The FMB World Tour featured a busy schedule from end of June till the beginning of August with 9 events within 5 weekends in 7 different countries.
The highlight events were the GOLD events that featured the best rider line-ups so far with: riders from around the world, challenging courses, live scoring and higher prize funds.
The 26TRIX in Leogang, Austria had about 50 riders from 14 different countries and it was a big trick showdown. Cam McCaul won in front of Brandon Semenuk and Martin Soderstrom.
The Chatel Mountain Style in France was the next GOLD event with 30 riders from 10 different countries. It was Brandon Semenuk who took the win at the first Big Mountain event of the year in front of Darren Berrecloth and Cameron Zink.
Highland Mountain was hosting the annual Claymore Challenge Slopestyle. It was the third FMB World Tour GOLD event with riders mainly from North America. Brandon Semenuk won his second FMB World Tour event, close behind in 2nd position was Cameron McCaul and the Canadian rookie Logan Peat came in 3rd.
Munich's BIKE EXPO hosted the BIG IN BAVARIA dirt jump event, another GOLD event with more than 20,000€ prize fund and 25 of the world's best dirt jumpers. Martin Soderstrom took the win in front of Sam Pilgrim and Yannick Granieri.
The last GOLD event of the year was America's first FMB World Tour stop with the best European and the best North American riders: Crankworx Colorado. It was the last chance for riders to gain important FMB points in order to qualify for Whistler's Monster Slopestyle at the Kokanee Crankworx.
Once again it was Brandon Semenuk who took home first place points and cash in front of Yannick Granieri and Martin Soderstrom.
Those three riders are also sharing the top 3 in the current FMB World Tour ranking with Semenuk in a solid lead in front of Soderstrom and Granieri. But riders can score the highest points at two of the three remaining events of the season. And remember, only four results, the BEST 4, of the season count for the overall ranking. So now riders can still improve their standing in the FMB World Tour, but their points have to be higher than their lowest score of their current results in order to improve their overall points.
And of course it will be tough to score high in Whistler or at Rampage.
Check out the confirmed rider line up for the Kokanee Crankworx Monster Slopestyle next weekend in Whistler that is based on last year's results as well as on the current FMB world ranking and on top a few wildcards:
Brandon Semenuk (CAN)
Casey Groves (CAN)
Darren Berrecloth (CAN)
Geoff Gulevich (CAN)
Graham Aggasiz (CAN)
Jack Fogelquist (CAN)
Mitch Chubey (CAN)
Sam Dueck (CAN)
Andreu Lacondeguy (ESP)
Yannick Granieri (FRA)
Lance McDermott (GBR)
Sam Pilgrim (GBR)
Sam Reynolds (GBR)
Amir Kabbani (GER)
Simon Kirchmann (GER)
Kelly McGarry (NZL)
Linus Sjoholm (SWE)
Martin Soderstrom (SWE)
Andrew Taylor (USA)
Cameron Zink (USA)
Greg Watts (USA)
Mike Montgomery (USA)
Paul Basagoitia (USA)
Tyler McCaul (USA)
In Whistler, 24 of the world's best riders will battle for the first Diamond FMB World Tour points and 30,000 Canadian Dollars.
The FMBA wishes all the riders good luck and a great performance. The event already starts next Thursday, August 12th, with the VW Best Trick showdown that can be watched live from 4:30 pm PST (or CET: Friday morning 1:30 am) on:
www.crankworx.com. And then on Saturday, August 14th, the Monster Slopestyle finals will be on and it will be decided who will go in first into the Red Bull Rampage, the FMB World Tour grand finale!
Watch this coming Saturday's finals live from 5:30 pm PST (or CET: Sunday morning, 2:30 am) on:
www.crankworx.com
The FMBA wishes also all the best and a speedy recovery to riders that got injured last week at Colorado: Cameron McCaul and Logan Peat would have been both in this week's event, but due to broken bones, they have to take some time out. We also wish a great recovery to Brian Miller. TREK Bicycles joined the list of FMB World Tour supporters recently. The FMBA thanks all the supporters for their commitment in 2010.
www.fmbworldtour.com
