Bestwick and Aitken win big.
Today’s Vert and Dirt Finals were off the charts. Both finals came down to the very last runs, and an insane assortment of tricks were attempted and pulled. Here’s what went down…
VERT
Today’s Vert Finals were stacked with ten heavy hitters and the fight for the win came down to the very last run.
After the rider’s first runs, Chad Kagy was sitting on top of the standings, just ahead of Jamie Bestwick. Chad threw down a super solid run with clean tricks that went all the way to the buzzer. Chad’s first run went something like this: barspin-to-x-up, barspin-to-tailwhip, double tailwhip, flair, no-hander, x-up, unturndown, one-handed x-up, superman seatgrab Indian air, no-hander-to-x-up, x-up, flair-whip, x-up and a one-handed x-up.
Jamie followed with a no-hander, alley-oop barspin-to-turndown, superman seatgrab (slipped a pedal), alley-oop downside tailwhip, blank air (no trick), tailwhip-to-turndown, flair, double tailwhip, 50/50 grind, and a fastplant flair. Jamie’s first run was good, but he stopped with about ten seconds left on the clock.
The second runs saw Simon Tabron throw down some big tricks including an invert 540, alley-oop 540, and a 900 (which he had crashed on in his first run). This run bumped him up into the top three, and ultimately gave him third.
Chad’s second run went like this: flair-whip (landed with his feet off), two blank airs, tailwhip, blank air, turndown, no-hander, double tailwhip, blank air, alley-oop, blank air, superman seatgrab Indian air, flair, one-hander one-footer, and he shut it down with about five seconds left. With the bad landing on his first hit and a number of blank airs, his second run clearly wasn’t as good as his first.
Jamie was last to go and it went like this: no-hander, alley-oop barspin, x-up, no-footed can-can (with possibly a tiregrab?), alley-oop superman seatgrab, no-hander-to-turndown, barspin-to-one-handed x-up, alley-oop downside tailwhip, superman, tailwhip-to-turndown, barspin-to-one-handed x-up, invert 540, flair, flair, fastplant flair (slid out on the landing right at the buzzer). Jamie put together a barrage of great tricks in that second run, but the crash at the end made it difficult to know how he would place. When the scores came up, Jamie and Chad were tied, and through the tie-breaker (the tie scores are thrown out and the higher score from the other run is taken) Jamie was given the win. This puts the chase for the year end title super close between the two. Orlando is definitely going to be a show-stopper.
Vert Finals
1. Jamie Bestwick 93.00
2. Chad Kady 93.00
3. Simon Tabron 92.17
4. Jimmy Walker 91.50
5. Steve McCann 91.33
6. Zack Warden 90.33
7. Dennis McCoy 89.33
8. Francisco “Coco” Zurita 88.50
9. Austin Coleman 88.33
10. Jay Eggleston 86.83
Jamie Bestwick got today’s Vert win, but it took a tie-breaker to do it. Warm-up x-up right before the finals. Photo: Mulligan
DIRT
Tonight’s Dirt Finals were intense with a dozen of the best dirt jumpers in the world riding on one of the best courses ever. Unlike the Vert Finals, Dirt has three runs from which the winner is decided.
With lots of crashes and scores all over the place for some guys, consistency was key. Going into the thrid run it was hard to tell who was going to come out on top as a number of guys had scores in the 90s.
Giving the rundown of 36 runs would be mind numbing, so I’ll give you some highlights and some of each rider’s biggest tricks pulled:
Ryan Guettler: First two runs started with double tailwhips and ended with 720s, that’s as far as they got. His third run saw a turndown, no-hander, flip, 360, and another flip.
Ryan Nyquist: Crashed in his first two runs and was somehow doing 2-1/2 barspins flips. He pulled a 720 in his thrid run.
Cory Nastazio: Crashed his first two runs on a 360 flip on the last set. He put it together in the thrid run with a flip, frontflip, flip, 360, and 360 flip.
Brandon Dosch: Lots of double tailwhips, decades over a hip, opposite 360s, and triple tailwhips, he almost landed an opposite 360 double tailwhip.
Anthony Napolitan: Invert and no-handed frontflips, and clean double tailwhips.
Luke Parslow: Couldn’t put it together in his frswt two runs, two flip-whips, a front flip, and landed two double backflips.
TJ Ellis: Frontflips, a triple tailwhip, flip variations, pulled a clean double backflip.
James Foster: Triple tailwhips, double tailwhips, windshield wipers (tailwhip-to-tailwhip back), pulled a clean double backflip.
Dennis Enarson: Flip-whips, double tailwhips, barspin-to-tailwhips, triple tailwhip.
Cameron White: Pulled two barspin-to-tailwhip backflips, did double tailwhips, and a triple tailwhip.
Corey Bohan: Opposite 360s including truck-to-x-up, tailwhip, and a 1/2 barspin! His opposite 360 1/2 barspin was followed by a tribute to Joey Garcia—a tailwhip (with the bars backwards). Corey also threw down combos like tailwhip-to-no-footed can-can, can-can-to-no-footed can-can, and a tailwhip-to-table.
Mike Aitken: Nothing-to-turndown, nothing-to-no-footed can-can, nac-nac-to-turndown, no-footed can-can-to-turndown, 360 indown, 360 lookback, 360 one-footed downside tables, 360 x-up can-can, 360 one-footed table-to-lookback, and the raddest of them all: 360 topside can-can tiregrab. Did you get all of that? Insane.
360s, combos, and style won the night without one flip or tailwhip done in Mikey’s runs. Enough said.
Check back later for more photos. Tomorrow we’ll have Park Prelims, so make sure to come back for more.
Dirt Finals
1. Mike Aitken 92.08
2. Corey Bohan 91.92
3. Cameron White 91.92
4. Dennis Enarson 91.84
5. James Foster 91.50
6. TJ Ellis 90.09
7. Luke Parslow 90.09
8. Anthony Napolitan 88.59
9. Brandon Dosch 88.34
10. Cory Nastazio 88.25
11. Ryan Nyquist 85.50
12. Ryan Guettler 84.33
Mike Aitken made his hometown happy with a huge win on the dirt course. Stylish flattie during practice. Photo: Mulligan
