I'm going to guess it's simply because of the speed of news spreading around the internet but it makes it seems like riders are really getting hurt a lot more now. They always are so I'm probably just exaggerating but we see rider after rider ending up being reported injured and luckily we have the ARF and the entire BMX community always ready to help out when someone is in need.

Josh was 360ing a spine and anybody who has ever ridden a spine knows how hard it is to dial in the landing, especially on a spin trick. He landed flat and took a bar end to the chest, breaking ribs and fracturing vertebrae.

He is currently in the hospital and recovering but is in good shape. Given the proper time to recover we know Josh will be back on his bike again.

Let's get down to business. This is the last stop. Dew Tour Orlando has a lot riding on it, even some extra things thrown in... read on.

TJ Ellis with three fans. This needs to change...


Rumors:
Dan's Comp is noted to be raising money with the Athlete Recovery Fund at Dew Tour Orlando so support those who support the well being of our favorite riders!

Ride BMX also stepped up to the plate and offered up $5,000 to the best trick at Dew Tour Orlando. I'm not sure if this is specific to dirt or park, etc. I think it is just the whole entire event. Best trick. Anything goes. Make money make money...

Also, BMX heads on twitter have been raving about Dave Mirra's bet to Daniel Dhers. Apparently, Mirra gave $5,000 to Dhers to go brakeless for the Orlando event. If Dhers prefers brakeless he owes Mirra the 5 g's, but if he goes back to brakes Mirra pays up. Maybe I'm wrong. I think Mirra just gave him 5 g's and expects Dhers to not do as well so he can beat him in the event and win in the long run by earning more money through the contest. Regardless! I am stoked to see Dhers go brakeless... let's see how this turns out...

Schedule:
the finals for VERT will go down Friday @ 6 pm
the finals for DIRT will go down Saturday @ 7:30 pm
the finals for PARK will go down Sunday @ 4:30 pm
for TV scheduling click HERE

Jamie Bestwick... de ja vu?


The Points Battle:
As always I start with vert. Simply because it is rather easy to predict. So the only way Jamie Bestwick will lose the 2009 Dew Tour vert title is if he doesn't compete pretty much. If he competes and doesn't win first at Orlando he'll probably still take the overall tour win. However, as far as I know he will compete, he will win, and he will have swept another Dew Tour by winning first place every single event. MONEY! The race for second is between Steven McCann, Chad Kagy, and Simon Tabron is he can pick up his game in this event.

Look at Ellis' face... exactly...


I am kinda bummed to say that Ryan Nyquist may win the Dew Tour dirt title this year. He is a great rider and he has done a lot for the sport and I respect the hell out of him but the riders sitting in sport 2, 3, 4, and 5 will have been robbed if they can't beat Nyquist. Last event's dirt competition was truly upsetting as TJ Ellis had one of the best dirt runs we've ever seen. Nyquist did 360s with barspins on about every set and won...

Dave Mirra doesn't practice. He just envisions the win...


Ugh, let's move on to park. So we have this trifecta of BMX dominators. Garrett Reynolds sits on top. Dave Mirra is behind him by 22 points. And Daniel Dhers is behind Mirra by 20 points. Daniel Dhers can actually take them all down with a first place win but if they finish in 2nd or 3rd places they can still beat Dhers on points for the tour win. So Reynolds is favored to win and if he keeps killing it as usual this one could be in the bag. But Mirra and Dhers are NEVER EVER to be counted out. They have tricks up their sleeves like no other BMX rider I've seen before.

"Pearly Whites" will go brakeless for probably the first time this weekend...


THIS IS IT FOLKS! The last stop... Let's raise some money for our fallen athletes, see some crazy/wild tricks for a $5,000 prize, witness the outcome of the Mirra/Dhers bet of brakes vs. brakeless, watch Bestwick sweep yet another Dew Tour vert title, and witness the battle to beat Nyquit on the dirt course. It's Dew Tour Orlando 2009 people... let's party!

Mr. Everything, simply sitting on top of the game...

(all photos property of ALLISPORTS.com)

Well. Let's start off with Jamie Bestwick. As much as we all sort of KNOW he is going to win, everybody was riding really well this event. I do not know who Vince Byron is or where he is from... but he probably should have scored higher for what he was doing. What I love about vert riding is, due to its lack of documentation that street and park and dirt have, riders seem to pop up out of nowhere and they are good!

