FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

Cluut jam. You pretty much know what to expect at a Cluut jam. Good times, madness, craziness, and BMX at its finest. Sounds good to us. Paul picked me up and we drove over to Belgium on a Saturday afternoon. Antwerp traffic wasn't too bad and once past Antwerpen we were in Mechelen in no-time. Construction was happening all around the indoor park and we found out that on Monday after the event, the indoor park had to make room for 111 apartments. So this was the very last BMX happening taking place the Rode Kruisplein 14. The Inzini House was packed with BMX-ers. A mix of street, park and dirt riders found their way around the park where the "cash for tricks" concept go the riders hyped to go mad.

Different sections of the park were used for the jam. We arrived when riders were dropping in from the highest part of the park to flat doing barspins, 360s, turndowns and tailwhips. Not everything survived but cash was handed out. Beer was flowing early. This was Belgium after all. King Koen and Denz were handling the records and MC Egon and Rachid were on the mic. The entire Belgian BMX freestyle scene was present and it was good to see the veterans make a showing. Hannu Cools managed to tire tap/icepick/fufanu a wall when his 15 years old cranks broke and he had to switch to the pils. Tom Russell, Sem Kok, Gerrit Vanopdenbosch, rocked the quarter and Twan van Wijk got some cash for doing a rock to barspin 180 out on the rainbow rail.

The 2025 BMX Triple Challenge is officially a wrap! Monster Energy congratulates team rider Brady Baker on winning the BMX Dirt competition at the 2025 Monster Energy BMX Triple Challenge in Arlington, Texas. In the final stop of the 2025 season, the 22-year-old from Toms River, New Jersey, claimed the victory and third place in the overall rankings. Monster Energy swept the entire podium for the third time this season, with 30-year-old Daniel Sandoval from Corona, California, in second place and 30-year-old Ryan Williams from Sunshine Coast, Australia, in third place. Williams also won the Best Trick event with a massive technical trick.

In the overall standings for the BMX Triple Challenge, Monster Energy also claimed the top three spots:

Always sad to say goodbye to California. Monday morning and we packed up, left Solarena and drove to Denny's on Beach and Ellis. Don't ask me why but it has become "a thing" to have a bigger breakfast on the day we leave. It was the Grand Slam or whatever slam it was that got us ready for the trip back home. $55 later and we drove up North on Beach to the 405 North and actually had plenty of time to spare as we did not seem to hit any traffic. You see, instead of the 13:40hr departure time it was moved to 15:15hr. KLM had informed us so we had extra time before dropping the vehicle off. But with several businesses closed on Monday (morning) we decided to just drive to Hertz to drop off the Rogue. When you're not in a rush, things seem to go smoothly. The shuttle bus to the airport was right there, dropped us off at the international terminal, we dropped off the bags through the Priority lane (22.4 kilograms with a 23kg limit) and could check in the two smaller Albek/Twin Air roller bags as well, which left us with the essentials in the backpack to take on board.

With a bit of gambling we scored a window seat each with a free seat next to us. I had a bit of extra leg room and Philip was only 6 seats behind. Getting to pick your seat is nice. The hopes of having an entire row to ourselves was destroyed real soon, but no complaints.

But before we got on board, we got to hang out with the bar man at the Air France/KLM lounge.

Sunday, last full day in Cali, and it was cloudy. So weird, haha. But we did come prepared and brought warm clothes, even a rain jacket. We've got plenty and need them all the time in The Netherlands but normally in So Cal not so much. Anyway, preparation is key. We had planned to meet up with McGoo that day but it didn't work out in the end. We still headed that direction and stopped at the Kawasaki test track and then searched for the other test tracks at the next exit. We drove up the hill and did not see anything. But we felt we were close. We parked the Rogue, hiked up a bit to discover 6 Supercross test tracks! Exploring is fun, especially when you find something you were looking for.

Results Queensland BMX Freestyle State Championships Beenleigh, Australia 08 - 09 February 2025

Men Park:
1 Brandon LOUPOS 32 AUS 200.00 UCI Ranking points
2 Anar ALIEV 22 *** 160.00
3 Keegan Prior AUS 130.00
4 Nikita FOMINOV 26 *** 110.00
5 Chris JAMES 35 AUS 90.00
6 Xavier GILBEE 19 AUS 70.00
7 Yeonho KIM 23 KOR 50.00
8 William SPEDDING 18 AUS 30.00

Women Park:
1 Sarah SKOTNICKI 18 AUS 200.00 UCI Ranking points

Saturday was much the same as Friday over in Anaheim. We got there early to take it all in. Finished the rounds in the pits, said hi to the folks, checked Supercross practice, time qualification, and cruised over to the BMX triples to catch some of the semi-finals, finals and best trick comp. Then everyone made it back into the Anaheim Angel stadium for the Supercross qualification races, LCQ's and finals.

There's no need to explain who did what and who finished where. That's what social media does for everyone these days. But with no live feed of BMX Triples you would still have to be there in person to catch everything. Seeing everything live is just so much better. Smelling the gas, looking where you want to look, hearing the sound, catching the action, the antics, nothing beats the live action. Luckily we were up high in the media room because it did start to rain during the evening program. Rain in California! it was almost a year ago since they'd seen it. Luckily the BMX Triple Challenge was finished already and the trophies and cheques had been handed out to the riders but the Supercross riders now had to deal with difficult vision and a slippery track. It did not turn into a mud fest luckily and the big jumps were also no problem for the boys. Damn they are good at what they do.

The evening passed quickly. Two heats of 250 qualification, LCQ and finals. And the same for the 450 class. The KTM Juniors did a couple of laps on the E-bikes and had the day of their lives.

Friday morning. Up early. Heading to Anaheim. Next to the Supercross ("A2") also the first round of the Monster Energy BMX Triple Challenge is on the schedule. The BMX Dirt comp is part of the Supercross Fan Fest entertainment and the big pro purse (over $120.000 divided over 3 stops) brought all the big boys to California. Climbing up that roll-in takes some balls. It's small and high, and I'm sure up there it's a tad wobbly too. And then looking down on the three massive jumps.... It didn't seem to hold back any of the participants though and it didn't take long before tricks were thrown.

But we were on duty for Twin Air to take some photos of their factory team bikes and riders. Friday was media day and our passes got us on the infield so we could mix it up with the Supercross athletes and get some content for FATMX at the same time. In the world of BMX you need to multitask sometimes to make ends meet and as long as it involves anything BMX related or motocross, you can sign me up for it. Friday is usually the quieter day in the pits with riders and mechanics having more time available. We got a lot of stuff done which felt good. Meanwhile the BMX Triples had done their practice and qualification. With the top 16 making it to Saturday's semi-finals it meant that 30 riders did not make the cut. The level was actually insane and with 1 run out of 3 counting for the competition the riders were able to send their best tricks.

With possible rain on the weather report for Saturday we had no clue what was going to happen. We did do Chic-Fil-A for lunch and were running out of time to hit a Raising Canes restaurant.