still a bit tipsy from the previous night and was seen doing bunny hops back stage to check if he could actually ride. Ryan is known to go big and he started off with a superman flip on the box jump but he missed the pedals coming back in the transition. He slid out, lost his speed and decided to go for a good second run. Webby had not put in the best run he has ever done but he did more stuff than Guettler. Ryan got back to work for run number two but it things didn't go exactly his way. Mark Webb's second run was fun, he already had it in the bag and messed about a bit for a good laugh. 
Mark Konig started off with a double whip over the box after the SMS voting got him a spot with the last 8 riders. T-Mobile and Sony Ericcson were sponsors of the event so they had to get the mobile phone involved in the contest somehow... Not only is Mark sponsored by T-Mobile (free SMS-ing), it got him an extra 400 Euros as a finalist of the Extreme Playground contest. His riding ended when he was teamed up with a very consistent Alessandro Barbero who pulled out his trick reportoire to transfer to the final four. 
Daniel Dhers almost lost the battle for a transfer spot to Bjorn "Bommel" Mager. Daniel's first run beat Bommel's first run but the Venezuelan, who was riding a KHE, pulled out early on the second run. This gave Bjorn an extra chance and he actually got very close to beating the 2008 Dew Tour and X-Games champ. Bommel has a big range of tricks and was all over the course but Daniel's tricks and consistency won it over Bommel's riding, but only slightly. 
By this time the riders were getting tired. They had been doing tons of runs and were looking for something else to do for the finals. 2 runs each time meant that they all had shown their best stuff already a few times to make it to the next round. They actually had to pull out good tricks to make it to the next round because all the invited riders were great. 
Dhers and Darden made the final. Webb and Barbero battled it out for third place. Darden and Dhers made a deal by doing the box jump set-up in run one, and the second run they hit the other (street style) ramps of the course. It was a good laugh for them but it was a bit of an anti climax for the contest. People who had tuned in via Freecaster or turned up to watch (4500 people there!) did not see that they had ridden the course at their highest level 6 times already. After the box jump session Daniel was in a slight lead but after the street part it was Rob Darden who took the win. Alessandro Barbero put in a decent ride to get third place by beating a tech Mark 
Webb. The X-Box 360 contest on the jump box was won by Bjorn Mager.
BdJ
Results street, Berlin, Germany:
1 Rob Darden (USA)
2 Daniel Dhers (VEN)
3 Alessandro Barbero (ITA)
4 Mark Webb (UK)
5 Ryan Guettler
5 Bruno Hoffmann
5 Mark Koenig
5 Bjorn Mager
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.