Before Sunday's X Games Freestyle Moto X finals, Travis Pastrana said Nate Adams is the best Freestyle rider in the world. Asked the same question, Nate Adams said that title belongs to Travis Pastrana. Modest or not, both riders knew the final would come down to a head-to-head battle between them.
With a concussion, black eye, tweaked wrist, broken toe and badly scraped cheek, Pastrana gutted out two runs. But with no 360 and no double backflip, Travis could not put together a run that could put him ahead of Adams. For the first time in his X Games career, Pastrana didn't win the Freestyle gold.
"I think that concussion was a blessing in disguise," Adams says of Pastrana's decision to bag the double flip, the most hyped new trick of the weekend. Trailing Adams after his first run, Travis knew he'd have to throw one of his two money tricks to take the lead. "I just don't want to throw anything it would take to win," Travis told ESPN announcer Jamie Little before his second run. "Sorry, folks, but you're not going to see the double or the 360 tonight."
All eyes were still on Pastrana as he approached his last jump over the super-kicker ramp he had specifically set at 50 feet, the distance he felt he needed for two rotations. "He'll do whatever he wants," Adams said before Pastrana's last run. "I know he's not the type of guy who would lay back and let me win." Riding through pain, a spinning head and a left eye so swollen he could barely see, Pastrana hit the ramp and threw ... a single. And threw his gold-medal hopes aside.
"My plan was for a good solid score the first time out," Adams said, "but if Travis went out and beat it, then I had a totally different run planned for my second time out."
Adams knows he's not as exciting to watch as Pastrana. Maybe no one is. He also realizes how hard it is to compete with a 20-year-old rider whose skill as an entertainer rivals his skills on a bike. Comp after comp, he builds energy with the crowd to hype the judges and build anticipation. "Last year, Travis crashed and still won," Adams says. "I think the judges are more lenient with him because he's got a lot of excitement when he rides. Travis is the only person I watch ride."
Adams also tricks the crowd. But his sleight of hand often works against him. He's so smooth on the bike that he makes even the most technical trick look effortless. Instead of hyping up the crowd, he calms them with his technical perfection. That's why Pastrana says he calls him the best rider in the world. It's also why TP says Nate has taken so long to win a contest.
"Nate convinces the crowd by doing something that should be completely impossible and makes it look easy," Pastrana says. "The crowd doesn't respond very well and neither do the judges. As soon as he gets a little sketchier, he'll do better."
Pastrana, for example, riles the crowd by running off the course, flat tracking to the next ramp and smashing into trackside barriers. It's a given that he'll impress the crowd with his tricks, but it's his masterful skill at working the judges that wins him gold after gold.
"I really pay attention to where the judges are. I know where they're sitting and I know what they can and can't see," he says. "Every jump the judges can see, I'm going to do my best to jump and land as smoothly and cleanly as possible. If there's a trick that looks better from a certain angle on a certain ramp, I'm doing those tricks there," he continues. "From some angles, a 360 looks like a backflip. From another angle, it looks like a true 360. You have to play the angle."
One angle Pastrana failed to play was the 360. After a nasty crash in prelims on his second 360 attempt of the night, he didn't even touch it in the finals. Adams, however, laid down a flawless first run that included a 360, a flip kick to no-hander, a huge cliffhanger, a rock solid and other flip variations. The gold hanging around his neck got the monkey off of Nate's back.
As for Pastrana, he just wants to sleep. "I'm happy for Nate, but I just want to go home and sleep for a few weeks and heal up from these injuries," he said after the comp. "Then I want to come back next year and kick butt."
X Games rookie Adam Jones put in an impressive bronze medal ride to edge out Beau Bamburg (4th) and Ronnie Renner (5th) in the finals.
1. Nate Adams, Glendale, Ariz—93.80
2. Travis Pastrana, Annapolis, Md—92.00
3. Adam Jones, Warrendale, Pa—90.20
4. Beau Bamberg, Gresham, Ore.—89.40
5. Ronnie Renner, Westmister, Calif—89.00
No comments:
Post a Comment