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this "extreme sports" tour. It's their way of doing marketing/promotions. In Munich they set up camp at the Olympia Park with a big vert ramp, a shitty street course, some FMX demos, breakdancers from Asia, a stretched Hummer, prize giving's, free posters and T-shirts, inflatable LG clap balloons and loads of TV cameras. Basically they're filming all this for TV and with the sun out and full stands, they had a good stop in Germany. The vert contest has a rather high quality of riders. The invite only contest only saw straight finals. There are only 10 invited guys anyway so doing prelims doesn't make sense other than getting extra footage for TV and putting on a show for the crowd. Instead of riding the prelims, the riders set up a badminton course and played for a bit after a short rain shower in the morning had cancelled the "qualifying round". The finals took place on the sunny Sunday. The top 4 riders of the IBMXFF Worlds were on the ramp together with Americans Tom Stober, Tom Haugen, Jay Eggleston, John Parker and Aussie Steve McCann. Achim Kujawski had to leave for family reasons on Sunday morning and we wish him all the best. The vert ramp was big and had slow transitions but that means there was some wood to land on too. After practice most riders seemed to like the ramp and when it was time to go crazy, they did. It's been a while since the riders had to wait for a "cue" and a "headshot" at a contest in Europe but this contest almost felt American as most of the staff, camera men, ramp builders and athletes were flown in from the USA. Tom Stober won the contest in Moscow but couldn't make it happen in the Olympia Park. He ended up in 5th but showed he has flairs down by doing them back to back. Koji Kraft goes all out all the time. This means he goes big until he crashes. The crowd got into Koji for doing back to back variations and tailwhips at the same height. He got 4th. First podium spot was for LG sponsored John Parker. John pulled a double whip and still has what it takes to go big on the vert ramp. Second place went to the Spanish Fly, aka Eduardo Terreros. Edu rolled in from the high roll-in to carve half of the huge ramp on the first air and continued after that. He flaired, whipped and 540-d and did 10 feet variations such as barspins, one-handed tables and no-handers. Always a treat to watch. Simon Tabron just came in from a 3rd place at the Dew tour and went straight to a win at the LG Action Sports Tour. His one-handed one-footed tables are sweet but it was his 540 variations that got him on top. His first run was the better one but he left out the 900. He threw one in in run #2 just for good measure. Run one gave him the victory and a big chunk of the pro vert purse. Things did not look too professional in street. The course was not from this time. Back in the late '80-s it could have worked but we're in 2005 now. The middle section of the course apparently got lost somewhere in transport and they had to "fix it" with whatever ramps they could find. Those ramps were a steep jump box with flat landing, 2 mini boxes and a mellow spine. The other two sides had okay quarters, ledges and rails but it all was rather small and fit in a 10 X 25 meter area it seemed like. Maybe we're too spoiled with the ramps we get to ride at contests these days. It showed that the main focus for LG is in vert. Street has only a small fraction of the pro purse that is available in