Today started off with street qualifying. If you’re wondering why real street riders like Nigel Sylvester were at the X-games in Dubai, you should have seen the course. Not only was it full of flat banks, ledges and rails, but the contest format was different too. Three parts of the course were sessioned per group for 8 minutes and non of these sections had any serious transition. 17 year old French Mirraco rider Maxime Charveron was star struck riding with all the street aces and did not manage to qualify for tomorow’s finals. He did however slide some rails, grind some ledges and tailwhipped off different obstacles. Job well done. Nigel did make it, but barely. The tenth spot was his and the NYC local had to throw down to even get that last qualifying spot. We’ll have to see what the X-Games scene will bring for Nigel as he enters the final. Jean-Marie Baertsch was grouped in with Steve McCann, Koji Kraft and Jan Valenta and made it through to the next round where he met up with Zack Warden, Koji Kraft and Eduardo Terreros. That’s where the journey ended for Jean Marie but he was stoked on the Dubai contest and his riding got better and better. He started liking the big roll-in and transfered from one side to the other side of the ramp with style. Thanks for checking in.
Friday, December 7th, 2007 - 11:42 am