Lords Of Dirt contest in Tosse, France. Report by BdJ

Aug 20, 2009

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 7533 times

Putting on a contest of a higher caliber isn't an easy task, especially not if you are a pro rider and ride in the same contest. DMC has done it, Mat Hoffman has done it, Ian Morris, Ryan Nyquist and in France it's Patrick Guimez who sticks his neck out to gather enough sponsors and prize money to get the pro riders to his home trails in Tosse, France. Now going to the South of France in the summer is something that most people don't mind. Add waves to surf on and a € 10.000,= Euro prize purse and you're on the right way. Many riders brought their surfboards and left for the ocean in the morning to go ride the trails in the afternoon. Axel Jurgens actually never showed back up at the trails so we're wondering if he's still "hanging loose" in Hossegor or something. Patrick and the locals had worked hard to build a new set-up for the comp. Constant maintenance and watering of the jumps took place to make sure the set up was the best possible for the riders. By riders, for riders. John Petit was rocking the microphone all weekend and mixed it up in English when the foreigners were about to drop in. With riders from

the USA, UK, Germany, Belgium, Slovania and the Netherlands he had to mix it up quite often.

12 riders made finals in amateur dirt. Among them Dutch riders Rens Apperloo and Dimitri. Some started from the high roll-in, some opted for the lower one.

The jumps were connected with berms and a giant curved wallride which was new for most of the dirt riders. If it wasn't your direction it was tough to master it in just a weekend. As usual the top AM riders could have entered the pro class and at the Lords Of Dirt they let the first place AM rider enter the Pro finals. This hounour went to Rocci Anthony. In between the AM and PRO classes some live music was played. Some of it was good. Some of it not so good but I like everything that's played live so I can deal with it. The crowd on Saturday was okay but on Sunday the place was packed. It had the surf boys, the FMX riders, the minibike crowd, party animals and of course BMX fans. Some of them came from far (Fam. Reves) and everyone was enjoying the show. Beer in hand or not.

Things heated up when the Pro finals started. In qualifying everyone had three heats with the best two scores counting towards the finals score. The finals consisted of a 45 minute jam. It's much better for the crowd and the riders but the judges had it rough. It kinda showed in the end results but if you're not following the entire contest with a pen and paper in hand to make notes, it's hard to argue afterwards. JB Peytavit and Ben Wallace had a nice battle going on doing triple whips. The first jump was big. It had a 10 meter gap. The second had an 8 meter gap. When Ben did a triple whip on the second set, JB bounced back with a triple on the first set. Then Ben Wallace answered with the run of the day with a back to back triple (first and second set) and continued with a cannonball and some sort of downside whip combo on the last set. These are the moments that people remember, moments that make a good contest, a great contest. Bob Manchester rocked the house and ate dirt at several occasions trying his hardest tricks. Flip double whips for instance and double backies. The small waves in the morning d

idn't affect Markus Hampl's feeling for the rest of the day. The German rode great and enjoyed a 4th place check at the end. Home town favourite Patrick Guimez felt sick the two days before the comp. With so much going on at once it was incredible to see that he actually managed to ride the comp. Turndown flips, superman flips, 3 double whips, just some of the tricks that Patoche showed the big crowd. They were loving it.

Some more music was played after the comp before the Best Trick contest started. With a Mini Dirtbike up for grabs as the first place prize the pressure was on. Double loop attempts came from Bob Manchester and Ricardo Laguna. Still scary to watch people try these but everyone walked away. JB does opposite double whips but was shooting for the 360 triple. Some other French rider was trying to spin a 1080 and the carnage went on for a while. Ben Wallace shut it down when he pulled a 360 lookback to downside whip. His first ever on dirt. He had never pulled it before, just tried it a few times in the foam. The first one was close where he rolled out one-footed but the second attempt was perfect. That's two new tricks in a row for the Brit after pulling a fakie to double whip on a mini the weekend before at the Boardmasters.

He cranked up the minibike and jumped that thing off the stage right away. A few burnouts and wheelies later that bike had collected some dust but the smile had not disappeared from Wallace's face.

The Lords of Dirt was a great event. We tied it into our vacation, we hope to do the same next year.

BdJ

PRO RESULTS:

1- BOB MANCHESTER (UK)
2- BEN WALLACE (UK)
3- JB PEYTAVIT (FRA)
4- MARKUS HAMPL (ALL)
5- PAT GUIMEZ (FRA)
6- SIMON MORATZ (ALL)
7- KEVIN KALKOFF (FRA)
8- JEREMY LEPENNEDU (FRA)
9- ROBIN CASTEX (FRA)
10- RICARDO LAGUNA (USA)
11- MAX BIMAR (FRA)
12- ANTHONY ROCCI (FRA)
13- THOMAS GAUDIN (FRA)
14 - DUSAN ANTALIK (SLOV) : DNF

AMATEUR RESULTS:

1- ROCCI ANTHONY
2- STREIFF ALARIC

3 - BASSE BORIS
4 - LEMOINE THOMAS
5 - HENRY OLIVIER
6 - SIMON TITOUAN
7 - RENS APERLOO
8 - LAHAYE BENJAMIN
9 - DE OLIVEIRA THEO
10 - GAY CYRILL
11 - TORRES MATHIAS
12 - ARRAOUZOZ DIMITRI

BEST TRICK RESULTS:
1 - BEN WALLACE
2 - RICARDO LAGUNA
3 - MARKUS HAMPL

FRENCHY'S BEST LINE
ALARIC STREIF (AMATEUR)