Red Bull Bike Battle of the Ages

By Kevin Brody

I can tell you this event wasn't one of those been there, done that and got the T-shirt events. Actually, the shirt is quite nice and so were all my experiences surrounding the event.

The best place to start telling you about the Red Bull Bike Battle is right from the beginning. At the end of last December, I received a call from Red Bull marketing manager Bill Connors expressing interest in producing a small invitational bicycle Trials event. We didn't know what kind of event it was going to be-traditional Trials or something else. Also helping out on the scene was Peter Wilk, who has a few years experience putting on Trials events for the Eastern Fat Tire Association's Trials Series. So Bill, Pete and I began plugging away, designing concepts for an event.

Bill and Red Bull were looking for something unique and never done before. With more mulling around, we came up with an event concept that a few of us had talked about over seven years ago at the old Goatwheels Trials Division shop. It was a combination of Trials with freestyle/flatland-type riding. On top of that, we wanted to add concepts like speed Trials and dual Trials to create this new and unique event: The Red Bull Bike Battle!

In case you're one of those set apart from the Trials scene, our sport has been headed in this direction over the past few years anyway. You may have seen videos with people like Jeff Lenosky or Ryan Leech taking the riding out of the woods and hitting the streets and skate parks. Instead of going between the lines and taking time to set up for an obstacle like traditional Trials, riders began to link moves and obstacles together, creating a fast-paced fusion of Trials and street riding. Red Bull Bike Battle was created to showcase just that. To make it even more interesting and give it a special twist, we had judges scoring on five particular disciplines: Use of Course, Technical, Magnitude, Flow and Creativity.

With concept in mind, the next step was figuring out where we were going to hold this. Bill always had his heart set on holding some type of event in Boston's City Hall Plaza. Boston's government buildings surround the Plaza. The appearance is very old with red brick covering the ground everywhere. There are large steps edged in gray granite blocks and very tall walls also capped in granite. The place chosen for the event was the old fountain area in the northwest corner of the plaza. This spot couldn't have been better. The fountain area is a large amphitheater about the same size and shape as a baseball diamond. Ten-foot walls border what would be the first and third base lines and the arc is made of tall brick and granite steps. There are also giant concrete benches, trees, steps with railings, more walls, a moat of very foul water you wouldn't want to fall into along with concrete trash barrels. By itself, Boston's City Hall Plaza is a Trials rider's paradise. One problem: riding there is off limits. Bill worked his magic with the city, the location was confirmed and the date of the event set for September 21st, 2002.

My job was designing, cutting, drilling and screwing together some of the grandest and most technical Trials obstacles ever seen in the United States. I wanted this event to rival the ones you see and hear of in places like Japan and Europe.

Tim Williamson of Trialsin USA had the esteemed job of Athlete Coordinator. We aimed to have 15 top US competitors on the roster. Also invited was Petr Kraus from the Czech Republic. Our rider list began to snowball. There were a few invitees who had prior engagements, so we had a few spots to fill. Our little U.S.-only event ended up representing at least five different countries: the United States, Czech Republic, Japan, Brazil and the United Kingdom.

I arrived in Boston a few days before the event to meet up with Yoshimasa Nagaya, Yaromir Spesney and Tim Williamson. With the event around the corner, Bill, Pete, myself and an incredible crew of Red Bull employees, friends and significant others pulled together and busted our asses. We loaded three large trucks with obstacles, ramps and event materials. Then on September 20th, those trucks had to be unloaded and set up. More trucks arrived carrying concrete road barriers, large granite blocks and cars. Yet even more trucks brought in the sound system, bike barriers and scaffolding. As busy as it was, the design of the

course and set-up went like clockwork. We had dedicated teams working, and without their help there was no way it would have happened.

Saturday, September 21: 10:00 a.m. arrived and the riders began to take turns on the course for their practice runs. Aaron Chase was hitting the ramps in full force, pulling moves like hand plants and 360 tail taps over the spine. Ed Tongue was working on a bunny hop 360 with a tail tap over a concrete trash barrel. The Brisa crew of Christiano Santos and Shaun Miller were focusing on big move Trials mixed with style. A few times I saw Jeff riding up a sloped wall at high speed then launching 360's off the end over a barrel. I didn't have a chance to focus on other riders, but I knew there was going to be some good competition among them.

Riders had three two-minute runs throughout the day, which would be judged by the five judges and the lowest score of the three runs would be dropped. The best two scores were averaged and the winners would take home a piece of the $5,000 prize purse and a very cool trophy.

