The Expert class at the Soulcycle XL-series started off an hour late at 13:00 hours. Still some riders did not arrive in time which shows once again that it's hard to start off a BMX freestyle contest in the morning. The max capacity of 50 entries was reached and every rider got one run to try to qualify for the finals. 15 riders out of the 50 were taken and we saw some very good talent in the expert class finals. It was sad to hear that for some people it takes complaining and video footage to convince an organization that the rider belongs in the final, but it happened. They're in there for the wrong reasons. Winning isn't everything, having fun is.
A lot of German riders had plenty of fun.
X Martin X (Sponsored by Durex) and
Captain Dotterbart (with the most Neon front wheel ever) understood what the comp was about. Dotterbart even made the final and scored third place with a huge wallride and plenty of grinds on the rail. 5th place went to
Leroy Kleppe, the Belgian kid with the white helmet who did
smooth handplants over the spine. He even did a couple for the FATBMX camera and the photo's came out nice so he has a picture here. One of the riders who arrived early to get some practice in learnt curved wallrides that day. If you know the wall set-up at The Promise skatepark in Heerlen, you know that there are a beam and a heater sticking out. We were looking at it earlier that day and
Mr. Fubu managed to go high enough to hit the beam with his elbow and crashed. Find his sequence for a better version earlier that day.
Dennis Keunen got injured early that day on a double footplant on the wall but made the finals and used the box for some 360-s, no-footed cancans and inverts.
Jimmy van Belle rode good and got 4th place. Local
Leroy Widmann was very close to the victory. He did tailwhip transfers and jumped the gap from the spine to the pyramid
and threw an X-up in there for style points. Leroy was riding in a fast pace and used most of the course. Well done. First place however went to
Bruno Hoffman from Germany. 180-s over the spine, 540 tiretaps, coast to coast wallrides, abubacas, 360-s, you name it. All with great style and also his rollbacks were pulled all the time. Congratulations to Bruno for winning round one of the XL series in Heerlen.
Results Expert Street Soulcycle XL Series round 1:
1 Bruno Hoffman
2 Leroy Widman
3 Captain Dotterbart
4 Jimmy van Belle
5 Leroy Kleppe
6 Dennis Keunen
7 Daniel Wedemeijer
8 Sebastian Villagi
9 Terrence Collin
10 Michael Lefebrve
11 Michael van der Lee
12 Koen van Laeken
13 Nenad Roic
14 Igor Roic
15 Steven Styns
16 Martijn Verhoog
smooth handplants over the spine. He even did a couple for the FATBMX camera and the photo's came out nice so he has a picture here. One of the riders who arrived early to get some practice in learnt curved wallrides that day. If you know the wall set-up at The Promise skatepark in Heerlen, you know that there are a beam and a heater sticking out. We were looking at it earlier that day and Mr. Fubu managed to go high enough to hit the beam with his elbow and crashed. Find his sequence for a better version earlier that day. Dennis Keunen got injured early that day on a double footplant on the wall but made the finals and used the box for some 360-s, no-footed cancans and inverts. Jimmy van Belle rode good and got 4th place. Local Leroy Widmann was very close to the victory. He did tailwhip transfers and jumped the gap from the spine to the pyramid 
and threw an X-up in there for style points. Leroy was riding in a fast pace and used most of the course. Well done. First place however went to Bruno Hoffman from Germany. 180-s over the spine, 540 tiretaps, coast to coast wallrides, abubacas, 360-s, you name it. All with great style and also his rollbacks were pulled all the time. Congratulations to Bruno for winning round one of the XL series in Heerlen.
Results Expert Street Soulcycle XL Series round 1:
1 Bruno Hoffman
2 Leroy Widman
3 Captain Dotterbart
4 Jimmy van Belle
5 Leroy Kleppe
6 Dennis Keunen
7 Daniel Wedemeijer
8 Sebastian Villagi
9 Terrence Collin
10 Michael Lefebrve
11 Michael van der Lee
12 Koen van Laeken
13 Nenad Roic
14 Igor Roic
15 Steven Styns
16 Martijn Verhoog
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.