Kieran Reilly wins Red Bull Featured pilot at DYFI Bike Park, Mid-Wales. By BdJ

May 15, 2022

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 2501 times

Red Bull Featured. DYFI Bike Park, Mid-Wales. Friday 13th. In BMX Freestyle you can do anything you like. Bas Keep thought the same and had Red Bull backing him up with the Red Bull Featured pilot event. The ramps were built up inside The Mill at the DYFI bike park over in Wales. Getting there was a mission for pretty much everyone as everyone had the chance to see the Wales countryside for the last two hours before arriving at the destiny for the event. Once there, and with everyone around, you become one with the place instantly. The riders had had a few days of practice behind them before the first drop-in was made on `featured day’.

The set-up was pretty wild, yet fairly simple. The drop-in reminded me of the movie rad but was missing the Welcome To Helltrack logo on it. It was steep, high and gave you enough speed to go nuts on the biggest box in BMX history (pretty much). The box was put in the middle with two 7,5 meter long driveways right next to it that lead to a 10 ft quarterpipe into a mellow 15ft high quarter landing. There was a reason for a set up like this. It invites for big tricks without landing flat and to progress in BMX Freestyle, sometimes the right set-up is what’s missing.

Red Bull Featured was split in 4 different rounds being a high air competition, a box competition, quarter to big landing competition and a sub box was brought in for Round 3.

For the pilot event a new points/judging set up was created to determine the overall winner at the end of the day. It is nice to be able to do a pilot event to finetune the details before taking the concept to a bigger stage such as a big stadium, or a town square.

So what happened in Machynlleth on Friday the 13th?

In order to see new tricks that have never been done before, you need riders who can and are willing to send it. The group collected for the first effort were Red Bull’s own Kieran Reilly, Kaine Mitchell, Tom Justice, Ashley Finley, Jack Watts, Callum Rafferty, James Jones, Shaun Gornall and Sashashredderbmx as the only girl brave enough to roll in from Helltrack straight into the biggest box out there.

Dave Cleworth and Luke Towey had it tough putting tricks in ranking order during the 15-20 minute rounds as the riders were ready to drop in pretty much nonstop. A white board was raised when the next rider could go for a high air attempt, a new lip trick on the sub box, flip or spin into the large quarter or a unique trick on the box jump. Between rounds a 10-minute break was held which was needed to give the riders a chance to catch their breath. Being challenged by your own tricks that are on the limit doesn’t only wear you out physically, but mentally just as much. With four rounds on the program and each of them counting towards the overall ranking you could not skip on your least favourite round, at least not at the pilot event. A bunch of things will be tweaked probably before it arrives on a bigger stage with an audience, but it was like it was at The Mill and things took off quickly.

By the time things were getting wild, a decent crowd had shown up consisting of the Red Bull DH MTB athletes and staff who happened to be at the DYFI park at the same time for their annual summit. Sasha rides brakeless and for her to drop in from Helltrack aiming for the big box is already something that deserves respect. That box was big and Sasha cleared with doing T-bogs, tire grabs and styled no-handers with ease. At least she made it look that way. By this time you have probably seen videos of the bigger tricks that were pulled. Kieran Reilly’s triple whip to bars, tailwhip 900, James Jones’ 360 double tailwhip to no-hander and 360 downside whip bar to bar over the box and his decade to footjam to cancan in on the sub, Kaine Mitchell’s triple truck to tuck and his frontflip tailwhip to no-hander, Callum Rafferty’s tailwhip to footjam whip to bars on the subbox, Shaun Gornall’s 360 double downside whip to barspin over the box, Ash Finley’s frontie over the 7,5 meter long driveway, double flips on the box and the highest airs out there. Jack Watts brought the 540flair with a barspin in the middle and a tailwhip to dooble barspin in the quarter. Without throwing the flip/whip/spin combo’s into eternity Tom Justice made BMX look good with the most stylish and cranked 360 turndowns and lookbacks to remind everyone that BMX is for everyone and everyone can decide the way they ride. You’ll be seeing the clips on insta and the highlights video on FATBMX once it becomes available.

To bring something new to the table is always good. Once finetuned we can’t wait to see what Red Bull Featured will look like. This combined with a roaring crowd with a drink in hand, a big screen to follow the results/ranking and slowmotion clips for the biggest tricks and it will be something you do not want to miss. 2023 probably. Hopefully. Count us in.

2022 Red Bull Featured results:
1. Kieran Reilly
2. Jack Watts
3. Kaine Mitchell

BdJ