VERT FINAL BMX Masters, Cologne, Germany

Jul 16, 2007

Written by Bart de Jong

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Fourteen riders showed up to ride the vert ramp at the Suzuki BMX Masters. Not a whole lot but for a vert competition these days it was quite a turnout. The vert discipline is still one of the favorites for the crowd, especially when Mat Hoffman and Simon Tabron drop in. The two are living (vert) legends and the chance to see them ride in the flesh needs to be taken. A lot of people did, which was a good way to end the 2007 Masters.

Daniel Dhers decided to join the fun and entered his first vert contest ever. After a second place on mini and a first in street, Daniel had nothing to lose and just rolled in for the fun of it. His type of fun doesn't end with X-up airs though. He did whips, double whips, MX airs, no-handers and flairs and ended his runs with a couple of X-ups, some in alley-oop mode. Daniel qualified in third but ended up in fourth in the finals. Still, not bad considering it was his first real halfpipe competition.

It was Matt Fairbairn from Australia who squeezed into second place on Sunday. He showed tabled 540-s, x-ups to barspin to x-ups, suicide nohanders and everything else at height.

The Condor got third but contest placings aren't what he's riding for. He likes to ride with his friends and if that means he has to fly across the pond to do it, he will. It was his first time on the ramp in 6 months and he was afraid that the crowd and the riders would push him into doing stuff he had not done in a while. Knowing Mat, that is always the case. He drops in and he probably doesn't know what to do on his 3rd wall. He fires something out and the crowd gets to see another classic Mat Hoffman variation. Mat has nothing to prove and it's good to see he hangs it all out regardless. It's a good mortivation for all BMX riders to step it up on the vert. It might become a real important discipline in the future.

BdJ

PRO VERT FINAL RESULTS:

1. SIMON TABRON (ENG)
2. MATT FAIRBAIRN (AUS)
3. MATT HOFFMAN (US)
4. DANIEL DHERS (VEN)
5. JAN VALENTA (CZ)
6. BENNI KOPP (GER)
7. TIM EICHERT (GER)
8. PASCAL BACUET (FRA)
9. PAUL MEACHER (ENG)
10. JEAN-MARIE BARTSCH (SUI)
11. JAN JILEK (CZ)
12. FABIAN GIESS (SUI)