Those riders and fans who chose to visit Cologne, Germany thinking it would be sunny and warm were greeted with the same wet weather we’ve got over in England! The dirt jumps arn’t riding because of the wind and the street area is hampered by the rain.. Here’s an update from Nathan Beddows who’s out there covering the event for the magazine!
Day 1 – The Worlds, Koln, Germany 2009 – The waiting game?
Well BMX fans day one here in Koln (or Cologne, whatever you prefer) has just ended and so far a lot of crazy stuff has gone done! After getting a plane from Gatwick yesterday (Thursday) that was choc-a-block full of riders making the trip over (including I’m told the legendary Bob Haro – you know… the guy who practically invented BMX) it absolutely p*ssed it down within about a 20 mins after touchdown.
Luckily it stopped after about an hour or so but by that time most folk had already hit the bottle hard…
Ben Wallace ran into a wee bit of trouble with law, although admittedly it was not his fault by a long shot – as it involved some cheeky German youth throwing his dinner at Ben. Ben obviously sorted the miscreant out but not being able to speak the native tongue too well to the ‘Polizei’ he ended up taking a very expensive ride back to his hotel… Not a great start but he didn’t look too phased today.
The weather has been a real mixed bag – cloudy on and off with heavy showers here and there. Amateur spine/mini practice and qualifiers went down sweet as but literally as soon as Pro practice began it was game over before anyone could even get a run in… The dirt jumps, although situated under the massive bridge at the Jungendpark were way too big to ride in the strong head winds so were closed off for today.
The weather really has messed things up big style today and there are rumours circulating that because Sunday’s weather looks so grim everything may be held on Saturday..?
After Pro spine/mini got washed out a fair few people either left or started boozing however a small bunch held on till things died down a bit and dried out so a pretty good session on the street course went down – Alex Kennedy was blasting round the course jumping the hips higher than anyone else, Mike Miller was firing out some wild 180s and Paul Ryan was doing his usual crazy antics; trucking and whipping all over the shop.
Jason Phelan may of invented a new up-rail trick/variation as well as also doing a double-can toothy-hanger?!? (or ‘toot-hanger’ as he calls them). Both the Marchant bros were shredding – Jack’s tables are just insane. Bruno Hoffman was dropping 5’s into the flatbank like it was nothing and Issac Lesser… oh boy… Issac has called something pretty crazy out, whether he’ll do it or not we’ll just have to wait and see. Speaking of secret manoeuvres, Mark Web has got some special treat planned too! But again you’ll just have to wait… “
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