vert (last place in vert pays $1000,= where the winner of street gets $1500,=/2nd gets $1000,= and third gets $500,=). The street rider base of 20 consists of locals who want to enter the contest and a few Americans that are flown in. With little promotion and unlucky scheduling of the series, it was hard to find the 20 guys. After qualifying ten guys made it to the main program on Sunday morning. With practice starting at 10:30am and the finals at 11:30am sharp, the European riders took a little time to get used to this schedule. In 10th we had a familiar face from Argentina. Axel Juergens was here and 3-whipped to last place. Berlin's Bjorn Mager did cool switch footed tailwhips and walk around the handlebar pegstalls for 9th. 2-HIp's Benny Hankowetz from Austria did opposite 360-s to 540-s on the quarterpipe but had a hard time doing freaky lines that he usually finds. He did grind the rail though. Markus Wilke has a different riding style which once got him 2nd at the X-games. It got him 7th in Munich. Local Benny Korthaus turndown-flipped and three-whipped to 6th and Senad Grosic pulled off two solid runs full of Senad tricks meaning whips to peg manuals, hang-5-s and decades. 4th place for Koji Crash. Koji messed up in run one but came back with a vengeance in run two doing a huge lookback on the quarterpipe to turndown flip over the box (which was hard clearing it straight). Koji continued with 360 nosepicks over the spine and tailwhips left and right. His 4th place did not get him anything. The money makers started with Tobias Wicke in 3rd. Tobi had time to dry-fuck Senad's ass during his second run for the hell of it and I'm pretty curious if that makes the LG TV show. His first run was killer with seat stand nose picks, a nose pick on the big quarterpipe, flip over the box and more Tobi Tech stuff all around the course. He was having fun. Steve McCann wasn't going to enter the street contest but after qualifying in first on Saturday he was ready to make a podium. Steve did a truckdriver over the box to barspin back, a flair on the quarterpipe, barspin on the take-off of the jump box and basically hit every obstacle on the course with a variation. One grand for McCann. GT's Dave Dillewaard had an amazing first run where he nearly pulled 33 out of his 35 tricks. Run two was even better, he nailed everything. From no-hander over the spine to 360 barspin on a quarterpipe, tailwhips, 540-s, etc. Dave showed that even on a bad street course it was possible to ride great. The crowd loved it and I'm sure the footage came out as they wished. Next stop is Paris this upcoming weekend. Locals who want to ride street at the Trocadero should get in touch with the [url=http://www.lgactionsports.com/2005/events/paris/]LG World tour management. [/url] BdJ BMX Street Finals Munich, Germany - June 19, 2005 Rider Hometown Age Run 1 Run 2 Score 1 Dave Dillewaard Brisbane, Australia 21 93.75 95.00 95.00 Sponsors: GT/Hyundai, Vans, Famous Stars and Straps 2 Steven McCann Melbourne, Australia 22 91.25 81.50 91.25 Sponsors: Mongoose, Hyundai, Bell Helmets 3 Tobias Wicke Berlin, Germany 23 90.50 82.75 90.50 Sponsors: Red Bull, Vans, Carhartt, Eastpak, Wethepeople 4 Koji Kraft Addison, IL 22 80.75 90.00 90.00 Sponsors: Oakley, DVS Shoes, Bell Helmets, Tree Bikes,Scrap Skatepark, Profile 5 Senad Grosic Unterullnerbach, Austria 26 87.00 85.50 87.00 Sponsors: Red Bull, Haro Bikes, Oakley, Eastpak, Vans 6 Ben Korthaus Munich, Germany 22 86.25 85.25 