Josh Hult's been competing on the Dew Tour for a few years, but never hit the podium before. I guess he figured he'd make his first one count, running it all the way to the top spot. Josh landed back-to-back double tailwhips in both directions and a truckdriver to downside whip to take his first win. Rounding out the podium were Brandon Dosch in second and 2007 overall Dirt champ Ryan Nyquist.

Dosch held the lead for a bit with a 360 double tailwhip, 360 downside whip, and a barspin to tailwhip; he was one of only a few riders to turn in three complete runs. Nyquist stuck with some of his old standbys after a botched first run, landing double truckdrivers, a 720, and an opposite truckdriver.

Other highlights included Luke Parlsow's clean double flip, Rob Darden's barspin 720, Dennis Enarson's triple whip, and Corey Bohan's opposite 360 whip. Hult and Dosch kick off the tour with two new names in the top spots - there's never been a repeat Dew Cup champion in Dirt, so if history repeats, they're both off to a good start to walk away with the title. They've still got three more stops left to hold off the wolves, though.

Results
1. Josh Hult
2. Brandon Dosch
3. Ryan Nyquist
4. Corey Bohan
5. Dennis Enarson
6. Rob Darden
7. Cory Nastazio
8. TJ Ellis
9. Chris Doyle
10. Jaie Toohey
11. Cameron White
12. Luke Parslow

Just a quick check-in here - the Park and Dirt Prelims at the Dew Tour have gone down, with Dirt Finals happening later tonight. Here are the guys who made the cut:

Dirt Prelim Results
1. Ryan Nyquist
2. Josh Hult
3. Brandon Dosch
4. TJ Ellis
5. Luke Parslow
6. Rob Darden
7. Cory Nastazio
8. Chris Doyle
9. Jaie Toohey

They'll join pre-qualified riders Cameron White, Corey Bohan, and Dennis Enarson in tonight's Final (they're the top three from 2008).

Park Prelim Results
1. Dave Mirra
2. Garrett Reynolds
3. Marcus Tooker
4. Dennis Enarson
5. Craig Mast
6. Mark Webb
7. Brandon Dosch
8. Morgan Wade
9. Steve McCann

Park Finals happen tomorrow, along with Vert Prelims and Finals. I'll have more photos posted tonight, provided I don't make a beeline straight for the bar after Dirt wraps up. Don't hold your breath.

In the last 24 hours, I scored a free round-trip plane ticket, took a 3am train ride through Chicago loaded with camera gear and two bulky suitcases, produced gallons of sweat, slept three hours, and was almost killed by some moron forklift driver. Beats working in an office. For the next couple days, I'll be posted up in the windy city for stop one of the Dew Tour, bringing you results, highlights, and a few photos, provided the aforementioned forklift operator doesn't decide to take another crack at me.

Day one of the BMX-only season opener was plagued with repeated bouts of rain that broke up fast but still screwed with the schedule. Since it's the first stop, Open Qualifiers are being held to qualify 13 riders to join the 22 already pre-qualified in Park and Dirt, along with 9 riders to add to the 11 that are pre-qualified in Vert. Since my head didn't hit the pillow until almost 5am this morning, I didn't make it out for the Dirt OQ, but I did see that the dirt set-up looked a little more like straight concrete. Apparently, clay is pretty hard to get around here, and recent rains in the area meant most of the available dirt was pretty saturated, so some improvising had to be done. It looks good and I haven't heard any complaints yet, but I damn sure wouldn't want to crash on that stuff.

Park OQs consisted of what seemed like six or seven hundred dudes laying waste to the course for about five hours. So much talent, but unfortunately, 43 of them had to be sent packing. Notables include: 14-year-old Brett "Mad Dog" Banasiewicz, who threw huge 360 and flair variations like a seasoned pro. Mark Webb and Harry Main have been tearing up the Euro scene and dropping insane web videos for a while, so it was good to see them here and even better to see them earn another chance to make it into the Final. Josh Harrington whipped the step-down, then threw a barspin to barspin back down it, following with a crazy launch to downside doublepeg grind on the 10-foot quarter. Andy Buckworth dropped backflip handplants over the spine, and Will Thompson did a huge decade on the 10-footer. It's going to be a hell of a Prelim round tomorrow.

This stop also includes a unique, one-off Street contest, courtesy of Nike 6.0. They invited the Street medalists from the 2008 X Games and told them to pick two riders and a filmer to bring with them. Each team will make a 3-minute or less edit on-site and ride in a judged contest to determine the winner. I can't even begin to tell you the caliber of talent that is on hand here for this. Garrett Reynolds chose Dennis Enarson and J.J. Palmere with Glenn P.P. Milligan filming, Van Homan picked street gods Chase Dehart and Randy Brown and put Darryl Tocco behind the camera, and Sean Sexton recruited Aaron Ross and Danny Hickerson with Walter Pieringer behind the lens. To have Brown, Dehart, and Hickerson here makes me very happy. Apparently they'll be showing the edits on the Dew Tour site, and they may even make it to the airtime on NBC. Very cool.

Anyway, check the photos from today here, and check back for more over the weekend.


Results, Dirt Open Qualifiers
(The following riders advance to Prelims on Friday)
1. Josh Stead
2. Jaie Toohey
3. Rickey Moseley
4. Charlie Bowers
5. Scott Wirch
6. Ronnie Napolitan
7. Josh Hult
8. Colton Satterfield
9. Scotty Cranmer
10. Ben Voyles
11. Dane Searls
12. Morgan Wade
13. Zakary Earley

Results, Park Open Qualifiers
(The following riders advance to Prelims on Friday)
1. Josh Harrington
2. Brandon Dosch
3. William Thompson
4. Josh Perry
5. Brett Banasiewicz
6. Mark Webb
7. Andy Buckworth
8. Harry Main
9. Dave Dillewaard
10. Pat Laughlin
11. Glenn Salyers
12. Jeremiah Smith
13. Jaie Toohey

The latest Levi's web edit is up; this time around, it features flow guy and serious shredder Jeremiah Smith. I have a feeling this kid's going to have a big year.

Levi's BMX Clip of the Week - Jeremiah Smith... - More BMX Videos

Recently, DC has been running print ads featuring their am and pro team riders in composited action shots. They've now released behind-the-scenes edits from both shoots; unfortunately, things went a little bonkers when I tried to embed them, so you'll just have to enjoy the photo of Allan Cooke above and then go to the DC site to see them: Pro ad edit; Am ad edit.