Famous Last Words
A few stray comments floating through the MXWC ether.
April 13, 2008, 10:52 PM
 Chris Tedesco You wuz robbed, Bilko! While lurking around the event all weekend long, I overheard some pretty funny and interesting stuff coming out of the riders and industry insiders mouths. I decided to start writing the stuff down and share it with you. Enjoy!
"I'm pumped I got eliminated from the Step Up qualifier and don't have to ride it again."
- Todd Potter regarding his failed attempt at advancing to the Step Up final—implying that Step Up is hard on the body.
"Judged sports suck, especially when you get beat by your own tricks."
- Blake "Bilko" Williams referring to Metal Mulisha's Todd Potter beating him in Best Trick with a Ruler Flip, which Bilko invented before getting hurt in 2006.
"Bilko's 360's are by far better than any 360 Ronnie Faisst has tried. He doesn't get nearly enough credit for them. He pulled a huge 360 heelclicker in yesterday's Best Trick final and only got fifth—I think he should have medaled."
- Dubai X Games Gold Medalist Greg Hartman regarding Bilko's 360 and the judges bad decision to not make it a medal winning trick.
"I think ESPN should've made this event free like they used to do with the X Games—one too many empty seats."
- OG FMX photographer Nick Ciotti referring to the lack of crowd in attendance.
"Dude, I had no idea that ESPN was even giving away that custom Evel Knievel Harley Davidson until they called me down to present it to me. I'm so stoked—I'm going to pimp it out with some gold spoked rims and maybe even throw and exhaust on that baby!"
- Double gold helmet winner Nate Adams referring to the custom Harley Davidson that he won for being the Most Outstanding rider at the Motocross World Championships.
"If Nate doesn't give his new Harley to me, he'll be violating his Yamaha contract and end up losing his ride."
- FMX funnyman Jeff Tilton trying to weasel Adams into giving him his new Harley.
"I'm so pumped to be leaving here with a silver and bronze helmet and most importantly, my body intact. I can't wait to go to my video premier tonight and get trashed!"
- Jeremy "Twitch" Stenberg reflecting on his weekend in his hometown of San Diego.
Medal Head
Proclaim your greatness and protect your head with these handy trophies!
April 13, 2008, 9:00 PM
 Ryan Leyba Put this on. You'll be safer. For the inaugural Moto X World Championships, iconic medals have been replaced by gold, silver and bronze helmets provided by Bell, and painted by the legendary Troy Lee. I was curious as to why the head honchos at ESPN decided to make this change, so I tracked down the man responsible for bringing in the beautiful brain buckets. "At Summer X Games, we do the standard gold, silver and bronze medals, but we wanted to come up with something that was more moto-oriented for this event. Thinking of objects related to motocross, we decided that custom painted helmets would be an awesome option," explained Tim Reed, X Games Director of Sports and Comp. "I talked to Troy Lee, and he invited me out to his shop. I was able to see some of the trophies he did for the Fontana SuperMoto and some NASCAR races, and they looked really cool. From that point, we worked together, going back and forth until we had a winning design."
How many helmets were turned into trophies? "Step Up only receives a gold helmet, so that's a total of 17 helmets that had to get hand painted by Troy and his crew," said Reed.
According to Reed, the helmets took two weeks to paint. What do the riders think about them? I asked Freestyle and Speed & Style winner Nate Adams, "The helmets are super cool and look really good, but look how big they are! They're going to take up tons of space in my trophy room. I don't think they have the same important feel as a medal, but I'm excited none the less", stated Adams.
Adams's roommate, Logan Darien, chimed in, "At least we'll have spare helmets for when our friends want to ride pit bikes!"
Not All's Fair In Love And Step Up
Buyten soars while Renner steams.
April 13, 2008, 8:11 PM
 Chris Tedesco When Renner blows his top, he goes high. "I lost on a coin toss as far as I'm concerned. I'm not even giving Matt Buyten props because I didn't even get a fair shake." So said an obviously pissed off Ronnie Renner after the conclusion of the Step Up final that saw him finish second without really getting a chance to finish first. All of the drama in the Step Up final started once the bar reached the 35-foot mark, with Step Up rookie but motocross legend, Ricky Carmichael having the first stab. He flew well above the bar, only to slam back down to Earth and bash his chin on his crossbar pad and crash. The G.O.A.T. was quick to bounce up and respond to the roaring crowd, but once he removed his helmet and realized how badly his chin was damanged, he decided to return to early retirement early.
With Ricky out, it was down to experienced Step Up bad-asses and previous X Games gold medalists Matt Buyten and Ronnie Renner. Three failed attempts at the 35-foot height later, both Renner and Buyten remained tied. The rule book calls for a sudden death overtime in such situations, but in what appears to have been a game day decision, the take-off was made five feet longer. Renner lost the coin toss, Buyten made 35 feet on his first try, and that was that.
"This feels better than any other win in my career," said Buyten. "I'm bummed for Renner, but that's just how the cookie crumbles."
Renner, meanwhile, was a little less gracious in defeat. He flipped off the officials, wiped his ass with the event banner, smoked his tire in the tunnel, and kicked Tuff Blocks over all around the track. "They didn't care about running the event in a fair manner," he fumed. "They were just trying to get it over with so that they could stay on schedule."
Fox Filling Station
MXWC-ing conjures up a powerful hunger. Fox fills it.
April 13, 2008, 5:15 PM
 Ryan Leyba Adam Jones knows from carne asada. Fox is by far one of the most respected motocross clothing and gear company in the action sports industry. Founded in 1974, Fox Racing has been in the game since the beginning, allowing them plenty of time to perfect their product, but more importantly, their team management and athlete hospitality. To show their support for their athletes who are riding the Motocross World Championships, Fox team manager Chris "Beeker" Onstott drove the official rig down to San Diego to set up shop in the pits, offering a place for their athletes like as Mike Mason, Carey Hart, Adam Jones, Niki Danielson, Josh Demuth, Troy Adams and Ricky Carmichael to relax, eat and be merry. Last night after the event, Public Relations Manager Mindy Foster invited me to join the team as they celebrated the completion of day one of the MXWC in fashion. Four carne asada tacos and 12 beers later, I was out for the count. Thanks guys!
Elephants Fly In San Diego
Carmichael plasters stickers over his clean-cut image.
April 13, 2008, 3:43 PM
 Rick Roll He looks tougher already, doesn't he? I've got to give props to Ryan "Fluffer" Hagy and Eric Apple from the Metal Mulisha for giving me the big lead on some juicy news. This morning, at the start of day two at the MXWC, Fluffer yelled at me from across the parking lot. Supposedly, while hanging out after the event last night, factory Suzuki rider and supercross/motocross legend, Ricky Carmichael, approached Mulisha TM Eric Apple, asking if he could run Mulisha stickers during today's Step Up final.
"It was crazy. He came up to me and said he was embarrassed to approach Brian Deegan, that he is super pumped on the Mulisha, and he wants to run our stickers for the rest of the weekend", said Apple.
How rad is that? After watching the first round of Step Up Saturday, Carmichael is looking like a favorite for the win. The mix between his factory motor and suspension and sheer talent makes him a threat to the entire field. The Metal Mulisha may have added another gold to their arsenal by repping Carmichael, but even if they don't get the gold, I'm willing to bet that this will be one of their biggest PR moves yet—way to go Deegs!
|
|
|
|
