BMX Playtime contest report.

Jul 21, 2009

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 12265 times

Saturday morning it was off to Hasselt for the BMX Playtime contest. Spending a weekend in Belgium is always good and when there's BMX involved it's even better. The weather forecast wasn't too good but when we arrived in Belgium it had not rained there and the place looked good. Sven Grieten and Greg van Tulder had built a sweet dirt course on the parking lot of the Kapermolen. The concrete park next to it did not need much work as it was already there and ready to go. Saturday saw all amateur classes. On Dirt as well as Park. The classes in Park were split between a 15 and under class and a 15 and over class. Felix Prangenberg from Germany beat Brian Cuypers (B) and Eddy Baum (D) in the under 15 class with some strong riding. His dad and the whole German posse was stoked. Benoit Vandeguchte won the over 15 class. He's got real street skills and the manual upwards the kinked ledge to 180 off sealed the deal for him. 94 points for Benoit, 93 for Nicolas Terryn and 92.5 for Bram de Laat. The all ages dirt class was won by Pieter de Bruyn who did sweet no-footed cancans, followed by team mate Nick Dehertelend

and Rens Apperloo from Holland. They received some goodies from the sponsors (Eastpak/Nike 6.0/RedBull/Premium/The 900 Shop) and got their picture taken on the podium.

The Best trick contest on an MTB put an end to the day real quick. Only two guys showed up so you know what that means for next year's MTB riders.... €500 Euros were up for grabs though so it was between Joris Hotchick and Pim van den Bos who had lend an MTB for the occasion from Rens Apperloo. Earlier in the day Pim had snapped his bike so at least he had a bike to ride for the Best Trick MTB comp. The riders had three runs each and the trick could be done anywhere on the course. Pim had a front flip in mind so Joris took a run and did a 360 on the last set in his first run. Pim's frontie over the first set went horribly wrong wh

ere he slammed his face on the ground and knocked himself silly. The ambulance showed up, the MUG showed up and the atmosphere was down for a while but Pim walked to the ambulance and received a round of applause before getting checked out. No serious damage was done but this was his first and (hopefully) last switch to the MTB bike.

PRO Day.

Sunday started off with some rain. It was on and off for a while which caused slight changes to the program but the sun did come out long enough to complete everything that was scheduled. Let's start off with Dirt. Greg van Tulder was the man of the day. 4 runs, 3 best ones count. Greg had 4 great runs with nothings, 360 tables, 360 turndowns, cannonballs, no-handers and loads of style and height. Bart Mol finished second with truckdrivers on the last set, 360-s, double tailwhips, no-handed 360-s and loads more. Made the Dutch crew proud for sure. Buddy Chellan and James Plumridge stayed around after the IBMXFF World's in Cologne and so did Alejandro Caro. The latter was still recovering from the previous night and did not ride the contest but showed up in time for Best Trick. Buddy Chellan cruised through the sets but James Plumridge tricked through the sets for a third place finish. Nico Vink decided to enter at the last minute. He already had his flights booked for some MTB World Cups in Canada and the USA so he took it easy. But easy for him means he's still fun to watch. So much style and control and turndowns, x-ups, toboggans and nacnacs along the way. 4th in Hasselt, hopefully a podium for him across the pond in the next few weeks too. Daniel Tuente was one of the few to do tricks on the drop-off. He made barspins look easy and then tailwhipped down. Respect. Sven Grieten saved his tricks for AFTER the contest and did more dead sailors than anyone on the course.

Pro Dirt BMX Playtime 2009:
1. Greg van Tulder
2. Bart Mol
3. James Plumridge
4. Nico Vink
5. Daniel Tuente
6. Sven Grieten
7. Buddy Chellan
8. Gwen Geyskens
9. Markus Braumann
10. Markus Reuss

Pro Park. After qualifying the following riders made the finals: Anthony Reynaert, Leroy Kleppe, Markus Braumann, Daniel Wedemeyer, Daniel Tuente, Henry Thibaut, Gewn Geyskens, Bart Mol, Paddy Gross and Pierre Henry. The qualifying run was done with one minute runs + last trick divided over the whole park.

The park can actually be split up in three sections: Bowl, Street and Funbox and that's actually how the finals were run. Three separate runs at three different sections of the park. Top three in the end looked like this: 793 points for Markus Braumann who obviously knows how to ride any terrain for first place. His 540 flair tiretap out of the bowl help score some points there, his tailwhip drop helped on the street course and his 3-whip tiretap to tailwhip-in on the spine was a good one for extra points on the trannie/funbox section. Daniel Tuente was a new face to me but impressed with his street skills and also on the shitty jump box. 2nd place for him. Daniel Wedemeyer showed up late but just in time to enter the comp. With little practice he qualified and by the time the finals came around he was rocking.

It was tight for place three with 777 points for Daniel and 776 points for Paddy Gross who did amazing stuff too. By this time the sun had come out and the crowd enjoyed the riding.

Pro Park BMX Playtime 2009:
1. Markus Braumann
2. Daniel Tuente
3. Daniel Wedemeyer
4. Paddy Gross

5. Henry Thibaut
6. Pierre Henry
7. Bart Mol
8. Leroy Kleppe
9. Gwen Geyskens
10. Anthony Reynaert

Two things left: The Bunny Hop contest and the Best Trick comp for BMX on Dirt.

The Bunny Hop contest with €250 Euros for first place had a strong battle going on. Loads of riders entered but when it got down to the 100cm mark only a handful were left. Next up: 110cm. With a personal record of 104 cm Bart Mol was the first and only one to jump the bar. He even hopped it three times in a row to show he was the true winner. € 250 in the pocket. Well done.

By the time the Best Trick on Dirt took place The Cools brothers and also Alejandro Caro had shown up. Again, it was a session where only one trick would count but it could be done anywhere on the dirt course. The best trick got bettered a few times until Daniel Tuente did a triple whip on the last set. Alejandro Caro came real close with his 720 TD but it was the German who beat the Colombian in Belgium for the first place check.

The comp was a succes. Good times in Belgium. See you in 2010.

BdJ