We just wrapped up a great day at the UK Flatland Championships for 2018. Congratulations to Dominik Nekolny who took the win for the third time here in Harrogate, Yorkshire with an amazing first run, Dominik was followed by the return of Sam Foakes, so good to see Sam back on the contest scene. Davis Dudelis took the third place spot.
In the Am class, so good to see the return of Lee Wilson to the contest scene for the first time in two years, Remus Simion and Yinka Thomas took the second and third places respectively. Full results below:
Pro.
Dominik Nekolny
Sam Foakes
Davis Dudelis
Dan Margetts
Amos Burke
Turi Istuan
Dino Jeffers
AM.
Lee Wilson
Remus Simion
Yinka Thomas
Dino Jeffers
Stuart McLaren
Johann Chan
Akos Bordas
Michael P
James Ovens
Out here at the UK Flatland Championships in Harrogate, Yorkshire and trying to keep up to date with what’s going on around the world for you at home. And it’s always good day when David Nagy drops a new edit and today we have a nice treat. One of the most creative riders in Europe in my opinion, from the opening one foot cliff to half packer back to one foot cliff without touching the bars I was glued to this one and you will be too. Don’t sleep on this people!
Today I made the 6 hour trek from Southsea on the south coast of England to Harrogate, in Yorkshire. Harrogate is in the North of England for all of you across the world that might not know. Harrogate is the home of “Yorkshire Tea”, my favourite brand of tea in the world and what by and large fuels Flatmattersonline updates on the daily. It was pretty awesome to drive past the home of YT today on the way to the Yorkshire events centre for the UK Flatland Championships.
The trek to Harrogate was eventful, with Matti planning my route via the underground (bikes aren’t allowed on the underground) so I missed my train and after a stressful hour or so trying to figure out how I would get to Yorkshire. The guard was nice enough to let me on the train and all was well with the world once again.
When I arrived I was greeted by the man with the largest seatpost in BMX, Matti Hemmings and Davis Dudelis. Matti is out injured so is hobbling about with a swollen ankle. I got in a nice three hour session with Davis getting used to the floor. We have a decent sized floor, fast stone floor, super smooth! After brushing off the initial travel stiffness, I really enjoyed the session, nailing a couple of new lines I am working on whilst Davis was slaying big hop bars to manual bar out with ease, once my session started winding down Davis started playing with rollback grip rides again. Davis is one of the most chilled pros on the scene, Matti wanted to get some more content for the UK Flatland Championships so we fired out a pretty funny short interview that I will get posted as soon as I can. I’m feeling pretty tired now from the travel mostly, a 4am start will do it to you. But I wanted to update you across the globe and let you know what’s going here in the UK, the venue is dialled and we are set for tomorrow’s contest. It’s time for a Yorkshire tea in Yorkshire!
Today is a good day! Yuki Itoh is like the Japanese version of Tom Sevisual in terms of videographer. The camerawork, lighting, and overall feel of this Toyosu jam edit is so beautifully relaxing, and if you are like me it will draw you in and time just stands still watching this. That’s not to mention the amazing riding from the likes of Jean William Prevost (the opening line at 00:15 and that 2:38!), Naoki Watanabe, Hidenori Ishizaki (1:18!), Masashi Itani, Takuji Kasahara, Misaki Katagiri, Yuki Itoh (3:20), and Ryosuke Takagi. Nice variety in riding styles and soundtrack by Valance Drakes & Ivan Shopov makes this one an edit you will watch over and over again! Wow!
This edit James White just put together showing the perusal struggle chasing down his line for the Master of Creativity best trick round illustrates what flatland is all about.
James gives a great description:
“Sometimes you try so hard for a trick the tougher it becomes. Your belief fades. No longer are you just physically pushing for the trick, your fighting your mental demons. The wall becomes so tall it feels impossible to get over. All this and more had become true for this manoeuvre.
It dates back to 2011. In my head, blending the 360 pivot to the bike flip seemed the perfect marriage but in reality it just didn’t want to work. I spent many frustrating sessions getting nowhere but I wanted it bad. In 2016 I entered Master of creativity and for the final round I spent months trying to land it and almost ripped my arm off trying so hard. But it was all to no avail, it had beat me.
That was that is until I had a moment of madness and entered MOC 2018. I wasn’t’ quite sure why I entered it at the time. It was literally a spur of the moment thing and found myself sending the application form off before I had a chance to come to my senses. I wasn’t prepared for it in the slightest, my body was possibly, in the worst shape its ever been in, niggling injuries, onset of arthritis and carrying a spare tyre round my waist isn’t exactly the condition you want to compete in what I consider the ’Tour de France’ of flatland contests. With hindsight I’m sure this was my subconscious at work, giving me one last shot at breaking my nemesis. I knew the trick was never going score highly in MOC but this wasn’t about that, I was competing with the hardest component there is….. myself.”
