You want to talk progression? Just have a look at the BMX Big Air final at X Games 14. Chad Kagy, Dave Mirra, Allan Cooke and the rest of the boys had an incredible night over the MegaRamps gaps and on the massive quaterpipe, with scores steadily escalating all night until Kagy locked down the gold and Dave Mirra the silver.
Friday night’s Big Air events are especially mind-boggling considering just two years ago BMX riders hadn’t even touched the MegaRamp, originally created for skateboarding. Now the level of riding is just ridiculous.
With five runs for each of the riders things started out fairly tame, if you consider 55 foot backflip tailwhips tame. From there it was a constant back and forth battle for the top three spots, especially between Mirra and Kagy. Mirra set the bar with a run that included a backflip tailwhip to a big flair out of the quarterpipe, then Kagy one upped him with a clean backflip tailwhip of his own to a HUGE flatspin tailwhip. Simply amazing.
But Mirra is Mirra, and as the winningest athlete in X Game history he would not go down without a battle. He brought a no-handed backflip 360 over the gap… when he pulled the trick over a box jump in a park last year people went bananas—when he did it over the gap last night Staples erupted. He threw in a 12-foot flair whip out of the qp for good measure to become the new leader.
Back and forth again: Kagy did a 70-foot backflip tailwhip straight into a lofty 17-foot flair whip on the quarterpipe. The back and forth was incredible all night, with Kagy edging out Mirra for the gold with a huge score of 96.
Peep the video here for a few words from Kagy.
Go here for Chad’s team section at dcshoes.com.
Go here for Dave’s team section at dcshoes.com.