BMX takes you to the strangest places. Tallinn, Estonia would not be on my list of places to visit when I have a weekend off but actually, it wouldn't be a bad idea. Where the hell is it you might ask? To give you an idea I would say former Russia but organizer Risto Kalmre corrected me on that:
"We don't think of us as former Russia:). Native Estonians have no relations with Russians and not even with Latvians or Lithuanians. We and our language are related to Finland and Hungary but stands as its own. But of course the fact that many Russians have been living here after the Soviet Union came here in Second World War cannot be denied. In Tallinn there is quite big populations of Russians."
Enough on the history, it was a BMX contest that took us there, again. With wind and rain destroying the tourist plan, most of the visiting riders stuck to the Saku Suurhall where the contest took place and the parties at night. Riders and media were put up in nice hotels and a big bus took everyone to the contest and back. Friday night had a few hours of practice on the big street course and wide vert ramp. Street and vert warm-up on Saturday was not until 15:30hr so you can imagine what went on on the Friday night. More on that somewhere else on FATBMX (soon). At 17:00hr it was time for street prelims. By that time the hangovers were gone and the 67 competitors were ready for action. Holland had already arrived on Wednesday. Souf, Mark Vos,
Bas Brouwer and Martin Jochemsen failed to qualify in the top 16 but it was because of lack of trying.
Team Martin decided to go for his first flip in Estonia but the slow take off didn't spin very well. He was lucky to walk away and hook up with an Estonian girl later on, it could have been way worse. Barry Kohne rode awesome and made the finals with a handplant over the sub, x-up wall taps, superman seat grabs over the box and other killer tricks. At least one of the party animals made it, for the rest of them it was back to the club at night. The scores for the riders were put up on a giant screen which was very cool for the crowd and the riders. At the end of the qualifiers the following riders made it: Wilke, Wicke, Nyquist, Cooke, Harrington, Forte, Grosic, Kohne, Braumann, Fenlon, Ziegler, Koenig, Korthaus, Ardel, Wiegmann and Jimmy Norstrom doing it for the Swedish crowd. Not a bad final for a contest in dead winter in a place called Tallinn.
Vert did not have any qualifiers. The turnout here was sad. If 4000 Euros prize money, free hotel and the RedBull/vertical ramp at an indoor place isn't enough of an incentive to go to a contest, I really don't know what to say. 5 vert riders showed up, and Robin Fenlon and Christian Ziegler decided to join the party making it 7 altogether. The vert contest became a 20 minute jam session with a last trick for everyone. Ziegler impressed with a brakeless barspin manual on vert and a tiregrab to X-up. Smile on his face all the time. Tuomo Ilmonen from Finland was just happy to be on a ramp with fellow vert riders. He finished 5th. When Tim Eichert drops in it's time for action. Tim doesn't hold back and carves the ramp setting up for his big tricks. A one-handed 540 was followed by a regular 540 to backflip (or was it a flair) attempt back to back in his first run. Tim then pulled a flair (don't ask how he managed to stay on his bike) and went for a 900 to wrap up his performance in Tallinn. 3rd was for OBsG who has been dealing with a bad back and had some issues with the big ramp. Good airs were followed by bad landings and crashes. His indian seatgrab was killer and so was his alley-oop nosewheely on the deck. 2nd went to
Peter Geys.
The Bike Devil rode very smooth and did back to back variations, a 540 and also a flair. He's off to Woodward for some training at camp. Achim Kujawski won his first contest since the German championships in 2003. He was ripping, went higher than ever and his alley-oop turndowns are sick. The whip in his first run was high and clean. First for Achima Colada. Celebration time!
The street finals had good stuff going on. Senad had to pull out with a bum ankle so Timo Mrukwia filled the last spot in group number one. It was a jam session format with 4 groups of 4 riders. In fact, every rider got to ride roughly 3 times (on order) before last trick was called. The last trick also counted for the Snickers Best trick contest, a 500 Euro bonus. This check was won by
Robin Fenlon for doing a flip to manual to 50/50 on the rail, first try.
The top 5 finishers looked like this: 5th for new RedBull UK rider Kye Forte. If you know Kye's style of riding you understand that it involves lots of speed and crazy transfers. Enough of that stuff got him 5th. Josh Harrington is the rail king. Over toothpick grinds, 50/50-s, manuals, you name it. Big boosts and nosedive 360-s over the spine, an icepick to barspin on the vert wall and tech street stuff left and right got the Greenville local 4th place. 3rd went to Allan Cooke. He was pretty undercover in practice but when it counts, Allan presses the turbo boost button. He spent all his prize money (and then some) on drinks for riders at the after-party. His comment: "I love my BMX family." Wicke won the 2004 version of the Tallinn contest but had to settle for 2nd in 2005. Flipwhips over the box and loads of tech stuff that would take up too much space here. First place went to Ryan Nyquist. The way he does tricks makes you wonder if they're really hard. Then you realize that double truckdriver transfers are not easy, neither are nosebonks over spines with a double barspin thrown in. Ryan is so nonstop that he does loads of tricks in his run. He did show however that he is human when he tried to 360 drop in from the top of the wall into a quarterpipe. He messed up and hurt his knee showing he doesn't pull everything he tries and he does feel pain.
