Pro dirt at the FISE. Separating the men from the boys? Report by BdJ.

May 18, 2010

Written by Bart de Jong

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The weather wasn’t with us the first two days and with an outdoor event you will have to work with what you get. The dirt course was too wet and soft on Thursday and Friday so everything that was scheduled for those days was put into the Saturday evening program which meant straight finals for the Amateurs as well as the Pros. But there were problems with the jumps, and the strong wind that had some of the riders pull out. But those who did ride put on a show for the (big) crowd.

Amateurs had a hip to start off with followed by an S turn and another two sets. The pro riders left from the higher container and were treated with 3 big killer jumps. Bob Manchester (UK) was riding well in practice but ended up in 7th behind one of the Musso brothers named Mathieu (FRA). Dusan Antalik (CZE) does mean one-handed tables which looked good over the big ones as he could hold them what seemed like forever, or long enough for the crowd to scream yeah! It was a bit of a surprise to see Maddog (USA) drop in on dirt.

After a few test runs he unpacked the double whip and span the bars dropping in from the high container. He had some issues getting through the whole course but with 2 runs counting out of three he still made it to fourth. Las Vegas local Ricardo Laguna brought his parents over this time to see him land on place three. It would have sucked for him to come all the way from the USA to have the comp rained out or even worse, boycotted. Third place check sounded good

to him in return for some 3 double whips and no-handed and tabled flips. Jack Marchant (UK) entered dirt and impressed straight away. The United rider frontied the massive first jump and double whipped the next set and tricked the last set. Awesome. But France had one more Musso brother to offer. Tristan Musso ripped at the FISE and deserved to win. The Frenchies were liking the big whips, tabled front flips and 360-s he pulled off in all his runs. He nailed it and it was a big win for him. Stoked indeed.

BdJ