Organizer: Hoffman Promotions

Bicycle stunt has been an X Games event since the beginning of X time (1995) and has become a cornerstone of the games. This year's incarnation will feature the disciplines of Vert, Park, Flatland, and Dirt, making bicycle stunt the X Games event with the most competitors and disciplines. Throw a field of international competitors flying in from as far as Barcelona, Spain and Japan and you have one of the millennium's fastest emerging sports.

Park Riding:
Park Course- Piers 30/32
20 bikers on the newly redesigned park course built by VPI industries of Santa Rosa, CA consisting of spines, quarter-pipes, and street oriented obstacles like stairs and concrete parking barriers to round out the course. Riders have a maximum of 90 seconds to make their way through the course and are judged on how well they use it, as well as the difficulty of their tricks.

---

Dirt Jump:
A different breed than the vert or street guys, most of the dirt jumpers have roots on the BMX racing side of biking. This is mostly because dirt jumping wasn't a recognized sport until recently. Prior to the X Games and the Hoffman series, dirt jump competitions were informal and infrequent, usually occurring as a "half time" show at BMX races. All of that has recently changed, even to the point that rider's sponsors are now asking athletes to not race and save their bodies for the dirt jump.

Hoffman promotions's master course designer, Steve Swope, has the dubious duty of transforming more than 300 truckloads of dirt into every athlete's favorite dirt playground. Heavy winds with gusts up to 30 mph posed a problem in last year's event. Let's hope for better weather this year so these guys can show what they're really made of!

---

Vert:
Another X Games cornerstone event is the bicycle stunt vert event. 20 of the world's best bicycle stunt riders on a 12-foot-high 48-foot-wide wood and skatelite monster built by one of the best in the business, Team Pain Enterprises. Names and faces that were practically unknown 6 years ago will be going head to head trying to get more air than the last rider, get a little more tech on the coping, and stomp those huge spins without getting tangled in the bike or landing in the flats.

---

Flatland:
Flatland is an event that embodies the true spirit of biking through its demand of balance, agility, and patience. All of the riders are the living embodiment of discipline: each having spent countless hours in parking lots, driveways, and arenas mastering old tricks and creating new ones. The 20 riders are judged on style, difficulty, originality, creativity, execution, and overall performance. Points are heavily deducted for touching the ground. Masters of balance conquer concrete!

   Send to a friend  | Most sent  | Submit your photo or video