Super Sessions
Goba ducks beneath the Iron Curtain and heads to Poland for the greatest FMX comp ever held: the Red Bull X-Fighters
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY GOBADIRT.COM
It’s hard to describe the feeling of being at a Red Bull X-Fighters event. The energy poured in to make one happen is mind boggling. Everything from the location, venue selection, course design, infrastructure and hospitality has no expense spared to make it one of the greatest shows on earth. I went along to the final round of the 2008 series in Warsaw, Poland, to witness the magic that unfolds over the duration of the event. I wasn’t disappointed!
I’m not going to bore you with a detailed blow-by-blow account of how every rider fared on the night, but more of what it was like to walk into the stadium for the first time and what I actually felt as the hours ticked by through practice and competition. I mingled with the riders and watched it all unfold before my eyes.
Practice started on Friday at midday and I arrived at the X-Lecia stadium two hours earlier to suss out the course and get a feel for the place. Once signed in I made my way through security and headed for the entrance to the arena, a place of great sporting history in Poland that hadn’t seen an event for 25 years. Incidentally, the Super Session would be the last event to ever be held in the derelict stadium, as straight after the Red Bull event, it would be demolished, then rebuilt as a modern football stadium for the 2012 Euro Soccer Championships. What a great send-off for the place!
My eyes bulged when I spotted the course from the top level of the stadium. From 50m away it looked massive: 15,000 tonnes of dirt had been shaped into an eight-pack that ran through the guts of the arena, ending with a quarterpipe and hits from each side to form an X. There was also a Speed & Style course running around the perimeter. I suddenly felt scared for the riders’ safety, and I wasn’t even close to the course!
I then glanced around the old stadium. Large grandstands made from scaffolding surrounded the venue, and steel staircases dropped down to course level from way up high. Underneath the foreign-looking steel construction dried-up weeds and plants grew out of crumbling stone stairways and seats, offering some insight to the derelict stadium’s condition before the X-Fighters team went to work.
Large diesel generators stood spread out like giants around the top of the stadium, feeding four massive light towers and the 40 or so smaller spotlights that moved in all directions. I’d only ever seen more lights at a rock concert.
Red Bull sure know how to throw one hell of a party!
Practice came around quickly, with two riders out at a time for 20-minute sessions. I wasn’t too fussed about taking photos at this stage; I was more interested in seeing how they’d handle the eight-pack, let alone throwing down four tricks back-to-back.
Swiss Mat Rebeaud, who had already wrapped up the series at the previous round in Germany, quickly adapted to the course, but even he wasn’t finding it easy.
I perched myself close to the quarterpipe at the end of the jump line where the riders seemed to be having most problems. A slight over-jump or casing on any one of the four hits would throw them out of rhythm and they’d lose momentum for the next obstacle. There was little time for corrections, as they were practically leaving the next up-ramp as soon as their wheels touched down. There was definitely no time to think or to change lines between jumps.
Always the perfectionist, Rebeaud screamed with frustration when he screwed up the line a few times. He wasn’t alone though – practically every rider, including Aussie boy Robbie Maddison (who usually relishes the more technical courses), was having a hard time of it.
After seeing Andre Villa’s park when visiting him eight months earlier, I thought he’d love the technical set-up that faced the riders. He purposely designs his home compound super-tough so he’s prepared for such conditions. But even he struggled to find his flow, and ended up going through the bars and landing feet-first on the flat ground, breaking his tibia and fibula bones in his lower leg in the process.
With the session over I found my way to the pit area and caught up with a few of the riders to find out just what was going on. Maddo, looking a bit weary but stoked to see another Aussie, filled me in with what was shaking up the riders so much.
“The dirt is quite sandy, so they’ve put carpet on the jump faces to stop them rutting out so much. But now it’s hard to see the lines at all and the lips are lumpy in places, so it’s hard to know whether or not the hit will kick you. The line is just inconsistent, which is a worry when you need to be so committed for the bigger tricks.”
The varying lip conditions caught Villa out. His back-end bucked high and sent him over the front. Micha, his girlfriend, was concerned about Villa riding before he started saying he’d concussed himself heavily twice in three weeks leading up to the event. Seeing Villa go down like that in practice was a hard pill to swallow, especially as I’d been following his progress closely since arriving in Europe. His grip on the IFMX world championship ended with one bad line, but that’s the way it goes at the top level of FMX.
OPEN THE GATES
It’s difficult to put into words just how incredible Travis Pastrana is. He missed Friday’s practice because his plane arrived late. Adding to the stress factor, his suspension didn’t even make it to the final practice session on Saturday, eight hours before the show got under way. With Villa out of the running, TP borrowed his suspension and added it to an otherwise stock RM250 and took to the course. He was rusty as hell, but made easy work of the course and quickly became the only rider to Backflip the third hit through the eight-pack.
