It sounds like things got pretty wild at the Red Bull Empire of Dirt. The weather has been holding out and thousands of people are on site loving it which is rad. Below you can find a little write up of what went down in qualifiers along with the results for the day. Finals tomorrow! Expect a video to surface soon enough from todays riding.
“Red Bull Empire Of Dirt kicked off with qualifiers today at London’s Alexandra’s Palace. The place filled up quickly with BMX fans, 10.000 of them. The course which winds down the hill overlooking London, takes the riders near a minute to complete. Big screens meant that everyone on site could see the riders hit some huge features including the curved wall, the mini mega ramp, the start-off kicker into the donut turn and three sets at the bottom of the hill. It’s tough to get used to such a unique course in just a few days as it’s one of a kind.
The reactions of the riders have been amazing. They’re stoked to be part of the event and with all the fans cheering them on, it pushes them to the next level. 16 riders made it to Sunday’s finals and as always it was tough on the judges to get a score down. Ben Wallace (UK) sure was on fire and blasted everything a few feet higher than the rest. Being a park and dirt rider sure helps on this course as you need both skills to make it through. “Good old” Ryan Nyquist 360-d his way to the bottom in both directions and did a double barspin over the “spine”, an obstacle that others preferred to footplant over as it was a challenging ramp. Qualifying in third was Mike “ Hucker” Clark who hang-5-d through the hill straight into an x-up flip on the first jump.
Fortunately the weather has been cooperating and the crowd enjoyed the show. England is pretty BMX-crazy, it’s a good thing the Empire Of Dirt is here.
Qualifying Results RedBull Empire Of Dirt 2012. Alexandra Palace, London, UK. Top 16 to Sunday’s finals:
1. Ben Wallace
2. Ryan Nyquist
3. Mike Clark
4. Drew Bezanson
5. Brandon Dosch
6. Maxime Charveron
7. Rob Darden
8. Chris Doyle
9. Alistair Whitton
10. Ben Hennon
11. Corey Bohan
12. Matt Priest
13. Kye Forte
14. Sergio Layos
15. TJ Ellis
16. Paul Langlands
17. Corey Nastazio
18. Leo Forte
19. Ryan Guettler
20. Ronnie Napolitan
21. Geoff Slattery
22. Greg Illingworth
23. Bob Manchester
24. Bas Keep
25. Max Wood
26. Kriss Kyle
27. Daniel Tuente
28. Patrick Guimez
29. Robbo
30. Adam Aloise
31. Anthony Napolitan
32. Tom Dillon”