The five-stop Dew Tour ended last weekend in Orlando, Fla. with the crowning of action sports royalty. While the reigns of several athletes will continue, new kings also ascended the throne.
Jamie Bestwick etched in stone his title as the world’s best BMX Vert rider with his fourth consecutive victory on the tour and his second overall Dew Cup title. The Orlando BMX Vert showdown was a doozy, with several spectacular spills. BMX ramp veterans and aerial bike spinning masters Chad Kagy and Kevin Robinson finished second and third, respectively, on the tour. Bestwick, who underwent neck surgery shortly before the tour started in June, accumulated the most points in any discipline during the tour, making the UK rider the 2006 Dew Tour champion.
On the same monster ramp, the skaters battled with equal intensity for a title that was much more uncertain heading into Orlando. Brazilians Bob Burnquist and Sandro Dias, Baltimore’s Bucky Lasek and snow-skate wizard Shaun White each had claimed a tour win before the Orlando contest, leaving the tour’s Skate Vert title wide open. Lasek’s strong frontside 540 rodeos and backside lipside reverts edged him past the hungry pack, giving the 33-year-old his second consecutive overall Dew Tour Skate Vert title. Dias and Burnquist finished second and third.
Ryan Sheckler,the 16-year-old Dew Tour champion in Skate Park, defended his overall title. The consistently smooth skater with a massive repertoire of park tricks finished second in Orlando, but his three previous victories on the tour were enough to earn him the overall Skate Park crown. Boston’s Jereme Rogers and Brazilian Rodolfo Ramos finished the tour in second and third. Nyjah Huston, the dreadlocked 11-year-old park master who did not skate in the final two stops of the Dew tour, finished the tour in fourth.
Anthony Napolitan pedaled from obscurity to fame this season, starting with an out-of-nowhere win in BMX Dirt at the Dew Tour’s first stop in Louisville, Ky. The 20-year-old Ohio pedal champ followed Louisville with second- and third-place finishes at the Dew tour stops in Denver and Portland, Ore., as well as a third-place finish in the Summer X Games. His smooth double-tailwhip 360s and stomping front flips – tricks he honed last year during a stint at the famed Camp Woodward in Pennsylvania – led him to first place in Orlando and the overall Dew Tour BMX dirt crown. Australians Luke Parslow and Corey Bohan finished the tour second and third in BMX Dirt.
On the same bikes but without the dirt, the BMX Park contest was a slugfest. Arriving in Orlando, the top three riders, New Jersey’s Scotty Cranmer, Californian Ryan Nyquistand Venezuelan Daniel Dhers were separated by a mere 14 points. Whoever won in Orlando was leaving with the overall crown and the $75,000 season-end bonus. Dhers, a Dew Tour freshman and another Camp Woodward alum, spun his way to glory, finishing first in the contest and overall champion in BMX Park. Carmner and Nyquist finished second and third.
On the machines, the combo backflip was the defining trick. FMX pioneer Travis Pastrana dropped from the tour after three stops – presumably to focus on his skyrocketing rally car racing career – opening the door for a new reign in the world of upside down motorcycling. Arizona’s Nate Adams leapt first through the open doorway, taking first and third in the final two Pastrana-free stops of the Dew Tour and finishing the tour on top. Nevada rider Mike Mason’s first-place finish at Orlando was enough to push him 12 points past Pastrana to earn the second spot on the tour, with Pastrana third.