He rode flat-out as usual, and with the happy grin he always carries said to me afterwards, “You know what, that track is one of the most difficult I’ve ever seen, which is actually good for me because everyone is having trouble making the jumps, let alone doing their bigger tricks. That will definitely play in my favour.”
All I can say is it’s lucky for the rest of the field that TP had ridden
very little in 2008 and didn’t have a big bag of tricks on board.
The gates opened at 5pm and over the next three hours 35,000 fans, most of them virgins to the sport, filled every space the stadium had to offer. As the sky darkened the monster light towers shone just enough so people could find their way to their allocated seats. It was an incredible feeling looking from my sectioned-off media pen at the top of the stadium at the sea of heads waiting for the action to start.
And then the place erupted. The lights cranked up, and spotlights changed directions and colours, the Polish-themed encore started, and the 12 X-Fighters riders took to the course for their introductions. It felt like the Polish people had been waiting a lifetime for such an event to take place on their soil. They responded loudly to every gesture made from riders … and they hadn’t even seen one jump yet!
When the competition opened up the noise bellowing from inside the stadium surely could have been heard miles away. Rebeaud, Maddo, Dany Torres and Jeremy Lusk went head-to-head to start the night’s action, and the boys were killing it. The riders’ transformation from practice to competition was unbelievable – gone was the frustration and tentativeness. It was like they’d taken Super-hero pills and any issues they had with the course were quickly forgotten.
After witnessing Torres tweak his injured ankle and wrist after a bad case-out in practice I thought he was out of the competition, but he came out swinging like a man possessed.
On the other hand, Lusk, who looked the smoothest in practice, went down swinging when he disappeared over the last landing still holding the extension on his huge Double Nac. He never rode it out.
Maddo also rose to the occasion and ended up riding to his best finish of the season, but series winner Rebeaud had too much on his plate: he was competing in most disciplines throughout the night and lost his focus to dominate.
The introduction of teams competing across Speed & Style, Step-Up and Quarterpipe for a “Super Session” was a really cool idea and brought a fresh vibe in the riders’ pits. It also showed who came from a racing background, and this is where Pastrana excelled. Two riders completed two laps, racing side-by-side through the eight-pack. They were awarded more points if they tricked the jumps, then headed back to the start of the eight-pack via the Speed & Style course that consisted of dirt doubles and rhythm sections.
TP was pumped with the team format: “Everybody was just so into it and the camaraderie between riders was so cool.”
His good mate Ronnie Renner put on a great show in Step-up and Quarterpipe, and their drafted-in third member, Thomas Pages – replacing Villa – took care of the Freestyle comp, meaning the trio romped home in the teams’ event.
FREEDOM
Thanks to Maddo, I managed to escape the “media pen” halfway through the event after my Aussie buddy scored me an invaluable Red Bull all-access vest. This enabled me to get to better areas to shoot. I felt like a trapped bird who had been let out of the cage and I roamed at will. The energy at ground-level where the riders could feed off the screaming crowds was electric.
After the last trick had been executed, the celebrations went on for a good half-hour. Champagne rained down over event champion Torres and series winner Rebeaud. After drowning the winners, second-placed Maddo somehow saved enough liquid to spray the crowd, who constantly shouted out something in Polish and looked like they were keen to settle in for the night.
Fireworks then exploded, signalling the closure of one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen. The Red Bull X-Fighters team is going to have to come up with something special to top it in 2009!
SERIES WINNER MAT REBEAUD
“I feel pretty good. It’s just perfect to win the biggest series in freestyle, although tonight was my worst round. It’s just bad I made a small mistake in my first run and didn’t make the final, but I’m still very happy: everything has been perfect. The organisation of the series was so professional and well-organised, plus the crowd here in Poland were pretty crazy.
“With Lusk crashing out of my team it meant I had to ride almost every discipline – Freestyle, Quarterpipe and Speed & Style, which made it hard for me to keep my focus. I didn’t have a spare five minutes to think about what I can do during my runs. I just went from one comp to the next, and I also twisted my knee racing against Travis, so it was a tough night for me. Overall, though, it was a very good show and I just tried to do my best for the crowd.
“The X-Fighters series is very cool because each stop is at a special place and there is some story behind every venue. I’ve had to push my own limits to win four rounds of this series, as the level of riding has been extremely high.
If you don’t give your best you have no chance to win, especially against the depth of riders competing in the 2008 series. I’ve trained very hard for this in the off-season and things have gone my way this year, which I’m very happy about.” 