The contest was over but the night was still young. Respect to the organization for putting on an incredible comp.
BdJ
BMX Street Final Standings
1. Ryan Nyquist USA
2.
Tobias Wicke GER
3. Allan Cooke USA
4. Josh Harrington USA
5. Kye Forte GBR
6. Markus Wilke GER
7. Markus Braumann GER
8. Benny Korthaus GER
9. Christian Ziegler GER
10. Barry Köhne NL
11. Robin Fenlon GBR
12. Mark König GER
13. Timm Wiegmann GER
14. Jimmy Norström SWE
15. Anton Ardel EST
16. Timo Mrukwia GER
17. Senad Grosic AUT
18. Bjoern Heyer GER
19. Niels Thanild DEN
20. Jonas Malmberg SWE
21. Dean Hearne GBR
22. Max Henning GER
23. Benny Paulsen GER
24. Arto Heikurinen FIN
25. Michal Beran CZE
26. Aivars Sneiders LAT
27. Tobias Wehlisch GER
28. Sascha Claussen GER
29. Roman Ofitserov EST
30. Aleksander Sokolai RUS
31. Mikko Lehto FIN
32. Klas Löwbeer SWE
33. David Panka CHE
34. Mark Vos NL
35. Denis Osipovich LAT
36. Vasili Borisenko RUS
37. Jesper Stern SWE
38. Andrey Gordeev RUS
39. Raigo Suija EST
40. Oskars Zajarskis LAT
41. John Martinek CZE
42. Ruslan Kurilin LAT
43. Fox Skupin CZE
44. Sandor Rapolder GER
45. Vladimir Kosyakov RUS
46. David Thiesen GER
47. Peter Gr:unfeldt SWE
48. Tomas Weber GER
49. Sergei Vergun GER
50. Soufiane Belghitti NL
51. Mattias Larsson SWE
52. Martin Jochemsen NL
53. Toomas Ots EST
54. Nikita Snigirkov RUS
55. Alvis Grieznis LAT
56. Alan Silmann EST
57. Bas Brouwer NL
58. Dmitri Gorjajev EST
59. Martins Sleja LAT
60. Marcel Neumann GER
61. Patrick Oer GER
62. Lauri Martilla FIN
63. Roger Pilvik EST
64.
Jonas Karlsson SWE
65. Antti Huotari FIN
66. Viktor Ignatenko EST
67. Raul Kivimaa EST
Snickers Best Trick: Robin Fenlon; Flip to manual to grind
BMX Vert Final Standings
1.
Achim Kujawski GER
2.
Peter Geys BEL
3.
Stefan Geisler GER
4. Tim Eichert GER
5. Tuomo Ilmonen FIN
6. Christian Ziegler GER
7. Robin Fenlon GBR
click here for more Estonian pics
Enough on the history, it was a BMX contest that took us there, again. With wind and rain destroying the tourist plan, most of the visiting riders stuck to the Saku Suurhall where the contest took place and the parties at night. Riders and media were put up in nice hotels and a big bus took everyone to the contest and back. Friday night had a few hours of practice on the big street course and wide vert ramp. Street and vert warm-up on Saturday was not until 15:30hr so you can imagine what went on on the Friday night. More on that somewhere else on FATBMX (soon). At 17:00hr it was time for street prelims. By that time the hangovers were gone and the 67 competitors were ready for action. Holland had already arrived on Wednesday. Souf, Mark Vos, Bas Brouwer and Martin Jochemsen failed to qualify in the top 16 but it was because of lack of trying. 
Team Martin decided to go for his first flip in Estonia but the slow take off didn't spin very well. He was lucky to walk away and hook up with an Estonian girl later on, it could have been way worse. Barry Kohne rode awesome and made the finals with a handplant over the sub, x-up wall taps, superman seat grabs over the box and other killer tricks. At least one of the party animals made it, for the rest of them it was back to the club at night. The scores for the riders were put up on a giant screen which was very cool for the crowd and the riders. At the end of the qualifiers the following riders made it: Wilke, Wicke, Nyquist, Cooke, Harrington, Forte, Grosic, Kohne, Braumann, Fenlon, Ziegler, Koenig, Korthaus, Ardel, Wiegmann and Jimmy Norstrom doing it for the Swedish crowd. Not a bad final for a contest in dead winter in a place called Tallinn. 
Vert did not have any qualifiers. The turnout here was sad. If 4000 Euros prize money, free hotel and the RedBull/vertical ramp at an indoor place isn't enough of an incentive to go to a contest, I really don't know what to say. 5 vert riders showed up, and Robin Fenlon and Christian Ziegler decided to join the party making it 7 altogether. The vert contest became a 20 minute jam session with a last trick for everyone. Ziegler impressed with a brakeless barspin manual on vert and a tiregrab to X-up. Smile on his face all the time. Tuomo Ilmonen from Finland was just happy to be on a ramp with fellow vert riders. He finished 5th. When Tim Eichert drops in it's time for action. Tim doesn't hold back and carves the ramp setting up for his big tricks. A one-handed 540 was followed by a regular 540 to backflip (or was it a flair) attempt back to back in his first run. Tim then pulled a flair (don't ask how he managed to stay on his bike) and went for a 900 to wrap up his performance in Tallinn. 3rd was for OBsG who has been dealing with a bad back and had some issues with the big ramp. Good airs were followed by bad landings and crashes. His indian seatgrab was killer and so was his alley-oop nosewheely on the deck. 2nd went to Peter Geys. 
