BrownDog Blog: Day 1 - X Games

By: Motocross.com

Posted: 07/31/09

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I headed on over to the Home Depot Center bright and early to check out the men’s and woman’s practice for the MotoX SX, and it was very cool. Unfortunately for the girls, they went out first, in a sloppy muddy mess. I will say this though, Ashley Fiolek and Jessica Patterson are completely fearless. The finish line for this year isn’t your typical 30-40 foot double, rather is has a take off that resembles the one built for the Step Up contest, and you then have to find a way to huck your bike about 40 feet over the table-top type landing. You basically have two options, the first is to hit it slow and hop on top of the table, or commit and if you come up short, it is going to hurt! For the girl’s practice Josh Hansen was sent out to ride also to help give pace to whichever girls wished to dare hit the bigger jumps. Patterson hit it first and had no problem doing it the rest of practice on her own, while Fiolek quickly followed suit. Fiolek did come up a little short once, right in front of me, and she bounced off the lip and tumbled down the 15 foot landing. She popped right back up though and off she went.

Ashley Fiolek going HUGE
Click here for more photos.

The mens practice was more of a practice for the Big Whip contest later that evening, even though only a few of the guys were actually doing it. James Stewart was a last minute entry and was going very big over the finish line, as well as Josh Grant and Kevin Windham. I will say I can watch a good whip over any of the freestyle trick those other guys can pull. To me it is just a work of art, and in my opinion Kevin Windham is at the top of the whip totem pole. Other guys may be able to bring it around and upside down like he does, but there is just something about the way he does it. It is almost as if he is in slow motion as he begins the whip, brings the bike to a new position, and then brings it to another one. His control of the bike in the air as he clicks off each position is amazing.

My son went with me for the days activities so we left The Home Depot Center and headed over to The Staples Center to check out the Big Whip and The Step Up. The Big Whip had Josh Grant, James Stewart, Ronnie Renner, Todd Potter, Miles Richmond, and none other than the GOAT himself Ricky Carmichael! It was awesome to watch the guys continually trying to out-do one another, and Todd Potter ended up coming out on top by a vote of the fans and the loudest applause. I think Josh Grant screwed in the deal as his whips were just sick! Potter took it to another level, but his whip should almost have another name and be thrown into the freestyle arena because it is not your old school type whip. It is awesome to see, but I appreciate the old school style for this particular trick, and Grant was throwing his so upside down and sideways it was silly! Of course with the fans doing the voting, XGames 14 gold medalist and James Stewart’s fame helped them to come out one and two, but Josh was right there and deserved it all.

Lastly was the Step Up, and once again The Goat was right there, being joined by the King himself Jeremy McGrath, along with Ronnie Renner, Brian Deegan, Kevin Windham, amongst others. My big question to the builders of the step up, is why don’t they build the guys a proper landing? By the end of the contest the guys were at 34 feet and going up wasn’t the problem, coming down was! As the players slowly started bowing out, it came down to RC, Renner, and McGrath. Jeremy was the first to drop, and RC and Renner were battling back and forth until RC flat landed so hard he knocked himself off the bike and was down for a couple of minutes. We all know that he is like a Weeble-Wobble and gets up right away when he can, but this time he got up slowly and called it a night handing Renner another Gold.

Tonight we are off to see Travis Pastrana attempt a 720 something or other, and I hope he pulls it off. I just saw a video of what he is going to but landing in his foam pit, and if he doesn’t pull if off just right, that landing is going to suck!

—BDW