Cameron McCaul leads the first qualifying

On Saturday, July 15th 2006 the first official event day of the Red Bull District Ride 2006 in Catania, Italy has been held. After the training in the morning, the best freeriders in the world had their first qualifying run for the urban freeride event. The course looks amazing. The riders are really excited: „The course is unbelievable. The different surface of each district makes it very unique. Riding thru those tight alleys makes it really different!“ Aaron Chase mentioned. The course with the 6 districts starts right away with 3 different lines for drops. "The track is really cool. I think that the start district with the drops might bring the decision who will be winning the Red Bull District Ride." Paul Basagoitia mentioned in the very beginning. But the big question was: "What can I show on the course to impress the judges?" If Aaron Chase had to bet money on a rider, he would go for Lance McDermott. But he also said: "I’d like to do it again here. I will try my best." Paul Basagoitia mentioned the day before that Cameron McCaul will do really well on a course like here in Catania. Kyle Strait was really impressed as well when he checked out the course this morning: "It is crazy here. I am totally stoked. The course is awesome. I think one of the big names will win here." Catania was waiting for some real hot action. Right in time for the 1st qualifying the streets and piazzas got more and more packed with spectators. The citizens of Catania really didn’t wanna miss any of the action. 31 runs were about to go down on the more than 1km long course. Finally the top three riders of the qualifying were announced by head judge Paul Rak from Whistler, Canada: 1. Cameron McCaul (USA) He showed the specators how to barspin into the drop. His run was really fluent with plenty of tricks and awesome style. "I didn’t think I would be in the top. I wasn’t able to do any whole runs in practise. Now I can definitely sleep better. I will take it easy in the 2nd qualifying run and step it up for the finals." 2. Lance McDermott (UK) He really looked like he liked the course, so he pulled out a huge variety of big tricks. His best moves were e.g. a flair in the quarter pipe of the wall-street district, as well as the backflips on the bottom of the stairway district and a tailwhip at the street district. "I didn’t expect to be 2nd after the first qualifying run. I am really looking forward to tomorrow: I wanna step it up for sure!" 3. Darren Pokoj (AUS) The young Australian Darren Pokoj showed tricks with perfect execution. Super smooth 360’s, backflip to nose dive 360’s over the spines, barspins and a few more technical tricks. "To be among the top 3 after the first qualifying is more than I expected. But tomorrow most riders will go off and take it to the next level." Straight after the qualifying was the Dainese Dirt Jump Contest at Piazza Duomo. Darren Pokoj (AUS), the Spanish brothers Andreu and Lluis Lacondeguy (ESP), Lance McDermott (UK) as well as Cameron McCaul(USA) qualified from the Jam and had the chance to show the crowds again what they got. In the end Lance McDermott, who pulled a backflip lookdown and a frontflip scored the highest points. He won a prize money of 1000 Euros. It was an exciting first event day until the end. We can’t wait for the finals, but before we wanna see what will happen in the 2nd qualifying. Finals will be done on Sunday evening. So stay tuned. For further information: www.redbulldistrictride.com