86.25 Sponsors: Rd Bull, Oakley, Adidas, Mac Neil 7 Markus Wilke Cologne, Germany 30 84.75 84.25 84.75 Sponsors: Eastpak, Snafu, Vans, Kink, Chico, King Kong 8 Benno Hankowetz Gmunden, Austria 22 84.25 80.25 84.25 Sponsors: 2-Hip Bikes, Primo BMX, All Ride BMX, 5boro Skateshop 9 Bjorn Mager Berlin, Germany 20 82.00 80.75 82.00 Sponsors: Standard Bikes, zwanzig zoll Magazine, Unity BMX 10 Axel Juergens Argentia, Buenos Aires 28 81.00 79.00 81.00 Sponsors: Adidas, Oakley, Eastpak, Profile, Fly Bikes BMX Street Prelims Munich, Germany - June 18, 2005 Rider Hometown Age Run 1 Run 2 Score 1 Steven McCann Melbourne, Australia 22 90.75 84.25 90.75 Sponsors: Mongoose, Hyundai, Bell Helmets 2 Dave Dillewaard Brisbane, Australia 21 89.00 90.50 90.50 Sponsors: GT/Hyundai, Vans, Famous Stars and Straps 3 Koji Kraft Addison, IL 22 89.50 83.50 89.50 Sponsors: Oakley, DVS Shoes, Bell Helmets, Tree Bikes,Scrap Skatepark, Profile 4 Senad Grosic Unterullnerbach, Austria 26 88.25 86.00 88.25 Sponsors: Red Bull, Haro Bikes, Oakley, Eastpak, Vans 5 Tobias Wicke Berlin, Germany 23 88.00 83.75 88.00 Sponsors: Red Bull, Vans, Carhartt, Eastpak, Wethepeople 6 Benno Hankowetz Gmunden, Austria 22 79.25 84.25 84.25 Sponsors: 2-Hip Bikes, Primo BMX, All Ride BMX, 5boro Skateshop 7 Markus Wilke Cologne, Germany 30 82.50 82.00 82.50 Sponsors: Eastpak, Snafu, Vans, Kink, Chico, King Kong 8 Ben Korthaus Munich, Germany 22 81.25 78.00 81.25 Sponsors: Rd Bull, Oakley, Adidas, Mac Neil 9 Bjorn Mager Berlin, Germany 20 81.00 75.75 81.00 Sponsors: Standard Bikes, zwanzig zoll Magazine, Unity BMX 10 Axel Juergens Argentia, Buenos Aires 28 80.00 77.25 80.00 Sponsors: Adidas, Oakley, Eastpak, Profile, Fly Bikes 11 Andi Deichl Munich, Germany 22 76.75 79.50 79.50 Sponsors: Country BIkes, Profile Racing, Orchid Footwear, Bicycle Union 12 Craig Stevens Bristol, England 22 76.25 75.75 76.25 Sponsors: MacNeil, Profile, Country Bikes, Osiris, Twoand8 13 Simon Stevens Munich, Germany 23 76.25 73.50 76.25 Sponsors: Terrible One 14 Rafael Adam Munich, Germany 22 76.00 74.00 76.00 Sponsors: Country Bikes 15 Wolfgang Wildner Munich, Germany 21 71.00 71.25 71.25 Sponsors: Country BIkes, Profile Racing, Carhartt Clothing 16 Volker Wildner Munich, Germany 24 70.50 68.25 70.50 Sponsors: County Bikes, Profile Racing, Square One Clothing 17 Mathias Preis Munich, Germany 21 69.75 67.25 69.75 Sponsors: 18 Tom Haugen Minneapolis, MN 29 64.75 64.75 Sponsors: Free Agent, UGP, EVS, SNAFU, To Die For BMX Vert Finals Munich, Germany - June 19, 2005 Rider Hometown Age Run 1 Run 2 Score 1 Simon Tabron Newquay, England 31 91.00 84.75 91.00 Sponsors: Mongoose/Hyundai, LG, Adidas, Ogio, Bell Helmets 2 Eduardo Terreros Getxo, Spain 31 89.00 85.50 89.00 Sponsors: Fly Bikes, Red Bull, Play Station 3 John Parker State College, PA 31 83.25 89.00 89.00 Sponsors: LG , Mad Croc Energy Gum, Paul Mitchell 4 Koji Kraft Addison, IL 22 79.50 88.75 88.75 Sponsors: Oakley, DVS Shoes, Bell Helmets, Tree Bikes,Scrap Skatepark, Profile 5 Tom Stober Woodward, PA 30 86.75 84.00 86.75 Sponsors: LG,Schwinn 6 Jay Eggleston Denver, CO 33 85.50 86.00 86.00 Sponsors: Evolution Bikes, Yellow Designs 7 Zach Shaw London, England 34 82.00 83.50 83.50 Sponsors: Vans, Oakley, Eastpak 8 Steven McCann Melbourne, Australia 22 80.50 82.75 82.75 Sponsors: Mongoose, Hyundai, Bell Helmets 9 Tom Haugen Minneapolis, MN 29 80.50 79.50 80.50 Sponsors: Free Agent, UGP, EVS, SNAFU, To Die For *Ages and sponsors listed as of the time of the contest.