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Martti dominates the field and
Trevor shows he is around to be taken seriously - Chicago represents
with Matt Wilhelm.
Sick.
Sick, sick, sick, sick, sick. That's about
all that can be said when you are sitting on your butt watching from the
sidelines as impossible trick after impossible trick happens. These
guys don't do tricks half-assed, they go full tilt and pull stuff that
simply isn't possible. The rain looked like it had settled
in for the day, but around 1:30 in the afternoon the weather stopped
screwing around on us and the riders were given a 30 minute extension on
practice so they could get ready for qualifiers. They each would
have one 2 minute run to show their stuff. It was all or nothing,
and with the group present there could be little holding back if anyone
wanted to make the cut. Throughout practice there were
several guys that you simply knew would be making the cut... then they
didn't. The three biggest names were last years second place
finisher Michael Steingrabber who simply did not hold the tricks together
and he winded up in a dismal 16th place after looking incredible
throughout practice. The 12th spot went to Nathan Penonzek who had
been dominating the CFB contest series throughout the year. Bottom
line was that he had about three touches in his run, without the degree of
dificuly that he normally shows. Jorge Gomez had been showing signs
that he could take home a medal, maybe even gold, if he could put a solid
run together. But, the solid run eluded him - and the finals are one
position above his placing. It was tough to watch because he is so
incredible. Other riders that didn't make the cut mostly
were hampered by poor runs, rather than their ability. Two of the
Japanese riders, Ryoji, and Takashi, simply couldn't pull together solid
runs, despite some incredible tricks. Scott Powell showed off some
cool original stuff, but only pulled off a few of his tricks
perfectly. Effraim Catlow, Aaron Behnke, Art Thomason, and Leif
Valin simply did not have what it took to go on. Art possibly had
one of the best runs that I have seen from him, so it was disappointing
that he couldn't quite get into the fnals. That left the
top ten... Perhaps the biggest surprise was the eighth place
qualifier, Chad Degroot. Chad put together the best run that I have
seen from him in a couple of years. He threw out some of his new
street/flat style tricks and combined some newer variations with some of
his original tricks. Alex Jumelin got the number 10 spot, barely
making it into the finals after a somewhat sketchy qualifying run that had
high speed and a lot of quick spastic flow. Dan Rigby has
taken it to heart when he was told that he doesn't do enough 'long'
variations, and has combined some of his hardest tricks with other tricks
to make long combos of impossible tricks. He sketched a few times,
but held on to get in at number 8, tied with Chad. Stephen Cerra
seemed bummed with his run, but he still got the number 7 qualifying spot
with upside down pedalling mega-spins and time machines on the
pedals. Mega-spins while kneeling on the seat, no footed tomahawks,
and other solid tricks left him in the finals. Matti Rose
is the young-un of the group, but it didn't stop him from going off and
capturing the number six qualifying position. Trying to explain his
tricks is nearly impossible, but the one trick that blew me away was his
rollback time machine on the pedals, to half-bike varial upside down
mega-spin. Phil Dolan goes off in contests. During
practice when he has to deal with 15 other riders on the course he often
struggles while working on his long links. When the floor clears and
he gets a chance to really let loose, he does. His dump truck step
up to the pedals hitchhiker variations, and long flowing rolling tricks
simply were untouched by any other rider. Nobody else seemed to want
to mess with the long rolling tricks, so Phil made the most of it and used
every inch of the flatland area. York Uno hit the only
flawless run of the day. He didn't have a lot of original tricks,
but flowed through without brakes and hit about everything he wanted
to. If he holds it together for the finals then he could do even
better than the qualifiers, but as strong a trick as no-handed hitchhikers
are, they don't have the originality to win. The three spot
went to Chcago's own, Matt Wilhelm. Matt has been going off this
year, and despite a touch or two during his run, he still had a bevy of
original tricks that he spun faster than most people can imagine. He
worked the crowd with blenders to upside down mega-spins, to pedalling
upsdie down megaspins to forward time machines like they were
nothing. A well deserved placing for him, and a chance to move up
tomorrow if he can hit it perfect. Number two went to
Trevor Meyer who is riding a bike with a 21 inch top tube for
flatland. He promises that the bike he is designing for Mongoose
will not have the long of a top tube, but he looks like he is not having
much of a problem. Trevor is still using a direct drive hub to the
best of it's abilities and forward to backwards blenders to mega-spins to
backwards pedalling mega-spins to decade out from the pedals was possibly
the highlight trick for him. Impossibly hard tricks and a solid run
were what he needed for second. Moving on from impossibly
hard tricks to tricks that are simply impossible we have the number one
qualifer, Martti Kuoppa. The defending gold medal winner sketched
way more than he wanted to, but Martti rides at a different level than you
or I. He finished a full point ahead of Trevor despite the sketch
and pulled his signature original tricks including the no-footed steam
roller and the no-handed blender at full speed. The finals
begin tomorrow afternoon at one o'clock and we look forward to seeing who
will hold it together for the finals. Odds have to be on Martti, but
Trevor has the difficulty to hang onto a win if he hits a perfect
run. You can't rule out anyone who is good enough to make the cut,
but some riders simply are not at the level of others. Look for
Martti, Trevor, Matt, Matti, and Stephen to be the ones battling out the
top spots. But, it's flatland, and two runs opens the door for a
solid run followed by an incredible run in the finals. It opens the
door for surprises. See you tomorrow. ~P~ |