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S&M Bikes SoCal factory tour with Chris Moeller by USABMX

Simple Session has always been a bit special for me personally. After doing a GT Air Show in Tartu, Estonia in 1999 where we inspired Risto and his buddies to start Simple Session, my first time back to the Baltic country was in 2004 for Simple Session number four. 15 years in a row I made it to Tallinn and the event keeps amazing me. It's the first big event of the 2018 calendar and brings people from all over to a country that we normally wouldn't visit, especially not in the wintertime. But that's also part of the beauty of the event. While in the Saku Suurhall, Vapiano or Hollywood, you don't sense it's freezing cold outside. The presence of BMX-ers and skateboarders in town makes Simple Session some sort of annual gathering where everyone catches up and prepares for the new season.

With 60 riders in Street and 44 in Park, this year's qualifying day was long. But when the good riding keeps coming there's no time to fall asleep. Bruno Hoffmann (Street) and Ryan Nyquist (Park) qualified in first. The top 12 in each discipline made it to the finals on Sunday. The actual course had one bigger street section with penty of rails that was used by most of the street riders. The surrounding transitions were used by park riders to go high, blast new tricks and to keep the speed up. In qualifying both park and street had a jam session in a group of 4 with each rider getting two 60 second runs on the course. Never a dull moment in each class with everyone pushing things to the limit for personal satisfaction or to impress the massive crowd in the Saku Suurhall.

Rival Racing BMX is extremely honored and excited to announce the sponsorship signing of "The Machine" Maris Strombergs to their 2018 Factory Team effective immediately. Strombergs, the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist, needs no introduction to those with even the most basic of BMX race knowledge or history of the sport.  We thought about listing all of Maris' achievements in this press release but feared the internet doesn't have enough bandwidth capabilities for that length of accomplishments. So here's the abbreviated time line: at 2 yrs old he was the fastest kid on a tri-cycle in his neighborhood back in his home country of Latvia. At 9 he won his first BMX World Championship. Fast forward through his teen years where he won a bunch of other races and titles right up to the start of his professional career where he has become arguably the "GOAT" of BMX Racing.  He's the only Pro Racer in history that has been an Olympic Gold Medalist (he did that twice just cause he could), UCI Elite Men World Champion, European Series Elite Champion, NBL Pro Champion, and ABA/USA BMX Pro Champion.  Several of these prestigious titles, he has won multiple times. Basically, if there is a professional championship title that can be won in BMX and Maris has