Crowds gathered at the base of the Whistler Mountain Bike Park today to witness what laws of gravity would be defied at the Teva Best Trick Showdown. While everyone was anticipating jaw-dropping action, no one was prepared when California''s Mike Montgomery threw down the first backflip bar-hop to tailwhip ever landed on a bike.
"At Crankworx Whistler we are always shooting for progression. There are always new things jumping up at this event and Mike Montgomery''s trick today is definitely one of the highlights," says Crankworx sport announcer, Ryan Meyer. "He is always working on new things and this backflip bar-hop to tailwhip is typical of his style - jumping up with new things we''ve never seen."
Montgomery landed the motocross-inspired trick on his first attempt; securing him the first-place spot and a cool $4000.
France''s Yannick Granieri came in second with a backflip double tailwhip, which also happens to be the same trick he threw to win the Teva Best Trick at Crankworx Les 2 Alpes in July.
Newcomer Nicholi Rogatkin, who is coming in hot after winning the Pro Dirt category at the BMX Worlds 2013 in Germany, took third place with a lawn dart frontflip which he threw right out of the gate on his first run. Rogatkin hails from Lincoln, Massachusetts and was only seven years old when Crankworx began ten years ago. At 17, this is the second mountain bike competition this BMX prodigy has ever competed in.
The 2013 Teva Best Trick Showdown was an organized jam format for one run, meaning riders dropped in with a designated start order when the judges were ready. After the first run the competition rolled into an open jam which lasted one hour and 30 minutes. Riders sessioned the 35-foot dirt jump in front of the judges tower on the Joyride course and hit the feature as many times as they wanted to secure the highest single trick score.
A total prize purse of $10,000 was awarded to the top six riders, with an additional "Cash Grab" of $2000 total allocated in small chunks to deserving riders by announcer Brad Ewan.
With the Teva Best Trick Showdown now behind them, the slopestyle athletes will begin looking ahead to the Diamond level FMB World Tour event, the Red Bull Joyride, on Saturday, August 17 where they will unleash even more mind-blowing tricks on the world.
Tomorrow the action at Crankworx Whistler will include with the Official Whip-Off World Championships from 11:30am-1:30pm on the Crabapple Hits in the Whistler Mountain Bike Park and the Giant Dual Slalom from 6:00pm-8:00pm which will showcase exciting head-to-head race action at the base of The Boneyard. The Giant Dual Slalom will be live webcast at www.crankworx.com and will be followed by a Google Hangout with the top athletes hosted by Tristan Merrick and Mikey Haderer.