Round one started right at 1:00 p.m. The horn sounded and Lance Trappe was the very first rider in an event of this kind! The first runs for everyone were pretty conservative. Yoshimasa Nagaya got a flat front tire halfway through the run, but instead of taking a technical time out, he kept on riding with the flat! His last move was hopping up a section made of telephone poles assembled in a series of steps, 2.5' to 4' to 5.5' to 7' then back down in a type of a rainbow arch, only on his rear wheel. Every spectator was amazed!

J.J. Gregorowicz had a very strong first run with a great mix of Trials all over the course, and then showed his street style with nice airs on the spine and car jump. Speaking of car jump, Pogi Tortorice pulled some of the biggest air over the car. He had a few no-footers and one-handed jumps that sent the crowd into a frenzy.

The second round made the first round seem like a spy mission to see who could do what. No rider held back. Yaromir Spesney received bonus points in Creativity when he pulled a huge gap from one of the quarter pipe decks to the narrow top of an electrical box, and then from the electrical box launched back into the transition of the ramp. Ed Tongue had a very fluid run using pretty much the entire course. He was everywhere up until a high-speed manual across the fountain grating gave him a flat tire. He took the technical time out and after his repair, he came back in full force with a huge 9-foot drop from the outer wall to the middle of the arena. Trevor Young, a local, came out with very controlled Trials style on the car and concrete section earning him nice points in Technical. Christiano Santos launched a five-foot gap straight into a 360 front wheel hop before hopping to the edge of the deck, still on his front wheel, and dropped off six feet backwards to his rear wheel on the ground. For the third and final round, we added another twist. We allowed the riders one final trick after the two-minute time limit was over. This gave the audience a little more of a show and allowed the riders to show off a little more. The final round turned into a go big or go home ride for all the competitors.

Shaun Miller used my favorite: a six foot diameter round spool, wrapped with plywood, slid onto a pole and suspended in a cradle so it would spin freely when a rider was on it. It was rightfully named the "Wheel of Death." Shaun hopped to the top, balanced for a second, and then began to ride it as if he was on the outside of a hamster wheel! It was an incredible display of balance and control. Jeff Lenosky followed up with a little street style attempting a pedal grind down the rail and a bar-spin drop off a wall. Petr Kraus came out with an amazing air assault on the vert ramps, then proceeded to thrash the cars with big bunny hops to the roof of a large sedan finishing on both wheels.

The largest move of the day was Yoshimasa's big gap. Yoshimasa hopped up the telephone pole steps to the top-seven feet in the air. First he was spanning the seven-foot poles-front wheel on one, rear on the next, and then he pivoted, balancing lengthwise, to the top of one round narrow telephone pole. What happened next was truly amazing. From balancing on top of the pole, he lunged to his rear wheel and launched across a ten-foot gap to a slanted spool that was next to the Wheel of Death. There wasn't a spectator in the crowd not chanting Yoshi's name!

After the scores were in, the judges all agreed Yoshimasa Nagaya, even on a mod bike, deserved first place. Second was Eddie Tongue from the U.K. Third place was, oh no, we had a tie! Just to make it more interesting, we had a tie between Jaromir Spesney and Connecticut rider Mike Steidley. With a quick reset of the clock and the judges, we had a tie-breaking round. A flip of the coin decided Mike Steidley was to ride first. It was a great solid run with no flaws. Jaromir took the course next. He came out just as hard and pushed his limits as well. Towards the end of his run, which had been perfect, he fell on a drop hurting his chance for the third spot. Steidley took third as the highest placing U.S. rider.

At the end of the day the judges' scores reflected the riders well. You know when you get 14 of the top riders together it's sometimes hard to pick who's going to be on top. But here are the results:

1. Yoshimasa Nagaya, Japan
2. Ed Tongue, U.K.
3. Mike Steidley, U.S.
4. Jaromir Spesny, Czech Republic
5. Petr Krauss, Czech Republic
6. J.J. Gregorowicz, U.S.
7. Shaun Miller, U.S.
8. Christiano Santos, Brazil
9. Pogi Tortorice, U.S.
10. Jeff Lenosky, U.S.
11. Lance Trappe, U.S.
12. Aaron Chase, U.S.
13. Ross McMaster, U.S.
14. Trevor Young, U.S.

To wrap it up, everyone from riders to spectators had a great time. The riders pushed the limits unlike any other event. I have never seen riders going as big or trying as hard as they did in Bike Battle, not even in world round competition. Our only goal now is to see how we can make next year's Red Bull Bike Battle even greater than this one.