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French Bicycles
BMX Street Finals
By Mike Vincent
Do you speak French? I took French when I was younger, but I don’t remember much. It might be because my teacher was terrible. She was from Oklahoma, so she had a really thick southern accent. Every time I’m in France, I always think about her and that French class.
Paris is a beautiful city and it made a great venue for the LG Action Sports World Tour. Today’s weather held out to run BMX Park finals. BMX is a very international sport these days. In the finals, riders came all the way from Australia, Italy, Argentina, Germany, the US, and the UK. I’m not sure if any of the riders speak French, but they all put on a good show today in Paris.
Here’s what happened…
10th place-- Markus Wilke-- Markus came up with some very creative lines on the park course. Each run was filled with lots of smooth grinds, 360s, some technical lip tricks, and sometimes even landing fakie.
9th place-- Axel Juergens-- Axel travels to many BMX competitions. He’s got a big bag of tricks. Huge backflips, tailwhips, 270 transfers, 360s, and a 360 whip.
8th place-- Benny Korthaus-- Benny is a young rider that is sponsored by a famous energy drink company. He must have had one of those drinks before the contest. Tailwhip tailtaps, stretched supermans, a big 540, and huge backflips.
7th place-- Koji Kraft-- Koji is an amazing rider. Within the first few seconds of his first run, he fired out some of the biggest tricks of the contest. Tailwhips, barspins, a turndown backflip, and a huge double tailwhip.
6th place-- Tom Haugen-- Tom had to pay a lot of money to get his bike on the plane to Paris. I’m sure all the spectators in Paris were thankful that he brought his bike. Tom threw down a big run with tailwhip tailtaps, barspins, tailwhips, 360 x-ups, a double tailwhip, and some technical lip tricks.
5th place-- Corey Martinez-- Corey is from Alabama. I wonder if he ever took French in school. Even if he didn’t, he impressed everyone in Paris. Tailwhips, 360s, ice pick the sub-rail, a big no hander, a down-side tailwhip transfer, a truck driver drop-in, and a huge 180 transfer to fakie.
4th place-- Ben Hennon-- Ben likes to do his big tricks early in his run. That’s a risky move, but it works well for him. 360s, barspins, a 270 truck driver transfer, a no-hander, tailwhips, and a huge backflip tailwhip.
3rd-- Chris Mahoney-- Chris must have a lot of energy, because he tricked every ramp that he touched. Turndowns, tailwhips, 360 lookbacks, tailwhip tailtaps, no-footed can cans, and a huge flair.
2nd place-- Alessandro Barbero-- Alessandro is sponsored by Fiat. I don’t think he drove to Paris, though. Whatever the case, I’m sure his sponsors are happy with him. Barspins, no-footed can cans, barspin to tailtaps, tailwhip to 360 tailtap, truck driver to no-footer, and a huge 360 double tailwhip.
1st place-- Dave Dillewaard-- Dave won last weekend in Berlin, and today he got another well deserved win. Tons of big tricks and style for miles. Dave is a nice kid and he even called back home to the US to tell his friends that he won. Of course he used his new LG mobile phone. Whose sym card was in that phone?
