquisite, Saturday started off with qualification rounds Pro and Girl followed by the Dutch Championships Finals. No less than forty-seven professional riders from Japan, USA, Canada, Chili, as well as most European countries competed for a much sought after qualifying place amongst the sixteen finalists. At night the finalists gathered in front of a massive crowd in the Westergasfabriek Gashouder built in 1902. In a heated one-on-one battle, Viki Gomez (SPA) managed to beat all his opponents.

The Eurobike show has a big reputation when it comes down to BMX freestyle shows. GT cracks were brought over in the late '80-s and Early nineties. Also Dennis McCoy made it over one year for Mongoose. The BMX track in the middle with dirt jumps has seen plenty of good action but the last couple of years it kind of stuck with European demos. Last year saw the La Finca ramp there and this year it was basically a one man show on the track (Todd Lyons on his SE BMX bike against everyone else on their MTB-s) but there was more. Turn2 was hired to do flatland demos and they brought over a great crew of riders with 2005 World Champ Michael Sommer, Wolfgang Sauter, Seppl, Matti Rose and Frank "Lowcash" Lukas. They even brought over their own DJ and an MC. Turn2 showed that flatland can be damn cool. The show on Saturday night was insane. Good sound, good vibe and great riding. The riders were feeding off of eachother which is always the best.

San Jose Day 5 was pretty much a slow day, all that was occurring was BMX Park Finals, which although is a big event, most of the athletes were pretty beat up from riding hard for 4 previous days straight. I too, was exhausted because this was just a tiring week so I didn't really get a good report at the event of what happened in BMX Park finals, but once again thanks to my friend Alex and good ol TiVi have no fear, we have a complete report for ya still. Park finals would go down at 1pm inside the HP Pavilion and you could pretty much tell the riders were throwing everything they had into the park runs but their bodies were just not there.

Saturday would be a pretty calm day BMX wise, the only thing going down was Park Prelims which would begin at 2:30pm. So still being pretty warn out on BMX Park I headed out to the FMX course to watch the guys practice a little bit, somehow I always seemed to get sucked into the Moto X events, I don't know what It is about them, maybe it's the fact that the majority of the riders in FMX (all but one that I've encountered) have been beyond nice and conversational with the fans. They opened the gates at noon on Saturday so being the anti-social person I was feeling like that day, before they let the crowds in I headed back to Park to find a seat to watch the prelims go down.

Friday was going to be a CRAZY day for me. Not only did I have to cover BMX Dirt Prelims and Finals, but I also had the BMX Supercross and had to make sure a few guys got where they needed to be at certain times. Therefore something had to suffer and unfortunately it was BMX Supercross, I did get to catch the finals and have the results for you guys, but I can't really comment on much else that went on. I know the course was sick and many of the Freestyle riders wanted to get out there and ride it, but more about that later.

Ben Wallace wins penultimate round of the Braun cruZer Tour Spine at IFMA Bike Challenge in Cologne. Cologne / Düsseldorf, September 19th 2005 - The penultimate round of the Braun cruZer Tour Spine took place at the IFMA Bike Challenge at the IFMA bike trade show in Köln on the 17th and 18th of September with about 30,000 spectators. As well as the Pro tour round, an Amateur event was held to give the local young talent a chance to shine…. In AM qualifying Axel Reichertz stoked all with what may have been his first public appearance since a photo sequence in a 1990 issue of Invert, and despite being too yellow or old to jump the spine he schooled everyone in what riding a mini with a front brake was all about. Unfortunately Alex chose not to show up for the final on Sunday, which allowed Axel Teschner to sneak in and grab first place with a solid run of tech tricks.

The Crown Flatland Contest Hamburg, Germany. 17 September 2005 Results Pro: 1. Michael Steingräber 2. Alex Jumelin 3. Raphael Chiquet 4. Sebastian Pospischil 5. Matti Röse 6. Markus Reich 7. Wolfgang Sauter 8. Ali Barjesteh