Friday- We expected the weather to be crappy... Didn't happen. This was the day for Pro Vert and despite what the weatherman called for the rain was limited to about 30 minutes at about 11:00AM. Then the sun was back out and a little bit of wind kicked in to make vert just a little more interesting. We slept in until about 10:00 and rolled into the contest just as the rain started. By noon the rain was gone and they finished up vert qualifiers. Nothing shocking really happened there, Mirra, McCoy, Miron... Bestwick... Jamie Bestwick has REALLY improved! Awesome. Mirra was leading the way when the prelims were done and was a strong favorite for the final victory.

The finals for vert just didn't measure up to what has been seen before. Let's face it- Vert isn't progressing with newer and bigger tricks. Joe Johnson was hitting consistent DOUBLE tailwhips about ten years ago, yet nobody is doing them today on a regular basis. The big tricks were done by the usual pros.

The one surprise was Dave Mirra deciding to let the bike use him as a punching bag about 10 seconds into his first run and getting so messed up that he had to withdraw from the rest of the vert comp. This left the door open for McCoy, Miron, and Nyquist.

DMC is more than a legend. Dennis has consistently been one of the top pros for over a decade. You don't hear people calling him a jerk or a sellout... just the usual props for this longtime favorite. Riding his signature DMC from K2, Dennis ripped the place up but and was able to score a VERY impressive second place finish. I thought Jamie Bestwick should have done better than he did... especially since he landed in only the number seven spot. Here is a rider that actually shows the world what sorts of tricks are possible on a vert ramp. Variations like you wouldn't believe and a fair amount of height behind what he had... not enough though.

No Mirra, McCoy not being flawless, and Matt Hoffman safely up in the judges booth- Miron was going to bringing home the gold. He didn't surprise anyone with a crazy new trick or variation. A perfect boomerang air. Back-to-back variations. AIR! He has an intensity to his riding that just pushes him higher than anyone else. Even without the flurry of original tricks and variations he was still the one pulling the win in a big way.

Good news was that Mirra wasn't out for good. Just out for the day. Not like he isn't already on his way to the X-Games this year.

Friday night ended with the all of us from the hotel going on a street ride downtown. It didn't quite work out right as the street riders quickly got flats and we were kicked off the University of Louisville campus in about five minutes. We did find a few good places to ride and we had some fun in general. The night ended at about 1:00AM at which point we headed back to the hotel so I could catch a few hours of sleep before pro flat the next day.