The Bike Devil rode very smooth and did back to back variations, a 540 and also a flair. He's off to Woodward for some training at camp. Achim Kujawski won his first contest since the German championships in 2003. He was ripping, went higher than ever and his alley-oop turndowns are sick. The whip in his first run was high and clean. First for Achima Colada. Celebration time!
The street finals had good stuff going on. Senad had to pull out with a bum ankle so Timo Mrukwia filled the last spot in group number one. It was a jam session format with 4 groups of 4 riders. In fact, every rider got to ride roughly 3 times (on order) before last trick was called. The last trick also counted for the Snickers Best trick contest, a 500 Euro bonus. This check was won by Robin Fenlon for doing a flip to manual to 50/50 on the rail, first try. 
The top 5 finishers looked like this: 5th for new RedBull UK rider Kye Forte. If you know Kye's style of riding you understand that it involves lots of speed and crazy transfers. Enough of that stuff got him 5th. Josh Harrington is the rail king. Over toothpick grinds, 50/50-s, manuals, you name it. Big boosts and nosedive 360-s over the spine, an icepick to barspin on the vert wall and tech street stuff left and right got the Greenville local 4th place. 3rd went to Allan Cooke. He was pretty undercover in practice but when it counts, Allan presses the turbo boost button. He spent all his prize money (and then some) on drinks for riders at the after-party. His comment: "I love my BMX family." Wicke won the 2004 version of the Tallinn contest but had to settle for 2nd in 2005. Flipwhips over the box and loads of tech stuff that would take up too much space here. First place went to Ryan Nyquist. The way he does tricks makes you wonder if they're really hard. Then you realize that double truckdriver transfers are not easy, neither are nosebonks over spines with a double barspin thrown in. Ryan is so nonstop that he does loads of tricks in his run. He did show however that he is human when he tried to 360 drop in from the top of the wall into a quarterpipe. He messed up and hurt his knee showing he doesn't pull everything he tries and he does feel pain.
The contest was over but the night was still young. Respect to the organization for putting on an incredible comp.
BdJ
BMX Street Final Standings
1. Ryan Nyquist USA
2. Tobias Wicke GER
3. Allan Cooke USA
4. Josh Harrington USA
5. Kye Forte GBR
6. Markus Wilke GER
7. Markus Braumann GER
8. Benny Korthaus GER
9. Christian Ziegler GER
10. Barry Köhne NL
11. Robin Fenlon GBR
12. Mark König GER
13. Timm Wiegmann GER
14. Jimmy Norström SWE
15. Anton Ardel EST
16. Timo Mrukwia GER
17. Senad Grosic AUT
18. Bjoern Heyer GER
19. Niels Thanild DEN
20. Jonas Malmberg SWE
21. Dean Hearne GBR
22. Max Henning GER
23. Benny Paulsen GER
24. Arto Heikurinen FIN
25. Michal Beran CZE
26. Aivars Sneiders LAT
27. Tobias Wehlisch GER
28. Sascha Claussen GER
29. Roman Ofitserov EST
30. Aleksander Sokolai RUS
31. Mikko Lehto FIN
32. Klas Löwbeer SWE
33. David Panka CHE
34. Mark Vos NL
35. Denis Osipovich LAT
36. Vasili Borisenko RUS
37. Jesper Stern SWE
38. Andrey Gordeev RUS
39. Raigo Suija EST
40. Oskars Zajarskis LAT
41. John Martinek CZE
42. Ruslan Kurilin LAT
43. Fox Skupin CZE
44. Sandor Rapolder GER
45. Vladimir Kosyakov RUS
46. David Thiesen GER
47. Peter Gr:unfeldt SWE
48. Tomas Weber GER
49. Sergei Vergun GER
50. Soufiane Belghitti NL
51. Mattias Larsson SWE
52. Martin Jochemsen NL
53. Toomas Ots EST
54. Nikita Snigirkov RUS
55. Alvis Grieznis LAT
56. Alan Silmann EST
57. Bas Brouwer NL
58. Dmitri Gorjajev EST
59. Martins Sleja LAT
60. Marcel Neumann GER
61. Patrick Oer GER
62. Lauri Martilla FIN
63. Roger Pilvik EST
64. Jonas Karlsson SWE
65. Antti Huotari FIN
66. Viktor Ignatenko EST
67. Raul Kivimaa EST
Snickers Best Trick: Robin Fenlon; Flip to manual to grind
BMX Vert Final Standings
1. Achim Kujawski GER
2. Peter Geys BEL
3. Stefan Geisler GER
4. Tim Eichert GER
5. Tuomo Ilmonen FIN
6. Christian Ziegler GER
7. Robin Fenlon GBR
click here for more Estonian pics 
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.