The 30 minute jam session started off in front of a huge crowd. Tim Eichert didn't hold back from the start and went for barspin 540-s, flairs and 900-s. Yup, he ended up on the flat bottom a few times but did pulled the cleanest flair of the day. Jean-Marie Baertsch rode smooth like silk and it's a pleasure to just see him flow. JMB brought 2 fellow vert riders from Switzerland and also his buddies are going off. Jan Valenta got really close to pulling a barspin flair. The Czech rider went upside down, turned ninety degrees, span his bars, caught them and started on his landing but slid out a few times. A broken rear wheel kept him from trying it again. 
It looks so close that he will pull it at the next comp. Sebastian Keep was not allowed to ride (doctor's orders) but felt good and decided to give it a go. Jon and Bas have done plenty of shows on this Red Bull ramp and love it. It showed as Bas went high, landed smooth and went in the opposite direction too (looking back). He pretty much traveled the whole ramp doing a tailwhip and landed on second place. Australian Matt Fairbairn was flown in to do some shows in Rennes the previous weekend. The set-up was a bit shadier than the one in Montpellier and Matt pulled all his tricks. 
That includes barspin 540-s, x-up to double barspins and big tailwhips. Matt made his short trip count and picked up the first place check before getting back on that plane. 
It was good to see that more than 6 people showed up to ride vert. It can be one of the highlights of an event as long as the riding is good. The thousands of people who watched the comp went home satisfied. 
BdJ
Results: BMX Vert Pro
1 Matt Fairbairn
2 Bas Keep
3 Jan Valenta
4 Jean-Marie Baertsch
5 Tim Eichert
6 Jan Jilek
7 Fabian Giess
8 Jon Taylor
9 Sven Kabosch
10 Nicolas Climentidis
11 Dan Lacey
Pics: BdJ/PdJ
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.