Jamie Bestwick really dominated this event like any other, however. His run was just continuous skill, wall after wall, no hesitation, way too high. If only the other riders could trick as many walls in a row as Jamie there would be a competition. I see the other riders do a lot of great tricks, but often they have one or two blank hits in between creating a less fluid, or less impressive, run. Either way, I think Vince did better than sixth. Also, Tim Wood almost over rotated a 900... 'nuff said.

Dirt. This is going to get a bit controversial. A bit rude. But it's clear as day and everybody was saying it, even myself. I don't know what this obsession with having Ryan Nyquist win is, but he did not deserve this one. BY FAR. I feel like I should pull a Kanye West at this moment... "Ryan, I am happy for you and I'm going to let you finish, but TJ Ellis had the best dirt run of ALL TIME!"

It's so crazy how triple whips are being thrown on the first set and sh!t. Diogo's first run looked a bit better than ninth. Dennis Enarson needs that shirt "please stop the tailwhips." Rob Darden needs a new shirt called stop the 720s... and 360s... Chris Gerber's off-axis backflips and double whip flip were nuts. Cam White is such a pure dirt rider. Brandon Dosch as well. So many different tricks.

TJ ELLIS. Back and front flip variations, 360 variations, opposite 3 variations, higher than anyone, smoother than anyone... a frontflip whip? And he got second to a guy who does 360s with barspins and one-handed x-ups all night. I won't go any further... just watch and see...




There we go Dhers... we were wondering where you were on the Dew Tour. Dave Mirra and Mark Webb definitely killed it, but took 6th and 5th respectively. It was cool, however, to see little Brett get third place. He's so young and he so kills it and he so deserved it. How do you have that much style at his age? So, Garrett Reynolds got second in this event. Again, I should mention that his riding is more suitable to street courses but he has changed it up a bit to adhere to park judges better. It's insane how talented this kid is. No brakes, no problem. Don't forget to check him out in Five Months to Freedom on MTV2, graduating high school...

Daniel Dhers went so insane with whips and flairs and those crazy 360 flips or whatever it is he does. Like inverted 720s. Only thing I would take from Daniel is that has uses about 4 ramps the entire run. Give him the win though he went ape-sh!t on that course. And don't forget that wicked inverted 720 tailwhip he did at the end... watch the video...




Check Mike Aitken and his abnormally cute son in the photo gallery... and here are some tour standings updates...

VERT
Jamie Bestwick with 300 points
Steven McCann with 246 points
Chad Kagy with 236 points
Simon Tabron with 214 points
it is just a battle for second here...

PARK
Garrett Reynolds with 280 points
Dave Mirra with 258 points
Daniel Dhers with 238 points
Mark Webb with 216 points
can Garrett hold on to this year's tour win???

DIRT
Ryan Nyquist with 282 points...
Brandon Dosch with 248 points
Dennis Enarson with 226 points
Josh Hult with 200 points
TJ Ellis with 187 points
I give Mike Aitken the win... by default... :D

Salt Lake City. Different cities may be more biased as skate fans or BMX fans or FMX. That being said I would consider SLC to be the biggest BMX event on the tour. That area of Utah has always had a big BMX scene, which isn't surprising as legendary rider Tim "Fuzzy" Hall has lived there for years.

First off, I am going to tell you that Jamie Bestwick won vert last year at SLC. He also won vert in the past two Dew Tour Events, Nike & Wendy's, which puts him sitting on his throne in the vert division. Simon Tabron, Chad Kagy, and Steven McCann will simply look up at Jamie and wonder how they will impeach this ruler of the vert world. Seriously, how do you stop him? If he shows up and isn't injured, he is going to win. It's almost that predictable.

At last year's SLC Dew Tour, we had the tear-jerking moment of seeing Mike Aitken in first place, defeating all the whips and spins and flips with his smooth, stylish riding. He was on fire. The local crowd was losing it for him as he linked lines no one has ever seen before. Higher than anybody, smoother than anybody, simply BETTER.

