By Steve Sommerfeld
What is it with Munich, Germany?
Has all the beer flowed into the river and everything goes a bit haywire?
Harry Bink unfortunately didn't get the bike he hoped for when it cut out on him on the ramp, just before he was about to show the world what the Next Gen ramp is all about!
A quick update to let you know NIGHT of the JUMPs will be returning to Munich this weekend and it got me thinking about the FMX Community and how it feels like it's building again in recent times!
On a lazy Sunday afternoon drive home from NIGHT of the JUMPs, I decided it was the best time to recap what happened over 2 rounds of crazy competition in Berlin with some wild FMX, BMX, MTB and Scooter riding and even wilder crashes!
Luckily, everyone survived in one piece and we saw some big upsets with Team Czech winning on Friday after Germany’s Luc Ackermann crashed in Best Trick and Alehandro Bonafe crashed in MTB for Team Spain.
This is a podcast from the all new NIGHT of the JUMPs Podcast and thought you want to hear it over here on the Riders Lounge.And we’ve got some pretty huge news! Dany Torres, the legend of Red Bull X-Fighters with the most ever head to head wins and taking a World Tour series win, will return to FMX for the first time since his retirement after having a full knee replacement.And he’ll be making his return at NIGHT of the JUMPs in the Freestyle of Nations event in Berlin on February 24/25.
Ryan Adler was told to stop whipping when he’s racing Motocross.
It turns out he found his calling at KING of the WHIP!
With not many years racing, Ryan has really twisted the throttle to become one of the fastest guys on a motocross bike but also throwing some of the coolest looking whips from a 125cc 2stroke and then jumping onto a 250 4 banger.
And having only 4 or 5 sessions even jumping a ramp, Ryan got used to 75ft without any issues at all!
Tune in to see if you can pronounce Afrikaan’s names better than Riders Lounge Podcast and King of the Whip host, Steve Sommerfeld.To be honest, I was tongue-tied. Trying to get a name like Dirco van der Westerhuizen out in one go was impossible.
Dalton Venter, the 4 time African Motocross champion and 2 time South African champion managed to somehow convince the team manager from Monster Energy Yamaha Racing team to let him and his team mates go and whip the hell out of a steel FMX ramp at King of the Whip and there was a fair chance he could win it!When I watched Dalton for the first time training at the Jungle Rush FMX compound, he was going so big that I couldn’t believe it! Huge whips, upside down, back to front, dropping the front end so hard and coming back without even a puff of smoke or an engine rev.His whips would not have looked out of place at X Games Best Whip if I was honest.
After finally meeting Dallan after so many years, it was great to grab a quick 5 minute chat with him before he was about to throw down at King of the Whip and see if he could stand on top of the box at the end of the night.
During our chat though, I was surprised when he dropped the bombshell that he was considering quitting FMX because of the backflip monkey on his back. And this is no joke. The backflip has ended the career of many riders. Of guys who couldn’t land it. And worse, those who crashed out badly. No one will know how hard it is until they deal with this themselves and really look at how dangerous it is.
Normally a Best Whip competition is just a small side act, of a bigger Freestyle Motocross competition or Motocross / Supercross race.
How did Ryan van der Spuy manage to bring the best riders in South Africa and now international riders like Julien Vanstippen (X Games gold medallist) to try out this crazy new event idea from the best FMX riders, MX, SX and even Enduro racers!?
Less than one hour before the King of the Whip was about to go down, I grabbed a few quick chats with the riders to see how they were dealing with the pressure.
And no one had more pressure than the reigning King of the Whip, Scotty Billet.