Ryan Nyquist is Dew Tour’s 2012 BMX Dirt Champion

Following the action-packed semi-final that narrowed the field down to the top eight, the remaining riders threw everything they had in a last ditch effort to take the 2012 Dew Tour dirt title at the Toyota City Championships – add in the fact that this marked the first major dirt competition in the states this year, nobody left anything to chance! With the Pioneer Monument acting as the centerpiece, diehard BMX dirt fans and San Francisco citizens alike packed the stands and lined the city’s public library building to watch the action unfold.

The dirt finals wrapped up here in San Francisco and wow, what an insane show it was. There is no way to describe the vibe of the night without using the words insane, amazing and progressive. The format was pretty simple, each rider got three runs and the best two were combined for a total score. Some riders send their best run first go and then see what happens after that, while some feel out the competition and save their craziest run for last. Tonight was a mix of emotions as the top podium spot was changed up multiple times during the finals and it only got better each time a rider dropped in.

Ryan Nyquist’s winning run

The man of the hour was none other than Ryan Nyquist. He laid it all on the line and pulled it together in his final run leaving himself on top of the podium. After seeing the level of riding that went down in the semi’s the day before Nyquist knew he had to have a solid game plan heading into finals. Nyquist commented, “Going into finals I knew that I had to step it up completely and that is what I did.” He also had a little bit of a hometown advantage and that never hurts. “It’s a dream to have a contest sort of in my backyard being from Northern California. Just having so many friends and my family here. This is going to be a contest that I will remember forever.” Nyquist had one run left and put it all on the line with an all or nothing set of tricks including a backflip double barspin on the first hit, a 450 truckdriver over the second and an insane 720 barspin on the last set. After that run’s score came in it was game over from there and with only one rider left that could take him out Nyquist had to sit with his fingers crossed.

TJ Ellis

That rider happened to be one of the most dedicated dirt jumpers in the game, TJ Ellis. “I knew I needed to get two solid runs in the bag and then from there just gamble,” said Ellis. Gamble he did and sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. He had the chance to take it all and after placing first I the semi-finals he was on his way to win but couldn’t quite pull it together. He ended up leaving with an impressive second place finish and had nothing but good things to say about the contest. “I’m just pumped man. Nobody got hurt and everybody had a good time,” said Ellis. Ellis had good reason to be pumped. His riding was amazing as he sent multiple frontflip tailwhips, backflip supermans and a huge backflip tuck no-hander on the biggest set.

Colton Satterfield

Third place went to a rider that has proved to everyone over the years that he is here to stay, Colton Satterfield. He came prepared to send himself and see what happened. “Honestly I just wanted to come into this and have fun with no stress and just do what I wanted to do,” said Satterfield. With that said, Satterfield threw tricks like an alley-oop 360 double tailwhip, a backflip barspin to late tailwhip and a 360 downside whip-to-whip back. In the grand scheme of things all of those tricks individually are incredibly difficult and to land any one of those is a feat in and of itself. Satterfield has been steadily making a great name for himself on the tour and commented about how good the jumps at this stop were. “The jumps were probably the smoothest they have ever been and they kept them dialed the entire time,” said Satterfield. Satterfield was also stoked on the feel of the contest and said, “The overall vibe of the contest was one of the best to date. San Fran has some of the wildest characters but it made for the most energetic crowd. They were pumped and it makes us want to ride even harder when we see that they are into it.”

With the riders feeding off of the energy in the crowd the crazier the fans got the more intense the riding got – a cycle that not only left a good impression on the crowd but also on the riders leaving them wanting more, which is all you could ask for when it comes time to put on a contest. As Nyquist mentioned, this is a contest that won’t be soon forgotten and the same can be said for all of the fans out there that were witness to some incredible riding on some of the coolest dirt jumps in one of the most unique settings that BMX has ever seen.

Be sure to check out the photo gallery posted to the top of this article.

Results

1st Place – Ryan Nyquist 90.87

2nd Place – TJ Ellis 89.19

3rd Place – Colton Satterfield 89.13

4th Place – Dennis Enarson 88.56

5th Place – Kyle Baldock 88.31

6th Place – Luke Parslow 87.56

7th Place – Kevin Peraza 87.12

8th Place – James Foster 86.75