Because of the strong wind the BMX qualification took place in the morning the next day as soon as Daniel Dhers made it to the course. The party the night before and the walk back in the rain was rough, but hey, we were in Italy and we were having a good time. 
The park course was pretty rad and the Mellowpark crew did a good job. It had a huge roll-in, some spines, big box, step up jump, sub box, Jersey barrier, Euro gap, it had a plaxiglass wallride over a Unit-style tunnel and a giant bank to wall on the opposite side. Something for everyone although Brian Kachinski would have had a hard time finding a rail. There was none. 
When the qualifying results were announced the invited BMX riders were teamed up with a mountain bike rider to form a duo. It was a head to head system from there on. Both riders' scores were added up and the winners were announced straight away. Also at the same time the Best Trick contest was going on (during the riding) and the teams did a one-minute team combo as well at the end. Confused yet? You are not the only one. 
Since there was not much on the line there was time for some fun during the riding. Seeing Ben Hennon ride is pure entertainment. You don't know what he's going to do and he basically pulled everything that he wanted to do. Double whip on the quarter to wall, a turndown 360 to tailwhip over the box, 360 tiretap to barspin on the sub box, a huge air over the plexiglass, double whip on top of the giant wall, under icepick over the tunnell, double whip over the box and huge airs on the step-up. 
He was leading the Best Trick contest with any of these tricks until Harry Main did a cancan footjam on the giant wall. This might not sound that exciting but it was huge and he pulled it on his second try. Making it to the next round was not only based on your own riding but that of your (MTB) partner as well. When you qualified on top, you got the strongest MTB guy as your partner. This meant that Daniel Dhers was teamed up with ex-BMX-er L
ance McDermott to form team CT or Rubins as they called themselves. Alessandro Barbero's twin brothers were cheering for him and his partner Sam Pilgrim. They got the Team Combo part figured out and won that part of the contest doing side by side backflips on the box and synchronized tricks elsewhere on the course. It was actually those two teams who made it to the finals on Saturday night. Daniel Dhers added a few turndowns and no-handers to his flatspin 720-s on the step-up and box-jump. He flaired everywhere else in alley-oop style, table style and with no hands on the handlebars. S
o consistent it starts to look easy but with the competition not doing it the same way you know it can't be that easy. Dhers can do 3-whips with his eyes closed and his team mate did superman flips, superman tailwhips, flairs and such so the team was a trick machine. First place for the Rubins. 
Second place was for Alessandro Barbero and Sam Pilgrim, third for Harry Main and team mate Adam Hauck. The champagne was flowing on the podium and it was time for another drunken night in the great town of Trieste. What did we have to complain about? Nothing much really. Good people equals good times. Check the photos for an impression. BdJ
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.