5 MINUTES WITH ROBBIE MADDISON
“I approached the series confidently telling myself I wanted to win it. I guess everyone wants that, but I didn’t feel it was too far-fetched as at the end of 2007 I was on par with a lot of the top guys.
“I pretty much came straight from my world record jumps into the 2008 series, so even though I was riding confidently, I had had very little preparation and no new tricks.
“My plan for the first round in Mexico City was to go there and do a solid run to start the series on the podium, but unfortunately my shock snapped and I ended up fourth.
“The next round in Rio had a pretty technical course, which suited my style, and I finished third behind Rebeaud and Twitch. Getting on the podium there lifted my confidence moving on to Texas.
“I finally got some practice in before Texas and I also changed from Honda to Yamaha, so three days solid riding on the YZ250 was very productive as I got the Cordova Flip, the Superflip and the KOD Flip sorted out. I’d also been working on my fitness with Ryan Hughes so I felt really confident. Unfortunately I over-rotated a Superflip through the double-double section and came down on my back, tearing a major ligament in my groin, which is still sore five months later. I took some painkillers, got back on the bike and made it to the final to finish fourth, but popped my knee out doing a Cordova Flip.
“I managed to get back on to the podium in Madrid, Spain, without any practice leading up to the event, which was pretty cool.
“The next round was held in a big quarry in Wuppertal, Germany, but I crashed hard at Nate Adams’ house a couple days beforehand practising Superman Underflips. I dislocated my shoulder, hit my head and pulled my groin again, which meant I was pretty battered and had a dented confidence and jetlag coming into Germany. I got to the point in practice where my mind was active from drinking Red Bull, but my body wouldn’t do what my mind was telling it to. I made it through qualifying and came up against Rebeaud in the quarter-final and he just pipped me with a few extra moves like a One-Hander off the quarterpipe and One-Hander Landers on a couple of his Flip tricks.
“They’ve been tight finishes all year. Sometimes a rider will get lucky, but this year I’ve felt like I’m always the guy who just gets nudged out. I’ve ridden solidly, but carrying several injuries this year has meant I haven’t had enough practice between events.
“One thing I’d say about the X-Fighters is the enormity of the broadcast. It’s live on the web, shot live to cinemas across Europe and 60 or so other countries, meaning around 18 million people watch every stop.
“Red Bull kicks in a huge budget for this event and does everything right for the riders, including great courses that are made safe, full catering so the riders are eating well, massages for riders, and a lot of great little touches. They also choose incredible venues with a lot of history, which adds to the atmosphere and makes them even more special.
“I was excited to see 35,000 people here in a ruined stadium that has been turned upside-down to put on an incredible show. I think it was probably the best show I’ve ever seen before, and to have TP wonder boy back it was insane. All of the riders put on an amazing show and towards the end of the event we kinda forgot about the competition and were all just riding for fun. It was amazing!”
THE TRACK DESIGNER/BUILDER, DANE HERRON
How much effort goes into every course set-up?
We base every course on what the space requirements are and here they wanted to make this X-shaped set-up. The different events like Speed & Style, Quarterpipe, Freestyle and Step-Up made for a lot more complicated set-up.
There’s a dirt formula to figure out cubic metres so we know exactly how much dirt is needed for each section. The quarterpipe always sucks up a shitload, and it usually takes us a minimum of 10 days to build a course.
Are you nervous before riders take to the course?
It’s more like anxiety than a nervousness. Practice is always the best part, as I like to watch the riders hit the course for the first time. You watch the bikes through all the transitions and see how everything works. You soon know exactly what needs changing and what doesn’t.
What are your thoughts on problems the riders had with this course?
There were a couple of sections where the dirt was wet and a little sandy, so it does make some ruts, but it’s only really on one side. I think the problem riders are having is they can’t see what’s under the carpet.
When riders find a line they’re happy with they like to hit it all the time, but the way the lines are set up here, you never ride in the same spot. It’s definitely tough and technical with or without using the carpet. It’s a catch-22 for us: the carpet saves the jump faces from rutting up really badly, but the riders find it hard to read the lines. If there was no carpet they can see the lines easier, but the ruts will be twice as deep.
Do you need a thick skin for this kind of work?
Very seldom do I have any problems. I think with my background of being a rider gains me respect for what I do. If the riders don’t like something, they can tell me straight up. It’s more the other event BS like big fun trucks and rally cars demolishing your track that I don’t really like, but they’re sponsors and part of the event, too, so you have to deal with it.
How do you rate this course?
This course is one of the top ones for sure with the inclusion of the whole Speed & Style track, Quarterpipe, and Step-Up. It’s cool, and good to be able to do it all.
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