Bensink Speed & Style Contest #2 report. By PdJ

Jul 07, 2010

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 8898 times

Bensink BMX Gates is a company from the Netherlands specialised in producing BMX Gates, the gates are used all over Europe. At the Bensink Compound locals like Joost Wichman and Desmond Tessemakers made an excellent set of trails and a nice Dual race track for BMX'ers and MTB'ers. Going to a jam for the first time its always a surprise but the guys in Voorst did a hell of a job. A big party tent with catering and bar, 4! swimmingpools, big campsite and last but not least a Dual race track and trails. The weather was super hot (for Holland) and people were calling to cancel their contribution because of the heat..... First they all want to go to California or Vegas and now they say: It's too hot! Well don't ever go to Vegas cause this should be the COLDEST day at TJ's backyard so stop crying and show up next time. And Nicky should stay home forever, he is complaining all the time: a) its too cold (Waalhalla winterjam) b) its too hot (Bensink) c) the first turn is not right (Bensink) etc etc so please stay home and build your own trails and park and play with yourself if you know what I mean.

The "Speed contest" was awesome, a Bensink starting gate folowed by two different tracks with rollers, doubles, inside and outside corners, small gap and a perfect time system. The best riders from Europe showed up: Raymond v/d Biezen (current European BMX race leader), Joost Wichman (European Champion 4x), Jurg Meyer (3rd European 4x), Anneke Beerten (4x World Cup champion), Rob v/d Wildenberg (5th Olympics Bejjing), Bas de Bever (BMX Coach NL) Meatfly factory team from Chech, German BMX National team etc etc. It didn't matter if you entered with a Mountainbike (Full Suspension/4x/Hardtails), 24" BMX cruisers, 20" BMX Racebikes and even some BMX freestyle bikes were seen on the fast track. Every rider had to qualify for the finals with two runs each, first the outside lane and second run the inside lane to make it fair for everyone. Well fair.... Tom from Aarle-Rixtel had to ride against European Champion Joost Wichman and guess what: he didn't make it hahaha.

The 1/8th finals were awesome with BMX'ers against MTB'ers and young riders against older riders and it was hard to go to the next round, even for the topguys. No mistakes on a 14 seconds run so you had to be consistant and really fast.

In the end it was Joost Wichman (MTB) against Raymond v/d Biezen (BMX) and the title went to: BMX'e

r Raymond. He took the 1000 euro's cash instead of a KTM mountainbike and went home with big smile. Joost was kinda happy he didn't win his own event but with a time system you can't cheat. It was nice to see the combination of different bikes/styles/ techniques/age in one race, see you at the gate next year, Hot of not.

The "Style contest" was done on some freshly build jumps: Drop off, Fast left corner, speedjump and 3 sets of doubles. The sand was the same as our Sugarhills trails so our locals had a bit of advantage. More than 20 riders entered with locals, PB teamriders, Chech riders and MTB'ers made it a nice variation again. Frontflips/Supermanflips/Turndownflips/360 Tailwhips were done on a regular bases and in the end Daniel Wedemeier won the 1000 euro's, Roy Groenewegen on a MTB got second and Bart "Vanille Vla Sprintjes trekker" Mol got third.

This event is a nice mix of bikeriders with lots of fun on the track, the swimming pools and at the afterparty and worth a visit next year. Don't let the sun or rain stop you from going to the Bensink "Speed & Style" contest #3 in 2011.