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At the second RedBull Circle of Balance in Oberhausen, Germany the best 18 riders of the world were invited to come and battle in the Gasometer, a 117 meter tall building. The riders got treated like kings and ate/drank for a weekend without opening their wallets. But for that they put on a good show that was filmed by a professional camera crew, and more invited press. The RedBull COB is a way for the flatland community to express what they're all about. You'll see the footage at some point, even in the USA as Props and Transworld BMX magazine were on hand to see beautiful girls go wild in the crowd when the finals neared. For all the technical stuff we hand you over to FLATtv's Renato. BdJ Red Bull Circle of Balance 2 Battle Report by Renato Bart asked me to do a report on the riding so I won't say anything about the perfect location, the great atmosphere and the 100 beautiful Red Bull fashion models. No sir, I'll get straight to the business at hand: the art of flat! Eighteen riders were invited to do battle, they came in from all over the world and they were determined to get it on! The tournament was fought battle style so that means that at first a group of three riders is selected and they ride against each other in jam style so one rider does his thing, then the next, then the next and so on. One rider of the group of three will not go through to the next round. As the tournament progresses the groups will become smaller until the battles will become head-to-head bouts pitting two riders against each other in mortal combat. Round One During the first round Brazilian Superstar Marcos Paulo de Jesus was eliminated despite his high-speed tricks and combos, Canadian Boy Wonder Travis Collier didn't make the second round either which was a pity but he still kept on smiling. Travis rules, baby! Another Canadian didn't get beyond round one: although Nathan Penonzek gave it his best shot, this 2003 World Champion just couldn't nail his mind-boggling backwheel combos. Same goes for Matti Rose who took second place at the last COB, he just had bad luck this night. Too bad, Matti! Jimmy Petitet blasted out good combos but had the misfortune to battle against his homie Alex Jumelin and last COBs champion Viki Gomez who both rode pretty good so Jimmy was out too. Japanese backwheel wizard Kataro Tanaka also had solid runs but couldn't beat Michael Sommer and Simon O'Brien and so round one was as far as he got. Round Two In the first heat of Round two Michael Sommer, Yanmar and Terry Adams battled for a place in the next round. And although Terry Adams laid down some of his magnificent signature combos he didn't make it to the next round. The Parisian Ninja Warrior Alex Jumelin had to go up against two riders with crazy fast spinning styles: the American King of Spin Matt Wilhelm and the German Hurricane Frank Lukas! Although Frank drilled holes in the floor with his fluid spinning tricks and got mad support from the audience he got eliminated by his two fellow riders. Viki Gomez, Simon O'Brien and Akira Okamura took to the floor in the next bout. Although Viki didn't pull much until now he started to warm up and was nailing some of the craziest frontwheel combos I have ever seen! Akira Okamura is probably the friendliest Japanese rider around, he is always smiling and having fun. Original brakeless riding like one-footed hitchhiker and crazy jumpswitches from this Japanese heavy hitter, but it wasn't enough to beat Viki and Simon. Crazy styles from all-American rider Stephen Cerra weren't enough to earn him a place in the next round, but there is no shame in that when you get to battle against the likes of Michael Steingraber and Martti Kuoppa! Head-to-head Battles The gloves are off! Riders have to battle one on one and Michael Sommer had to defeat Martti Kuoppa to get to the next round. Michael busted out his signature front wheel combos and had some crazy new tricks to show us that he didn't sit on his ass all winter. But Martti also went into overdrive and took the win. Alex Jumelin had to get into the ring with Michael Steingraber next. Anyone who reads my columns regularly knows that I am a big fan of Alex, so when he defeated Michael Steingraber me and my friends were going crazy! Yanmar defeated the best thing to come out of the Land of Down Under, Simon O'Brien. Simon is one of the best riders in the world with high-tech switches and a smooth, controlled style but couldn't defeat his Japanese opponent. Viki Gomez took on Matt Wilhelm and they knew that it was now or never. Matt rode like his life depended on it and Viki switched and jumped like a Spanish matador but Matt won and went to the next round. Semi Finals Martti Kuoppa and Alex Jumelin had to battle each other for a place in the finals. The KGB executive went at it and we witnessed flatland finesse with that typical Kuoppa flavor: cross-footed hitchhikers, halfhikers, high-tech jumpswitches, kickflips... you know what he is capable of! Alex is always very nervous and stressed when he rides at big contests but as the Circle of Balance went on and on and he got further and further into the tournament, his jitters seemed to disappear, only to be replaced by enthusiasm and the positive energy you feel when you're jamming with your friends. He was starting to have fun! This had a tremendous effect on his riding and he was throwing out combo after combo: superfast whiplash links, his signature boomerangs, crazy jumpswitches, spinning cliffhangers with one foot on the bars and to the pegs again... all in fast and furious ninja style of course! Alex won and went to the finals! One rider from Japan was left and one from the USA: the mighty Yanmar and the Chi-Town Rolla Matt Wilhelm had to decide who was going to battle Alex in the finals. Matt spun like crazy with megaspins, upside down megaspin on the pedals (even no-handed!), upside down megaspin g-turns with one foot pumping a pedal and his signature no-handed front wheel spinning but also some very cool flowing front wheel links with barflips and switches from the front to the backwheel. Yanmar is incredible and his links are well-known: spinning, pumping steamrollers with crazy fast hand and foot switches, superfast high-tech frontwheel combos that you have to watch in slomo to actually see what the hell is happening, combos with pedal steamrollers and crazy barflip-switches into halfpacker... damn boy! Yanmar took the win and went to the finals! Finals After a very exciting evening of flatland action we reached the finals of the tournament: Alex vs. Yanmar. Alex and Yanmar made it a finals worth watching and one after another flowed from combo to combo. Both riders have a very energetic, fast and flashy style. The audience really liked it and made lots of noise! It was good to see that they didn't prefer one rider over the other but cheered both riders on with similar enthusiasm. The battle went on and on and after the call "last trick please" went on the air, total mayhem erupted! I think nobody really knew who won but that didn't matter anymore: seat cushions went into the air as well as other non-identifiable objects and the crowd went insane! People poured onto the floor to congratulate the riders and after the announcer declared Yanmar the winner beer and champagne rained on everybody (I even saw Michi empty an entire bottle of beer on a girls head! hi hi :) and the contest flowed into a big party. Yanmar is on a winning spree this year, he won Flatground 2004 and now Circle of Balance! If he keeps it up for the rest of the year he might have to get himself a new trophy cabinet because the contest season is just beginning! In my opinion, battle style contests are the future of flatland competition, because it is much more enjoyable for the crowd. The judging is more direct, it's easier to follow for the audience, even for people who never saw flatland before and because you wind it all down to a final head-to-head climax between two riders you get a great vibe! The crowd was really into the contest and cheered the riders on and on, the atmosphere was great and if you add it all up you can only draw one conclusion: It was the bomb! I want to thank Red Bull for another great Circle of Balance contest and Andy Zeiss for getting me a press pass! Ride on! Renato.