85 degrees and sunny (AWESOME)- Puffy little white clouds... The flatland area was freshly paved which meant absolutely nothing to the riders. The pavers did a crappy job smoothing out the area and there were flat strips with a little hop between them every ten feet or so. It was fine as long as you were going in a straight line or were doing tight enough circles so that you avoided the ridges. Some of the better riders just dealt with the ridges like they weren't there. The ENTIRE flatland area was a little bit sloped which just made it all the more ridiculous for the riders. At least they had it set up right next to the street and vert ramps so that there was a chance that the spectators that couldn't get a good line of sight on the vert ramp would at least wander over to gawk at flatland for a couple of seconds before moving on. Believe it or not that is about the BIGGEST complaint that is possible for the weekend. The vert ramp didn't seem to have any problems with it. The street course was HUGE (as always) and didn't have much that the riders hadn't seen before.

The day started with amateur vert. Highlights included... (I have a lot on video so you all will have to wait for me to get some time!!!)

Amateur street followed... The course was laid out in the area of probably four tennis courts or so. Both sides were lined with ramps consisting of various transitions. Between them sat the box jump, a spine, a small pyramid, and a larger pyramid with a handrail. The spine was actually set up between two 6-foot minis so that it made a nice mini ramp setup with a spine that the riders seemed to like. A WELL-recognized flatland rider earning the honor position in qualifiers and the finals- First place went to Chad Degroot. Chad's riding recently has focussed on street instead of flatland and it shows. His ability to use the ENTIRE street area was definitely a big factor in his winning the class. Along with a 20-foot, 180 transfer to a handrail that he slid about halfway down and then rode out of perfectly. Awesome.

Amateur flatland premiered the NEW flatland format (awesome?) Maybe not awesome. The new format entails the riders be broken into small groups (4 or 5 riders) that compete against each other in TWO sixty-second runs, the winners (top 2) then advance to the next round. All the winners are broken into several groups (of about 4 riders) who compete again, once again, two sixty-second runs, with winners transferring to the final round. The final round is ANOTHER two sixty second runs which determines first through fourth or sixth or whatever number of finalists there are. The people that DON'T make the cut have a consolation run that consists of ONE sixty second run. Possibly the two biggest complaints about this format are that if you are in a consolation run... sixty-seconds is very short. A rider must ride close to flawlessly or plan on not doing very well. The other MAJOR complaint is the seeding. Whoever determined how the amateur flatlanders were going to be broken into groups was not paying attention during practice.

There were 17 amateur flatland riders that were broken into 4 groups- 3 groups of 4 and 1 group of 5. The first group for some reason had possibly four of the least experienced riders in the class. Not saying that they weren't good... they just weren't up to par with the other experts competing. Regardless, TWO of those riders transferred to the final round and a guarantee of a finish within the top 8. Perhaps the most difficult rounds were two and four. Round two had Terry Adams in it... he was a favorite and would probably have finished in the top ten in the pro class. Not bad for a 15 year-old rider. This effectively ensured that the other three riders were competing against each other for a chance to get the other spot that moved on. The fourth round had five riders and one of them was Matt Wilhelm. Matt won the Woodward comp last year and despite his complaints that he was riding like crap... he was a favorite. So that left FOUR riders competing for ONE spot. Not exactly fair. Matt in the first round would have been a little more reasonable. Nobody asked or checked apparently so there were a few riders that got screwed over.

In the end the top spots went out to Kip Williamson who was pulling the representation for GT and was earning the points up to win another year end overall flatland title. The two favorites did not disappoint. Terry represented his co-sponsor Wilkerson Airlines and spun and hitchhiked faster than most people can comprehend, but not enough variations to pull the win. Terry's time machines on the pedal where he kicks the pedal to keep spinning must be seen to be believed! Just incredible. If this had been ANY other contest Terry would have won. But Matt Wilhelm was not going to be outdone. Bringing it in from Chicago and riding the NUMBER ONE FLATLAND BIKE OF CHOICE for the unsponsored riders, a Rigid flatland frame. Matt spins fast. No, seriously... FAST. His style is similar to that of Jesse Puente yet he still maintains a flair all his own. His cyclone mccircle combinations were not comprehensible. He followed up with a PERFECT coasting dump truck, to 180 body varial jump on the pegs, to upside down mega-spin, to forward time machine at mach ten, then he threw in an undertaker to ride out... AWESOME.

Josh and I were tired after ten hours of riding and not much sleep the night before and headed back to the hotel to get some Pizza Hut and relax. Josh had been stuck in the fourth round with Matt Wilhelm and was (quietly) irked about not being able to finish in the top eight, which he would have EASILY done if people had been seeded a little more accurately. About 9:00 the rain kicked in. There was only one channel that mattered to us right then... The Weather Channel. Friday was calling for severe thunderstorms throughout the day. Lame. Well there was nothing we could do then so we watched two hours of video of what went on that day and then went to sleep. At about 2:30AM the group from Chicago showed up. Helmet Boy, Joe, Josh (another one), and Kim (yes with bike in hand) showed up at the hotel. Since they had been stuck in the car for so long they got a key and went back out to ride street until about 4 or 5:00 AM.