Best trick for German Kevin Liehn

(Eindhoven, Netherlands 5 June 2016). The BMX Spine Ramp contest in the city centre of Eindhoven proved once again that you can bring BMX to the people. The 040BMXPARK ramp appeared to be a great asset to a successful BMX event that attracted riders from all over the place and an audience that stopped on their shopping spree to watch some high level BMX riding.

The day started early with the Wildcard class. 5 spots were up for grabs to ride the main event that started later on in the day. Pim Scheers (NED) blasted to first followed by Levi Weidman (NED) and Sem Kok (AMERICA). The last two available places went to Niels van Maren (NED) and Jari Roggeveen (NED) and each one of them were stoked they would get to ride the ramp again with the 19 invited riders who made the trip to Eindhoven. After some solid riding in the sunshine, 12 riders were selected to ride the final. The more time that was spent on the ramp, the more the riders got used to it. With €5000,= prize money available for the top 7, the finalists had to blast two more times.

7th place went to Daniel ‘Naran’ Penafiel from Spain who has his own riding style and brings tricks that noone else does. He double footplanted the wall for instance and did huge superman seatgrabs over the 2 meter high spine. You don’t get to see turndown backflips to fakie every day either. A pleasure for the eye for sure. Paul Thoelen from Germany simply goes higher than anyone and cranks variations on the quarters with lots of style. In fact, he makes everything look good including his Bri-flips, flairwhips and 540 footjams on the extension. It was hard to get Tom Justice (GBR) off the ramp. He had a smile on his face during his runs and kept on riding. Tom was enjoying it so much that kept adding trick after trick until he really ran out of steam. 5th place was his. Canadian Joel Bondu almost made the podium on his first visit to Eindhoven. Joel didn’t disappoint and brought tech tricks with lots of barspins, tailwhips and flairs. He also pulled a 180 triple barspin over the spine that didn’t go unnoticed. Local Daniel Wedemeijer (NED) got the first podium spot. Bronze was for him for riding different than others and riding both ways. His trick of the day was his fufanu on the fence at the DJ/Judges area. The shopping crowd decided to stay a little longer to see some more. Kostya Andreev (RUS) missed out on practice on Friday night but a true pro can adapt to a ramp quickly. It’s amazing how Kostya thinks. He pulled his first decade air on a quarter that day and later on tried a decade air to barspin because he figured he had enough time for it. Kostya packs many tricks in one run and the judges rewarded him with 2nd place.

First place was for Alex Coleborn who flew in from England for the Spine Ramp contest. Alex has the full package; tech, speed, tricks, skills, which you needed to win the comp. Alex stated that the ramp was the best transportable mini he’d ever ridden which shows he felt comfortable on it and was having a good time. Flair whips, 3 double whips, footjam variations, if you know what Alex is capable of, you have an idea of what it looked like, or just wait for the video, out soon. His score of 89,125 points over second place points of 85,625 are a good indication of how much he ruled the Spine Miniramp at the 18 Septemberplein. The Best trick award was for Kevin Liehn (GER) with a barspin disaster to 360 tire tap tailwhip in.

The very first 040 Invitational contest was a big success. Hats off to everyone involved. 2017 can’t come soon enough.
Final results 040 Invitational 2016:
1. Alex Coleborn (GBR)
2. Kostya Andreev (RUS)
3. Daniel Wedemeijer (NED)
4. Joel Bondu (CAN)
5. Tom Justice (GBR)
6. Paul Thoelen (GER)
7. Daniel Penafiel (ESP)
8. Cam Peake (GBR)
9. Zdenda Pesek (CZE)
10. Tobias Freigang (GER)
11. Kevin Liehn (GER)
12. Shaun Gornall (GBR)

Best trick: Kevin Liehn (GER) Barspin disaster to 360 tire tap tailwhip in.