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The second European stop of the LG Action Sports Tour was held in Birmingham, England. Sixteen riders rode a straight final of two 1-minute runs each, best run counts. Ben Hennon was out with a hurt foot, Phil Aller volunteered to go to hospital with Louis Smith who knocked himself out in practice. Craig Stevens walked around with his arm in a sling and was out for the contest too. Who was left you ask? Mike Miller had won the pre-Nass qualification and also the Nass street contest so he could enter the LG comp. However in his runs he couldn't quite pull it together after a few rough days (and nights). He still did the best lookback 360 over the box in his second run. Luke Towey got 14th with handplants over the spine and some tech riding. Brendan Jones got 13th, Ben Manuel 12th, Robin Fenlon 11th and then we're getting to the top 10 finishers:

This is by far the biggest event in town and it definitely shows with all the visitors driving around the neighborhood for 3 hours to find a parking spot. Back from last year the south side of the Pier is where all the chaos can be found....the Soulbowl, US Open of Surfing, Volleyball, Fashionshows, you name it, it couldn't be any crazier. I woke up in a craze realizing my battery of my camera wasn't charged and I had a little left on making it on time. 

Re-cap of the winners’ runs by Ryan (Free Flow Tour road crew and judge).

Steven Kennedy took first place in our main event. Steven had close to perfect consistency and a great flow throughout the park. He hit a bar spin tire tap to foot jam, tail whip out. That really caught my attention. Steven also tail whipped to peg stall and tail whipped to fakie on the quarter pipe. In second place was Codey Levesque. Codey was landing turndowns, tail whips, and foot jams. Not far behind was Kodey Fisher coming in third. Kodey was tearing up the course with turn downs, 720s, and big airs.

Results Free flow tour Orange, CA:

Köln, 27. Juli 2006  Suzuki BMXMasters 2006: 440 international top riders from 30 nations as well as 12,000 spectators joined a relaxed and all around successful event under blistering heat in the Cologne youthpark from July 21 to 23. Once again the Braun cruZer Tour held a stop in Cologne with the amazing Braun Spine Ramp - the world’s largest mobile mini-ramp … One of the absolute highlights was the final in the category Miniramp Pro, which was held on the Braun Spine ramp. The competing riders gave the public what they wanted to see – BMX riding on the highest level. After several try’s Phil Aller pulled a fufanu on the backrail of the platform. Mark Webb – winner of the Braun cruZer Tour 2005 – took the first place with incredible runs and tricks such as double tailwhip tiretab or x-up flair and impressed the spectators as well as the judges. The crowd was loud and off the hook.

Braun cruZer Tour Spine Ranking:
Webb, Mark (Eng) 1000
Wallace, Ben (Eng) 990
Osato, Dave (Can) 980 

July, 2006 – Denver, Co. – Daniel Dhers captured the BMX Park title in the final day of competition at the Dew Action Sports Tour's second stop, the Right Guard Open, at the Pepsi Center. Dhers, 21, of Caracas, Venezuela, earned his first BMX Park title with a run that was highlighted by a no-handed flair on the quarter pipe. Ryan Nyquist, 27, of Los Gatos, Calif. came in second with a score of 91.00 while Alistair Whitton, 25, of Great Britain, took third place with a score of 90.25. 2005 BMX Park Dew Cup winner, Australia’s Ryan Guettler, 22, failed to qualify for BMX Park finals. 

July 2006 - Denver  In BMX Dirt, Ryan Nyquist, 27, of Los Gatos, Calif., scored a 96.25 on his second run to win the title. He secured his win by performing his first barspin 720 in competition. Placing second was Panasonic Open winner Anthony Napoliton, 20, of Youngstown, OH with a 94.00 and in third Luke Parslow, 21, of Riverside, Calif., with a score of 93.25.

“It’s crazy I feel like I won my first contest, I’m so happy,” said Nyquist. “I just found out that I’m the oldest guy on the course, the young guys are pulling the hardest tricks and it seems like war out there.” 

July 2006 - Denver, Co. - Jamie Bestwick, 35, of Great Britain, scored a 94.00 on his second run in the best-of-two format in BMX Vert. He moved from second to first place with the victory. Placing second was Chad Kagy, 27, of Gilroy, Calif., with a score of 92.50. In third was Kevin Robinson, 34, of Providence, RI, with a 92.25.

“To ride with 12 of the best riders in the world is awesome,” said Bestwick. “It’s been up and down all year but I knew Denver was a good city for me. It was a great city and a great crowd.” 

The pro qualifiers faced some rain on Saturday. That's why everyone made it to the final on Sunday. Also those who had already ridden on Saturday. The finals with 58 riders took place in the blistering heat on Sunday afternoon on a course that saw quite a few new obstacles. Instead of calling it Street, it should be called Park but that doesn't take things away from the riding that was going on. Riders were trying fronties over the box that had a little higher landing that messed up a few guys. Alessandro Barbero did not have any problems with it as he pulled all the latest moves on it including double whip 360-s for the victory. He's from Italy so he's used to riding in these temperatures most of the year. Chris Doyle no-footed cancan-ed the spine and found different lines for second while Hector Garcia from Mexico ripped it up for third. Hector also made it to the World's in Prague last year and impressed in pro mini there. Mark König from Germany won the adidas best trick Spine contest with a 270 Tailtap to icepick to toothpick tailwhip over the spine. 

We're not sure if it was the announcement of Mat Hoffman competing at the Masters but many riders showed up to be on top of the ramp together with the legendary Condor. Mat actually had some bad luck leading up to the contest. First of all he was operated upon his knee only two weeks before the comp. He couldn't walk before that but it all healed in time (or passed Mat's pain barrier) for him to compete. On his way here, one flight got cancelled and two were delayed making his trip less than enjoyable. On arrival his gear bag did not show up forcing him to get some shoes and shorts to even be able to ride. Once on top of the vert ramp for a training session he pumped up his tire which caused a flat. Sweet. Two more flats followed on the weekend but Mat has dealt with bad luck and pain before.

His fellow riders enjoyed his company and so did the big crowd. Time was allowed for each rider to try a hard trick at the end of their run. There was no buzzer or anything like that that immediately ended everyone's run.