Alessandro is a trick machine. He wants to learn all the latest moves that are being done and went to camp Woodward twice over the winter to work on new stuff. Alessandro had his mind set on a tailwhip jump to tailwhip back the other way over a box jump. That’s two tailwhips in one jump but each one in their own direction.

One rider has done it before as far as we know but Alessandro wanted to be the first European rider to master the trick. At a contest last weekend in Arezzo, the Italian Mirraco flow rider pulled it during the Best Trick contest. Stoked indeed.

Click this link to see a movie of Alessandro pulling the Windshield Whiper.

It’s always good to see Mirraco riders in the magazines. This month in particular we had some good stuff in magazines like BMX Plus, RIKE UK BMX MAG, Desillusion magazine, and DIG BMX mag.

The new Mike Laird advertisement saw its first placement, Dave Mirra got a photo in the mag doing a huge flair in Estonia, Dave Rytell gets a sequence in BMX Plus magazine while he was riding at a ditch jam, Alessandro Barbero got followed for 24 hours in Desillusion mag, Ryan Guettler is featured in a new VANS ad and Nigel Sylvester went to Mexico to get a full page shot in RIDE UK BMX mag number 104.

Keep the coverage coming.

It didn’t take long for Mike Spinner to make friends at the FISE. Mike’s open to anybody and even though his French is far from perfect, he had no problems starting a conversation with anybody there. Spinner had a rough time getting to France and also his chain snapped right before the finals but there were good things to report about France too.

Spinner told his story to Vital BMX so if you hit this link, you can read about his first France experience.

The fise contest this year was amazing. Not only was the riding just ridiculous but the crowd was the enormous. The event was held on the water while all the people sat on the river banks that were like 25 ft. tall overlooking the ramps. Did I mention there were thousands of screaming fans?

Words can’t really explain the energy in Montpellier this weekend. Every event was slammed packed with fans and the level of riding just blew my mind. Mark Webb, Ben Wallace, Daniel Dhers, Ben Hennon, Mike Spinner, Mike Miller, Mike Laird, Alessandro, and many more were the stars of the show.

Sometimes too much traveling can really burn you out and before I got to France I was like man if I could stay home this weekend I’d be psyched. Well, in the end I am so glad I got to witness what went down at Fise 07 and the crowd was just unbelievable. The support for bmx was amazing. Looking back, I wouldn’t miss it for anything and I recommend making it to France in ‘08.

Peace.

dm

Making it to the final round at a pro street contest these days is getting hard. With over 60 pros entering the FISE contest in Montpellier, France, it was a tough job to make the 16 people cut.

Mike Laird, Dave Mirra, Mike Spinner and Alessandro Barbero rode well enough on Saturday to make the finals on Sunday but there was no way they could take it easy.

Come finals time the crowd was huge at both sides. An estimated 5000 were watching the comp and it did get loud at times. Mirra could count on some real fans in the crowd. Whenever his name was mentioned, he received support. In warm up Dave mentioned that “It’s On!” and with a BMX hungry crowd like this there was no way to be stuck in fourth gear.

Unfortunately Dave’s energy wasn’t transferred into pulling all his hard tricks but it wasn’t because of lack of effort. The no-handed 7 went wrong, as did the no-handed 360 backflip but Dave got back up and didn’t leave the course without leaving his mark. Dave Laird was pulling everything; from no-handed 360-s to toe-jams on the ledge and wall. His riding was strong and Laird finished 5th. Not bad for his first European comp. Spinner was pumped and tricked his way around the course with more spins and tech moves than you can imagine. He finished off with a 1080 attempt but did not quite pull it. He’ll need to come back to Europe soon to show his Euro friends how it’s done. Alessandro Barbero pulled double whip 360-s on the box and the spine, flairs and double whips on the quarter but at some point during the (Mirraco) jam session he got some backwheel problems.

All in all the event was a big success. Riders had fun, the crowd saw some good riding, Mirraco gave away a bike and you can count on most people to be back in 2008.

Mirraco flow rider Jean-Marie Baertsch cruised over to France with 2 fellow vert riders from Switzerland. The straight final jam session saw Jean-Marie flow on the big ramp and pull variations like no-handers, toboggans, lookbacks and one-footed griz airs at the 8 foot mark.

For his effort Jean-Marie received the fourth place check and a round of applause from the thousands who were watching the action from the sidelines before driving back to Switzerland which took the crew 11 hours this time. One hour before work started.

Life ain’t easy.

At the FISE contest in France Mike Spinner decided to enter pro flatland. He was serious about it too. He had been riding loads of flatland but when you notice that he does not have any axle pegs on his bike you wonder what he is going to show to the other pros who have dedicated their lives to riding flatland.

The fellow pros were actually welcoming Mike Spinner on the flatland podium and gave him all the support he needed. Mike’s qualifying run consisted of whoppers, barspin 180-s, backwards manuals and more “street moves” that were brought to the flatland course. Although he pulled most of his tricks, Mike did not qualify for the flatland final (he finished 13th).