For a change the head to head system is pretty fun but if you get teamed up with a top rider, you're hating life. Bruno Hoffmann, Markus Braumann, Michal Beran, Sprosse, Luke Padgett and Rafael Adam are all great riders but they didn't go through. Michael Beran actually snapped his bike in half on the shady jump box so that one was clear. It got harder in the other heats but a decision needed to be made. 
The second round had the following heats:-Alessandro Barbero - Mark Webb
-Brian Kachinski - Björn Mager
-Brian Hunt - Tobias Wicke
-Luke Padgett - Morgan Wade
Luke Padgett was voted back in through a text message competition. How he beat Sprosse (who had voted 103 times for himself to get to the next round) remains a mystery to me. Luke was surprised too but accepted the opportunity to ride against Morgan Wade.
Sure there are favorites when you simply look at the list but with a one minute run things can go wrong too. Alessandro Barbero was accountable for the first surprise. He beat Mark Webb who had been ruling practice. The next heat was very close. How do you decide who is better, someone who does big stuff on the rails on the course or someone who mixes things up and does lots of tricks. Bjorn Mager beat Brian Kachinski but it was close. Local Tobias Wicke was on a mission and stopped Brian Hunt's way to a great result with some decent prize money. 
Youngster Luke Padgett must have been nervous when he was going against Morgan Wade. He did however step it up in his run and double whipped the box and did pedal grinds down the ledge but it wasn't enough for Morgan's style of riding which involved big transfers into the vert ramp. Four riders left: Barbero, Bommel, Wade and Wicke.
It was a Berlin semi final with Wicke and Mager in one heat. The pressure was on and although Bommel was hurt (he had landed to flat on a flipwhip over the spine) he didn't want to give in in front of his hometown fans. Riding injured sucks and it showed that Bjorn wasn't in his element. We missed the framestand jump and the usual fooling around which was too bad. Wicke moved on to the final.
Morgan Wade didn't have the best of luck in his semi against Alessandro Barbero. Morgan slammed his pedal to the shin (on the shady jump box) and lost momentum. The runs were 60 seconds short and it was all or nothing. 
Barbero could have taken it easy after he had just witnessed Morgan mess up but the Italian trick machine took another training run in that included a 3 double whip, flair, double whip on the spine, tailwhip to icepick, downside whip, wallride to tailwhip and probably a flip over the spine.The small final for third place got cancelled as both Morgan Wade and Bjorn "Bommel" Mager could not really ride. The final was between Barbero and Wicke who admitted that he was nervous and it showed. He had pulled a double whip on the box a few times but he took the sixty seconds to pull one in the final run. This wasn't the run he had put together that day and Ale had done some practicing and was consistent on all his tricks to take the win (and $6,000.=).
BdJ
1st Round
Heat 1 Bruno Hoffmann - B
rian Hunt Heat 2 Brian Kachinsky - Markus Braumann
Heat 3 Michael Beran - Alessandro Barbero
Heat 4 Harry Main - Mark Webb
Heat 5 Sven Lehmann - Björn Mager
Heat 6 Luke Padgett - Tobias Wicke
Heat 7 Rafael Adam - Morgan Wade
Lucky Loser: Luke Padgett
2nd Round
Heat 8 Alessandro Barbero - Mark Webb
Heat 9 Brian Kachinski - Björn Mager
Heat 10 Brian Hunt - Tobias Wicke
Heat 11 Luke Padgett - Morgan Wade
Semifinal
Heat 12 Björn Mager - Tobias Wicke
Heat 13 Alessandro Barbero - Morgan Wade
Superfinal Heat 14 Björn Mager - Morgan Wade
Heat 15 Tobias Wicke - Alessandro Barbero
Results:
1st Place: Alessandro Barbero
2nd Place: Tobias Wicke
3rd place: Morgan Wade -Bjorn Mager tie
MOVIES!!!!!
Alessandro Barbero first place:
Tobias Wicke second place:
Morgan Wade - Bjorn Mager:
Morgan Wade:
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.