Garrett Reynolds Earns the Win in BMX Street

After Friday’s insane Semi-Final showcase of technical riding, the BMX Street Final had everyone buzzing here in San Francisco, California at the Toyota City Championships.

 

With a stacked list of BMX Street riders retuning to go all out in the final on the iconic course with an enthusiastic crowd, the BMX Street Final was action-packed.

The format consisted of the top 10 riders each allowed three runs with their best run counting as their overall score. Unfortunately, Dennis Enarson injured himself during yesterday’s semi-final, which ultimately reduced the field to nine. Between the hubba ledges, rails and replica China Banks, there was no shortage of solid obstacles to showcase their abilities.

With every round of riders taking their runs we saw the competiton get stepped up. In the first round last year’s defending champion Garrett Reynolds came out hot to intimidate the field. Reynolds kicked off his run with a banger most would save till the end, a double truckdriver down the big set – allowing the bars to spin twice while turning a 360 is anything but simple. However, the rest of the riders were showing their confidence on the course, too.

Dan Lacey, over tooth

Dan Lacey pulled over tooth grinds on every rail in his past, namely the large hand rail and the bump bar. Stevie Churchill showcased his bunny hop height with a bunny hop 360 tailwhip off the manual pad and went on to pull a 360 turndown later in his run. Bruno Hoffmann hit the big hubba with a feeble to manual. Dakota Roche took his turn and hopped straight up onto the hubba into a manual across the flat then nose manualed down.

During the final round of runs Devon Smillie took a double peg up the handrail landed it to manual and then hit a smith down the hubba and hopped it to manual at the end. Churchill made his return to the stairs and throw a 360 tailwhip down the set. However, when it came down for the final rider to take his it was all eyes on Chad Kerley as he qualified first the day prior.

Chad Kerley, feeble tailwhip

Kerley came into his final run with a score to settle with himself after a few tough runs earlier. Kerley came right into it with a 180 into a manual on the pad then spun a 180 barspin out straight into a feeble tailwhip on the picnic table and went on to nose manual up the long pad to 180 out. Then, toward the end of his run Kerley laid down a giant 540 down the stairs after having trouble with it in his first two runs.

“I just tried to keep the ball moving and focus on the stuff that came next and it worked out for, said Kerley following his final run. “The nose 180 bar up the ledge I did in practice but never in a run so it was good to pull that!” 

But when the final score came in it was Reynolds all over again claiming the top spot after displaying to the crowds exactly why he is referenced as one of the most technical guys doing it. 

“It feels good to take first place,” said Reynolds with a bit of shock. “I seriously thought right in the end Kerley was gonna take it. He totally held his run together but I don’t know, he put it on the judges and somehow I got it, so I’m psyched.”

Garrett Reynolds, opposite tailwhip

With Reynolds taking all and Kerley in second it was Lacey that rounded off the podium – very fitting considering he took all in the BMX Street Best Trick in at the Beach Championships in Ocean City, Maryland.

“I’m blown away to take third, when you’re up against all these rad dudes you want to just tried to go in there with a level head and just tried to enjoy yourself. Cause if you try hard, you’ll just stress about it you just wind yourself up,” said Lacey stoked on his final placement. “So I just went out there and rode with all my homies, so it’s sick to be in the top three.”

Results

1^st Place – Garrett Reynolds

2^nd Place – Chad Kerley

3^rd Place – Dan Lacey

4th Place – Stevie Churchill

5th Place – Bruno Hoffmann

6th Place – Devon Smillie

7th Place – Sean Sexton

8th Place – Dakota Roche

9th Place – Jeremiah Smith

10th Place – Dennis Enarson