Now in its sixth year, the top extreme sports athletes in the world are competing in the 2010 Dew Tour, all battling for the highly-coveted Dew Cup that will be awarded at season’s end to champions in BMX and Skateboarding.The Dew Tour and Nike 6.0 BMX Open combined for a stop in Chicago, July 23-25, 2010 for the second stop on the 2010 Dew Tour and first BMX stop of the Tour.
The Museum Campus, between Soldier Field and McCormick Place was the site of the Nike 6.0 BMX Open which featured the world’s greatest talent in BMX Park, Vert and Dirt. Although the Dew Tour was in Chicago last year, this is a new venue for the Tour’s BMX competitions.
Dew Tour Chicago BMX Finals
The Nike 6.0 BMX event is sandwiched in between the BMX Masters and the Summer X Games for some mighty good BMX fare for the hungry fans. Day one had prelims but no dirt finals as planned because of rain. Saturday had all the finals on tap and flash flood warnings in effect for the day, making for an interesting day. Once the decks were dry, there were bangers all over the place and ridiculous riding that kept each division interesting and pretty tight.
Nike 6.0 BMX Dirt Finals
Brett Banasiewicz (USA) who is having an incredible year, was in first place from the prelims and on. Mad Dog or " Banana Sandwich" as the lexically-challenged may call him, came out of the gate with a 360 into a huge front flip then double whip in a flawless well-constructed run that kept him untouchable. He's the youngest BMX rider to win a Dew Tour final, ever, period, just coming off a win in Cologne at the BMX Masters, earning a strong 92.94 finish. He also won at the ASA Big Air Triples Augusta stop, too.
Brandon Dosch (USA), who recently killed it at another Chi-Town stop, Red Bull Stomping Grounds, was right behind in second having an amazing run that had a no-hander into double whip to opposite look-back 360, ending up with 90.56.
Aussie Luke Parslow completed the top three in Dirt with a 89.69, throwing down a huge run that began with a back flip tail whip into a front flip then a double whip. Mad Dog, Dosch and Parslow beat out veterans Nyquist (2009 Dew Cup BMX Dirt champ and also Dew Cup Athlete of the Year) and Ellis to get a head start toward a bright and shiny Dew Cup.
Dew Tour Chicago BMX Park Finals
Mike Spinner (USA) came back from a torn ACL last year and up from finishing eighth in prelims to just kill it in the Park for his first win since 2007. He just banged out solid runs, linking together tricks like a quad whip into a turn down1080 (seriously!) punctuated with a triple tailwhip on the quarter. Spinner did a crazy 720 over the hip and the driveway into a quad whip, triple whip, then a walltap for a great run in the finals, scoring 92.5.
Daniel Dhers (VEN) finished with solid runs that had an insane barspin to cac-can 720, and another run that started out with a double whip to no-handed 720, alley oop 720 into a flare and a triple whip over the spine to land in second with a 92.13. Garrett Reynolds (USA), defending BMX Park Dew Cup winner, turned on the heat in the finals and wound up in third landing solid tricks and using every inch of the course laying down a double barspin 360, tuck no-handers, double barspin 540 and 360 barspin over the spine but it was not enough to knock Spinner out of first, scoring a 91.63.
Nike 6.0 BMX Vert Finals
Jamie Bestwick (UK), multi Gold medal winner in X Games and five-time Dew Cup BMX Vert winner did it yet again this stop in the Windy City. Bestwick was unstoppable with huge runs that had him nailing an alley oop 540, Superman seatgrab Indian, an invert 540,a flair down whip and double down whip, and yet more flairs of all varieties: turndown, opposite back, and fastplant to score a 95.38 for the victory.
Chad Kagy (USA) wound up second despite the fact that he got huge air and was all over the ramp with tech like nac nac seatgrab to barspin to x-up giving him momentum for a solid flair tailwhip. His bag of tricks and smooth riding wasn't enough to push Bestwick out of first, scoring a 92.75. Steve McCann (AUS) scored a 92.38 to finish third. He was still a major player – although he's not been around too long – throwing down goodies like an alley oop whip, five whip, no-handed five and of course the requisite tailwhips of the single, double, etc. etc. varieties.
Now the Dew Tour moves on to Portland, OR for a stop August 12-15, 2010 for the Wendy's Invitational that has BMX and Skateboarding events.
Leigh Roche - Leigh began skateboarding in the 70s and brings years of knowledge to writing shreditorial on Sk8boarding & BMX.
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