By Brendan Vail – Once again, Jamie Bestwick walked away with the top spot in the Vert Finals in Portland, OR. He was as smooth as always, blasting huge airs out of the ramp in both directions and using the entire width of the giant ramp. Bestwick’s first run consisted of alley-oop candybars, indian airs, and ended with a footplant to flair.
Finding himself in a fairly familiar place was Chad Kagy who came in second behind Jamie. Kagy once again did flair tailwhips, double whips, and many other variations. Coming in third was Australia’s Steve McCann, landing in the same spot on the podium as in Chicago. His smooth riding consisted of turndown flairs, big alley-oop tailwhips, no-handed flairs, and double whips.
Tonight was also a great night for the youngsters. Fourth place went to Hoffman Bike’s Zack Warden who has mastered the art of the bike flip, as well as sticking numerous other tricks like barspin to tailwhips, and double whips. He is quickly building on his skills and moving up in the ranks on Vert. Another up-and-comer on the ramp was 19 year old Vince Byron. 540 tailwhips, double tailwhips, and no handed flairs were all pulled with ease and he landed in 6th place.
The veteran riders were also holding down the ramp all night. Jimmy Walker was speeding around the ramp, airing in both directions effortlessly while spinning a bunch of 540 variations including tabletops, seatgrabs, and barspins. Dennis McCoy also had to impressive runs with classic tricks like can can lookbacks, and candybars. DMC was also spinning all over the ramp with 540 barspins and even a 900 attempt that he was super close to sticking. When talking about his runs McCoy said they “…went reasonably well, but I got fogged on my second run. If I didn’t squat on my 900 I woud have pulled it.
Bestwick is is still in the lead in the Dew Tour standings, with Kagy and Stevie McCann rounding out the top three contenders for the 2009 Dew Cup. Check back during the Salt Lake City stop to see if Zack Warden can break his way into the top three and see if anyone can steal Bestwick’s fire and bump him off of the top of the podium.
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