May 24/07 9:09 am - Qashqai Urban Challenge #3

Posted by Editoress on 05/24/07
 

Race Face Continues to Dominate at Qash Qai
Courtesy Race Face

Paul Basagoitia retains his lead in the overall points race as he takes first with a show stopping run in Madrid. Berrecloth follows with an amazing run as well, securing the top podium spots once again. 1st, 2nd and 3rd overall are still locked down by Race Face riders.

The Madrid event, part 3 in the Qashqai series, boasted some of the most creative riding ever! The crowd was totally blown away by the insane lines these riders were throwing down on the street course designed by pro street rider Jeff Lenosky. No one was able to unseat Paul Basagoitia, Darren Berrecloth and Adam Hauck from the top three positions. Each rider was trying to one-up the rider before him, doing more variations on similar lines or trying completely new lines.

Paul chose the left side line, which contained two small jumps into staircase landings. Paul 360'd the first jump and tail whipped the second jump. Paul followed these two jumps with a no-foot can over the box, wall tap on the wall ride into a stretched out superman on the box jump. He continued his assault on the course with a no-foot can transfer from the concrete block at the top of the stairs down to another staircase landing. Paul ended his run with a flip up the step-up, 360 on the step-down and a back flip table on the last jump. Riders continued to step-up the level of riding through the rest of the first round of finals. Even though Basagoitia's first run was amazing, he felt the need to continue riding hard.

For Bas' second run, he attempted to tail whip the stair section gap! The bike made it around, but Paul couldn't land it and crashed on the concrete. When the top riders are throwing tricks as crazy as this, it's obvious that the level of competition is running high! Darren Berrecloth was the last rider to go in the second round of the finals, and he knew that it would take some serious bangers to challenge Paul for the top spot. Bearclaw rolled down the start ramp, aiming at the left side (staircase jumps) and suddenly 360-transferred over to the landing ramp that was on the other side of the staircases! The crowd was going crazy for the Claw's final run as he 360'ed the drop and superman Indian-aired the box jump. Bearclaw also launched on the back side of the box jump and did a tuck no-hander to flat, street style. He continued his run with a no-foot can on the stair section gap, 360'ed up the step-up and floated a huge 360 table on the last jump, much to the enjoyment of the thousands of people gathered in the area of the final obstacle.

Although it was super close, Paul Basagoitia would end up in first after the dust settled. The Claw took second, followed by Darren Pokoj in third. Bas wasted no time spraying the trophy girls with champagne.

Qashqai Urban Challenge - Madrid
1. Paul Basagoitia
2. Darren Berrecloth
3. Darren Pokoj
4. Lance McDermott
5. Jamie Goldman
6. Andreu Lacondeguy
7. Adam Hauck
8. Cameron McCaul
9. Wayne Goss
10.Phil Sundbaum

Qashqai Urban Challenge Overall
1. Paul Basagoitia (USA) Kona, 55 pts
2. Darren Berrecloth (CAN) Specialized, 50 pts
3. Andreu Lacondeguy (ESP) Kona, 42 pts
4. Lance McDermott (UK) Scott, 40 pts
5. Ben Boyko (CAN) Norco, 31 pts
6. Darren Pokoj (AUS) Intense, 27 pts
7. Cameron McCaul (USA) Trek, 26 pts
8. Greg Watts (USA) Gary Fisher, 24 pts
9. Brandon Semenuk (USA) Trek, 19 pts
10. Kyle Strait (USA) Specialized, 17 pts

You can watch the videos on the new Race Face videos page: www.raceface.com/videos

Next week will be the Park event in Cologne, which could mix up the results quite a bit, since most of the riders on the tour are dirt specialists. The Nissan Qashqai contest is a series of 5 urban free-ride events held in 5 different European cities with the overall winner pocketing a cool 100,000 Euros. For more updates and event info visit the Qashqai Urban Challenge website: www.nissanqashqaichallenge.com