What a good event we had in Cali, being the 4th edition of the King of dirt, the show was even better than the years before, the level is sky high, every time it is harder to get on the podium and there is never a sure winner, which gives it more expectation.
The rookie class was really hard, there was a mid size double next to the last set of the pro section and the riders managed to do some crazy transfers and we could see the “novice� riders do whips, 360s, all kind of flips, I think 60% of the riders of this class had the skills to ride in expert, so maybe next year we will see them stepping things up.
In expert class anyone could win it, you can notice that these guys have been riding hard, and we saw it with all the different type of tricks they did; flip X-ups, truck drivers and whips on every set, that means that for next year the pro class will get bigger.
For the pro class the organizers re-designed the course, making it a little more technical with longer jumps for bigger tricks, an 8-pack in one direction and a berm with a 4 pack on the other side.
Jonathan Ospina tied in points with
Mauricio Mayorga. Jonathan impressed the judges with a clean double whip. I also saw him doing huge X-up-whips and the flips variations that he does best, but I didn't see him spinning his bars. On the other hand Mauricio showed all his huge bag of barspin tricks that he is known for, he also pulled a nice 3-whip with his double cancan style. Mauricio also did all kind of flips convinced with barspins and x ups.
In 6th place was
Hector Trulillo from Tulua Valle, he was the only one to do flips on the step down jump and keep going flying every set, he also did some crazy decades and stretched superman seat-grabs, Hector is always the crowd favorite because of his wild style.
The surprise of the contest was
Ricardo Rodriges with a good 5th place that if it wasn't for a couple of crashes he would be on the podium, he was so close to pulling a barspin to whip that it would be the trick of the contest, we will see a lot from Ricardo in the future.
One of the strongest competitor to take the crowd home was
“Junior� Ivan Ospina, man this kid is good!! But some crashes didn't let him fight for the title. I think it wasn't a good day for him because he went down on tricks that he does every day. We saw him do a flipwhip to x-up that came very close and also a flip double barspins making it look easy.
In 3rd place was
Mr Victor Suarez with very safe runs, but getting enough points to take the bronze home. Victor is an awesome dirt jumper but we didn't see his full potential, however I like to see him on the podium that he earned with huge double truck suicides, 3-whips and the slowest flip-whip of the contest.
Julian Orozco took away the silver with consistent runs doing big tricks in every set of the section, he measures every trick in his runs and doesn't leave anything to luck and that is why he has been taking the money in all the contest. We saw him doing big double barspins followed by extended double trucks on the 3rd jump. His runs were full of flip drivers and click flip turn downs.
And one more time, on top of every one and making sure he is the best, we had
Mauricio Ospina, what can I say, flip driver X-up the first jump, whip the second and clean double whip the third jump, goes around, takes the berm, earned some speed, does a whip on the 4th jump and ends up with a perfect flipwhip, there is nothing more to say, the crown has an owner.
The Cali King Of Dirt is a contest organized by the rider for the riders, all the money we get is given away to the competitors, that is why we have 3 classes, our goal is to promote the sport giving motivation and getting new kids involved in bmx. That is why I want to thank all our sponsors for their support.
I want to thank Pierre at RedBull, bicicletas Milan, the people at Maxxis tires in Medellin that are always with us, Juan Rios at bicicletas Zupra in Bogota, www.almacenbmx.com and Roland at bicicletas Piraña, to all, thank you, and we hope to see you at the 5th King Of Dirt in January 2006.
Alejandro Caro
For the pro class the organizers re-designed the course, making it a little more technical with longer jumps for bigger tricks, an 8-pack in one direction and a berm with a 4 pack on the other side.
Jonathan Ospina tied in points with Mauricio Mayorga. Jonathan impressed the judges with a clean double whip. I also saw him doing huge X-up-whips and the flips variations that he does best, but I didn't see him spinning his bars. On the other hand Mauricio showed all his huge bag of barspin tricks that he is known for, he also pulled a nice 3-whip with his double cancan style. Mauricio also did all kind of flips convinced with barspins and x ups.
In 6th place was Hector Trulillo from Tulua Valle, he was the only one to do flips on the step down jump and keep going flying every set, he also did some crazy decades and stretched superman seat-grabs, Hector is always the crowd favorite because of his wild style.
The surprise of the contest was Ricardo Rodriges with a good 5th place that if it wasn't for a couple of crashes he would be on the podium, he was so close to pulling a barspin to whip that it would be the trick of the contest, we will see a lot from Ricardo in the future.
One of the strongest competitor to take the crowd home was “Junior� Ivan Ospina, man this kid is good!! But some crashes didn't let him fight for the title. I think it wasn't a good day for him because he went down on tricks that he does every day. We saw him do a flipwhip to x-up that came very close and also a flip double barspins making it look easy.
In 3rd place was Mr Victor Suarez with very safe runs, but getting enough points to take the bronze home. Victor is an awesome dirt jumper but we didn't see his full potential, however I like to see him on the podium that he earned with huge double truck suicides, 3-whips and the slowest flip-whip of the contest.
Julian Orozco took away the silver with consistent runs doing big tricks in every set of the section, he measures every trick in his runs and doesn't leave anything to luck and that is why he has been taking the money in all the contest. We saw him doing big double barspins followed by extended double trucks on the 3rd jump. His runs were full of flip drivers and click flip turn downs.
And one more time, on top of every one and making sure he is the best, we had Mauricio Ospina, what can I say, flip driver X-up the first jump, whip the second and clean double whip the third jump, goes around, takes the berm, earned some speed, does a whip on the 4th jump and ends up with a perfect flipwhip, there is nothing more to say, the crown has an owner.
The Cali King Of Dirt is a contest organized by the rider for the riders, all the money we get is given away to the competitors, that is why we have 3 classes, our goal is to promote the sport giving motivation and getting new kids involved in bmx. That is why I want to thank all our sponsors for their support.
I want to thank Pierre at RedBull, bicicletas Milan, the people at Maxxis tires in Medellin that are always with us, Juan Rios at bicicletas Zupra in Bogota, www.almacenbmx.com and Roland at bicicletas Piraña, to all, thank you, and we hope to see you at the 5th King Of Dirt in January 2006.
Alejandro Caro 
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.