Unfortunately, Aitken went down hard a few months ago and he has only recently gotten back on his bike. Though we won't be seeing him jumping 30 foot sets at this event I am sure he will be there to root for his friends and have fun. That being said, the contest could very well be in the hands of Ryan Nyquist who took the last Dew Tour event after being beaten by two rookies, Josh Hult and Brandon Dosch, at the Nike event. Other big names include Dennis Enarson and Scotty Cranmer who can always come out of nowhere and steal a win. And of course Corey Bohan, one of the more famed names in dirt for his mix of style and trick ability.

BMX Park. I would like to say this is a competition of old versus new, but Dave probably wouldn't respect that. Right now Mirra and Reynolds are tied in first as they swapped first and second places at the first two Dew events. Daniel Dhers is sitting at a disappointing fifth place on the tour but could gain some ground by winning or at least podium-ing this event. Marcus Tooker and Mark Webb are definitely names to look out for, but not as much as Harry Main. Harry broke his leg and took himself out of the first two events but now being back on his bike he is a huge threat to anyone gunning for number one. Harry has more technical, judge-wowing tricks than anybody right now. So let's get to it.

BMX Vert. My bets are on Bestwick. Seriously, what would YOU do!?

BMX Dirt. Ryan Nyquist. Even with Hult and Dosch nipping at his ankles Nyquist always holds strong and is a favorite to win...

BMX Park. This is a tough one. If Main is fully recovered and back on his game for the event I will give him the advantage, but Garrett Reynolds is always down to win his event. Big battle between thsoe two.

Think I'm wrong? My predictions are stupid? Comment this blog and let me know what YOU think!!!

Dew Tour seems to be the most successful action sports event other than the obvious X Games. The Wendy's Portland stop of the tour is always an exciting one as it is sort of the West Coast stop. We here on the West Coast go bananas over an action sports event, so let's see if these athletes go bananas on their bikes for us.



Let's start with the vert ramp, considering it has an often tyrannical leader by the name of Jamie Bestwick. He has already one the first stop (Nike BMX Open) and left common vert second placer Simon Tabron maintaining his reputation. So Jamie is 10 points ahead of Tabron already but you can't count out riders such as Steven McCann, Kevin Robinson, and Chad Kagy. Some of these riders may be beaten and battered from the mega ramp at the Games and such, leaving Mr. Bestwick with even more advantage. I hate to be boring and typical and right, but Bestwick takes it again... with ease.


On to BMX Park, where the seemingly greedy Dave Mirra took the win from common park podium artist Garrett Reynolds. Dave Mirra is a go big or go home rider with in ability to capture EXACTLY what the judges are looking for. Daniel Dhers had a surprising (ly bad) result in the first event leaving him in 9th on the tour. Maybe with his new trick (the CASH ROLL) he will take this contest and redeem his tour status. Ryan Guettler and Scotty Cranmer (considered a wild card) are also big names to look out for that have been seeing podiums as of late. Remember, Cranmer took the X Games this year in a come back predicted through his riding at the Nike HB BMX Pro. HOWEVER, I still say Daniel Dhers takes it with his well-rounded runs, unless Guettler fires off a perfect run with a double backflip or Cranmer does flip whips on everything in sight...


And now for the most underrated, and my favorite, discipline on the tour... DIRT. Josh Hult opened some eyes at the first event by taking first place over big names such as Nyquist, Bohan, Enarson, Darden, Nasty, Ellis, etc. Also, Brandon Dosch took second, breaking through in the same event. So right now two new riders are sitting 1 and 2 on the tour while the top pros grind their teeth waiting for revenge. Nyquist has been known as the master of impressing judges but as Bob Dylan sings, times they are a changin...

The dirt event is sure to be full of whips. So will Hult and Dosch return to the podium or will big names such as Guettler, Ellis, Nastazio, Nyquist take him out. In my opinion, TJ Ellis is the best dirt rider right now hands down by far no contest, but why is he 8th on the tour? He's better than that! Let's see him prove it...



SCHEDULE

We will find out who takes dirt Friday the 14th, or Saturday if you are lazy...
dirt (4:30-6pm)

On Saturday we will see how Jamie Bestwick wins... :D
vert (7-8:30pm)

Last but in no way least we will see the park winner on Sunday...
park (1-3pm)