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Boom!! What a fantastic start! The first station of the 2007 Battle in da Club tour on May the 17th has definitely rocked the unbelievable CocoonClub. Exciting battles and at the end Sebastian Pospischil got the victory. There can be only one! Here is the ranking, which is also the current state of the whole tour ranking:
1. Sebastian Pospischil

Unfortunately we didn't see much of this year's flatland contest at the FISE. The flatland crew had their own platform built up which wasn't massive and a bit wobbly but you couldn't tell so when it mattered. One of the highlights that I did get to witness was a performance of Mike Spinner in Pro Flat qualifying. No front brake, no pegs, no freecoaster, just his regular street bike.

Sometimes you realize why people go to sports events when they can see it live on tv or see the recap of the game only a few moments later including replays. You can grab a beer from the fridge that only costs 20% of what you would have paid at the game, the temperature is good, there's a roof over your head and you don't have anything to worry about. And still people go to the stadium. And for a reason. Live events are the best. You experience the moment firsthand, hear the noise and live the moment. The miniramp contest at the FISE was one to remember. It will go in the history books of some tricks pulled for the first time, some riders riding the ramp for the first time in their life and a crowd so big it made you feel you were watching a football game.

Chris Mahoney went off in the finals. He was doing tricks back to back and didn't hold back. Ben Hennon's first boost over the spine (no-handed) scared people as they hoped he would land back on planet earth in one piece. So high.

Dude, I don't know exactly how many people were watching the Pro Dirt contest at the Fise but there were many. It's so much better when the crowd gets into it. It pushes the riders to go for those tricks that they either have been working on or trick they haven't tried on big sets yet. And big sets they had. From the top the jumps didn't look all too crazy but when you were standing next to the you realized how massive they were. 

With the strong wind all week long the vert competition at the FISE did not look very promising. On top of that there was a little drizzle going on in the morning for a few minutes and everyone knows that storm, the Red Bull ramp and bike riding don't go very well together. It cleared up though and it even got sunny. The wind wasn't too bad but the ramp was still very slick. A quick fix with some special water didn't help very much but it didn't hinder the riders from starting off the vert comp.

There were actually quite a few riders that climbed on top of the ramp but where was Ronnie Surridge? He must have been meeting up with his myspace chicks or something at the time Sebastian Keep, Jon Taylor, Jan Valenta, Matt Fairbairn, Tim Eichert, Jean-Marie Baertsch, Sven Kabusch, Dan Lacey and a few other brave guys started off with the comp. 

MONTPELLIER, FRANCE - Mark Webb (GBR) began his Braun cruZer Tour title defense, winning stage one with an impressive performance at the Nokia FISE festival in Montpellier, France on May 19. Perfect weather and a stunning location on Montpellier's river side brought 20,000 spectators out to see a multitude of events, including the finest display of BMX riding ever seen on the Braun cruZer mini-ramp. 

Now that the pros have been riding the course we can’t wait for the contest to start. It’s sunny out so that part is taken care of. The wind has been going crazy which isn’t good for the vert comp or dirt. The wind was crazy in pro mini qualification but that didn’t quite affect the riders. At least it didn’t look like it. The ramp is built up on a platform that sits on the water. The scenery is nice and you could watch the comp while eating something at the Italian place across the street. Ben Hennon was going huge, and we mean huge. So fucking awesome. He qualified in second behind a rider who has this ramp down; Mark Webb. When he sees a trick, it doesn’t take him long to do it and that includes all of Scotty Cranmer’s flair 540 tiretap to tailwhip drop-in moves. It took Daniel Dhers some time to get used to the 7 foot Braun Spine and he had to re-start his run a few times but got it down in the end. Long live the jam session format. Daniel is a trick machine and I’m sure he will be ready when the finals arrive. Ben Wallace is ripping too and qualified with no problems. Gary Young almost overslept the contest (which started at 3pm). 

We've landed at the FISE contest in Montpellier, France. It's not quite summer yet and we even had a little rain this morning but things are looking good for the next few days. And not only weather wise. Gary Young has arrived and had a bit of a jet lag. The Mirraco team riders (Mirra, Spinner, Laird) and also Daniel Dhers are stuck in New York but will arrive tomorrow. 10 English riders (a.o. Webb, Wallace, Surridge, Miller, Watkinson, Aller, Hennon, Yates) have made it across the pond and so has Matt Fairbairn from Australia. 

With killer dirt riders in town for the Extreme Playground contest a sweet dirt session took place at the Abflughalle in Grevenbroich, Germany. It was the solution to get some riding done on a rainy and windy weekend. The indoor dirt place got shredded by everyone who found a ride there and that included Hennon, Nyquist, Wicke, Juergens, Heyer, Forte, Caro and more. With no pressure on anyone the riding took off quickly. The jumps were in perfect condition and the presence of a resi section and foampit brought out the tricks that the riders had in mind but had not completed yet. Wicke pulled no-handed fronties on the resi and triple whips and whip to pedal to whip to pedal in the foampit. The invert award of the day went to Bjorn Heyer. Check his feet on the photo on your right. Dope. Ben Hennon had his throttle stuck on fullgas again with double whips over the big first set and crazy superman looking jumps. Stylish 360-s came from Forte, Caro was pulling his 720-s and Nyquist was riding off his jetleg with all his classic jumps.

"I wanted to do a flatland night club tour through New Orleans. I basically presented the Idea to Red Bull that I wanted to hit 3 night clubs in one night. I wanted to pull people off the dance floors at the clubs and show people how awesome flatland was! I brought along Ben Crockett From BMX PLUS to cover the tour, MC Scott O'Brien to get the crowd hyped while I rode, and of course my Friend Mickey Gaidos to film this great piece . One cool part about the flatland Tour was that we went to each club in a stretch Limo. I was stoked that the tour went well and every person that watched had a new understanding of BMX Flatland!"

Watch the video by clicking here.