Red Bull Bridge Master in Amsterdam. Movie added.

Apr 24, 2006

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 24212 times

The announcement of the Red Bull Bridge Master arrived pretty late. With only a few weeks before the event date, it was still unclear of what it was about. When the first drawings hit the internet, it started to look pretty interesting and with Red Bull behind it, you know it was going to be a crazy event. The starter list of invited riders looked like this: Ben Hennon UK, John Petit FR, Dimitri Ivanov FR, Tobias Wicke DE, Benny Paulsen DE, Hannu Cools BE, Greg van Tulder BE, Senad Grosic AU, Craig Stevens UK, Kye Forte UK, Sebastian Keep UK, Barry Kohne NL, Mark Vos NL, Michael van der Lee NL, Daniel Wijsmuller NL, Bas Brouwer NL, Pim van den Bos NL and Bjorn Mager DE. Not too shabby, especially for Dutch standards.

The day previous to the comp was a hot one. I wore a T-shirt and shorts for the first time of the year and with the event being on the water, I was expecting a good time. The organization had asked people to come over by boat to watch the contest which was taking place on top of the Magere Brug, a historical bridge in Amsterdam.

Damn I made a mistake by just bringing a hoody. It was freezing and rather windy all day, what a difference from the day before. Red Bull had a boat with a DJ and some punkie girls on board that circled around on the Amstel near the bridge. Some others actually showed up by boat too and the tourist boats that passed the venue had a good view for a few seconds. It was a unique location as we have become to expect from the energy drink maker.

The actual set-up looked pretty decent. It had a huge roll in that headed towards a huge take-off ramp. The rumour of a 10 meter gap where you had to clear the water to reach the other side appeared to be not true. The gap was 5 meters and the bridge was closed. Pretty disappointing but the show must go on and this way all riders could clear the distance and throw in their variations. After the landing it wasn't over yet. With a little extra downhill speed the riders had a bank (quarter) to wall to play with that would make up 30% of their score.

A little illegal practice session took place on Friday and was continued on Saturday, the day of the Bridge Masters. A decent crowd (a few thousand) had gathered around the bridge at 2pm. Unfortunately for them, they were watching the action from a distance. The ones who brought their boat had a better view. After a short rider introduction it was time for the first 2 runs for each rider to determine the starting order. Best run counts. Unfortunately it was over for Mark Vos (injured on an over rotated 360), Bas Brouwer (his superman jumps went wrong) and Michael v.d. Lee after the first qualification round. Surprise in qualification was Pim van den Bos who flipped the gap and also X-up flipped it to qualify second behind Tobias Wicke.

After the riding order was determined, it was head to head with the rider who placed 16th (Daniel Wijsmuller) against number 1 (Tobi), number 15 against number 2, etc. It was a straight knock out system so if you messed up, you were probably out. We'll run you through the 8 battles real quick. Tobi defeated Daniel which wasn't a shame for the Dutch rider who showed he can pump the hell out of a jump ramp. His tailwhip attempts went bad which left him with a painful elbow.

Benny Paulsen sent John Petit back to the showers but John rode impressive with huge 360-s over the bridge and flairs on the quarter. How many 35 year old riders do you know who can do that? Respect.

Local favorite Barry Kohne rode well but if your competitor's name is Ben Hennon, you are in for a tough competitor. Ben actually set the bar high from the beginning by tailwhipping the gap in his second try on the set-up. Ben moved on to the next round while Barry could chill with the locals and take care of that AT5 interview.

Senad Grosic had misunderstood the system and thought he had two attempts in the head to head round. He took it safe in his "first" run and then got beat by Frenchman Dimitri Ivanov who can kick it when things work out his way. 10 push ups for Senad.

Craig Stevens had some problems with the wind and it was Bjorn Mager (aka Bommel) who easily transferred.

Bas Keep wasn't feeling it in A'dam and wasn't too bummed to be eliminated in the first round after qualifying in 12th. Hannu Cools transferred with solid tricks, also on the bank to wall. He was actually the only one to cleanly manual the top of the wall.

Daniel Wedemeijer showed a toboggan and a wallride to lookback but it wasn't enough to knock the current Dirt World Champ (Kye Forte) out of the contest.

The battle between Greg van Tulder and Pim van den Bos was the closest one. How do you rate a fully stretched nothing from Greg against a flip from Pim while the bank to wall trick was a wallride to table (Greg) and a crash on a tailwhip (Pim). Pim was out, Greg was in.

8 riders left. Head to head.

Paulsen - Wicke: Wicke transferred.

Ivanov - Hennon: Hennon to the next round

Mager - Cools: No cool score for Hannu. Mager to the semi final.

Van Tulder - Forte: England kicked out the other Belgian.

Things started cooking in the semi's. Who was going to the final and who had to battle for third place? Hennon and Wicke met in heat one and Mager and Forte teamed up for heat two. It was the Germans against the UK lads in both rounds. Hennon had been going off all day with flipwhips, 3-whips and stuff like that but in the semi he had a crash which paved the road for Tobias. Kye Forte's solid 360-s weren't good enough to transfer to the final against Bommel who was the first rider to pull a front-flip over the set-up. It was going to be a German final in Amsterdam.

The Las Vegas Vans Let it Ride system was used for battle for 3rd had the final. Meaning that both riders do one run. The one with the lowest score has the chance to better the score of the other rider. If he succeeds, the rider who initially was leading, has the chance to better the opponent's second score. Sounds more complicated than it actually is. Ben Hennon defeated Kye Forte for third place in true Hennon style with whips in all variations.

The final between Bjorn and Tobias was one from the script. Bjorn did a heelclicker in his first run which would have been an easy one for Tobi to better. What happened is that Tobias overrotated a no-handed backflip. The music was turned off and the red cross made their way to the burly German. Man, did Bjorn just win the final and the 2000 Euro check with a heelclicker? Music was turned back on because Wicke had climbed back on top of the roll-in. Tobi could better Bjorn's score to put the pressure back in Bommel's lap. He did. The no-handed flip worked out this time followed by his signature tech move (270 downside smith stall on the wall to 270 back in). Holy smokes. That definitely beat the heelclicker. What did Bjorn have to answer to that?

He had shown a tailwhip to x-up before and the fronty but for the final run he had something else in mind. He whipped the gap and tried to spin the bars. However, the spin never happened and his 30% extra score chance on the wall didn't work out either this time giving the win to fellow Berliner Wicke.

The Red Bull podium was put up on top of the landing. Hennon climbed on the third spot, Mager in second and Wicke became the king of De Magere Brug for a moment. The champagne didn't last long with three strong drinkers on the podium.

BdJ

Pics: Jos Wissink