The Uk Flatland Championships is going down this Saturday Am / Pro BMX Competition 13th October at the Cycle Expo – Yorkshire events centre Harrogate. Free Entry, Free Parking, Prize fund for PRO £1000. Prizes for Am / Pro. You can access the area from 9am onwards. Comp kicks off for Am 1pm Pro 2pm or 3pm. Format 2 min run for am. 3 min run for Pro. Depending on the number of riders could be 1 run or 2 runs for best run counts will know this on the day. Contact Matti Hemmings for more information, see you there!
The results are in, and unless you have been living in a cave with no wifi over the last two days you will have seen the videos on instagram plus shared all over social media. Martti Kuoppa put together a Master of Creativity pro finals edit that totally hits the spot.
The MOC is infamous in flatland circles now as the most progressive contest on the planet, I am honoured each year to be invited to judge the event, this year along with Martti, last years winner John Yull, and Chad Degroot.
Now the contest is over and results have been announced, I wanted to give some love back to the riders that are helping to take flatland to the next level and bring new tricks to the table as we have seen with the likes of Sietse van Berkel’s winning entry.
11th.Stephan Fabien – Xft pedal nose wheelie inside xft steam without touching seat drops back wheel throws back to xft nose wheelie at the 00:6 mark. So smooth.
10th. Raphael Chiquet – 00:15. Raphael seems to have caught second wind in his riding career and is coming back really hard after being out of the scene for a while it seemed. Love the one handed stubble, looks like he wanted his signature no handed backwards spin, and throws the bike round body varial style to the floor. Look forward to seeing how this line develops.
9th. 00:34. Interesting choice of trick from Toon Pakphum for the finals, although I have seen this crack 360 flip to steam done to death with a front brake. I have never seen it brakeless, watch his technique getting the foot to the tyre so quickly after the flip. Literally has to be perfect execution to get this done, respect!
8th. 00:47. Who else but Mateus Beckmann drops a 180 bunnyhop to backlash whopper to backwards wheelie (controls with a few scuffs) to brakeless foot jam decade out?! Amazing skills from the talented Brazilian.
7th. 1:09. Xft rolling lawn full body varial gerator to his signature Zinger out, James White continues to amaze. James posted today there will be an edit out this week showing the background work that went into this entry later on in the week.
6th. 1:23. It’s been a great year for Mates Tucek, and this teakettle to opposite side xft half packer step to quick xft hang ten without touching the bar pivot to crackpacker is out of this world technically. This guys future is bright, believe me…
5th. 1:49. Owen Bohm is always a treat, you never know what to expect. And this no footed cliff turbine holding the seat defies all logic of gravity, flat-out amazing!
4th. 1:57. Ederson Paulo Ferreira dropped a wicked variation on his signature backwards one handed seatspin spinning the bars 360 and back to it for the finals. Incredible.
3rd. 2:11. Top three is getting heavy, Moto Sasaki went for a longer line than most riders for his final entry. The difficulty of combo’ing a one handed hang ten pivot triple xft crack turbine jump to steam kick pivot forward Karl xft opposite steam backwards spinning opposite Karl to spinning/pumnping xft hang ten jump to crack is insane!
2nd. 2:38. The beginning of Alex Jumelin’s final entry is out of hand, who else does an xft nose jumps at the point of the sweet spot to turbine and hop 360 nose jump xft steam without holding the seat? All Alex originals right here, absolutely unreal!
1st. 2:55. It was going to take something special to beat Alex’s entry and boy did Sietse van Berkel come up with the goods. I am going to just put it out there, whatever Sietse calls this trick (some kind of hybrid backwards pedal halfpacker locked on the top tube no handed) is the trick of the year!
It’s so fresh I have no name for this, and it made just say “wow” let’s rewind that when I was judging this. Flatland just went up a notch with the Master of Creativity contest, for me this event is not about the results although I know you riders at home like to see who came where. It’s about the progression, and the inspiration it gives to us all on that next session. I can’t wait to ride tomorrow….
Big thanks to Martti Kuoppa inviting me to judge, all the other judges that helped. John Yull, Chad Degroot and MK of course and of course all the riders that made MOC what it is. Beautiful.
It’s all about the Master of Creativity online contest right now. Congratulations to Sietse van Berkel who won the final “best trick” round and took the overall year end title. In the best trick round, Sietse was followed by Alex Jumelin, and Moto Sasaki. Big respect to everyone involved in pushing flatland forward, head over to the Master of Creativity instagram and watch all the amazing videos…
Gianni Caternellis is edging nearer to the elusive 100th edition of his freestyler series with 93rd episode today on Flatmattersonline. A truly incredible achievement, dedication to the cause right here. Hit play for his latest offering.
For this weeks OSS we go back to the 1988 AFA Masters in Carson, California once again. And this time, it is the turn of Pete Kearney. Check out his run right here.
