Excitement, and Anxiety, Ramping Up for Riders

There was a lingering X Games hangover Saturday morning, a subdued feeling in the wake of Travis Pastrana’s electrifying double back flip performed the previous night during the freestyle motocross best-trick competition.

Pastrana cheated death like no X Games athlete before with a trick that had only been talked about. How could anything on Saturday’s schedule rival that?

It couldn’t, of course, but there was a groundswell of anticipation, and a very real fear, within the four bicycle motocross riders who will make history today by becoming the first X Games athletes to compete on the mega ramp, in the BMX big-air competition.

“That mega ramp is the coolest, scariest thing ever,” said Chad Kagy, winner of the BMX vert contest and silver medalist in the best trick. “I mean, how often do they build something eight stories high for you to ride a bicycle or skateboard on? Give me a break. This so far surpasses anything we did as 8-year-olds, two-by-fours, plywood and rails. We are doing astronomical things.”

The mega ramp, designed for skateboarding and in its third year as an X Games skateboarding platform, features 50- and 70-foot roll-in ramps, gaps of similar length and, at the opposite end, a 30-foot quarterpipe ramp, from which skateboarders perform vert tricks high above.

It’s such an extreme apparatus that fewer than a dozen skateboarders, a crew led by ramp creator Danny Way, are experienced enough to ride it without risk of death or serious injury.

With the new BMX element comes a fear of the unknown, as only Kagy has actually ridden the mega ramp -- with the skateboarders during a recent exhibition in Mexico City. He said the riders, upon landing on the down slope, will hit the quarterpipe at up to 45 mph and soar more 20 than feet above it.

The key, he added, is to not drift too far backward or forward while airborne, lest you miss the ramp upon landing and slam from 20 or 50 feet onto wood.

“Put a full set of pads on, jump in your car, go 45 mph down the highway and jump out,” Kagy said. “That’s what it’s going to be like crashing.”

Such a prospect brings a chill to Kevin Robinson, one of the competitors. “It’s a mega ramp, for mega tricks and mega fear,” he said. “I’m really excited to do it, but I’m also scared -- I won’t lie. I’m so excited to have that feeling again, though: the fear of the unknown.”

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X’d out? Has Jamie Bestwick participated in his final X Games? The BMX star said after winning silver in Friday night’s vert competition that he’s retiring from the X Games but will continue to compete on the Dew Action Sports Tour.

“I can’t see myself coming back next year,” he said.

The four-time X Games gold medalist, who is from England, reportedly is frustrated over what he perceives to be favoritism toward American riders during ESPN pre-event promotions and at events. A source close to the rider said Bestwick believed he had the winning run Friday in an event won by Kagy.

Bestwick, 35, may just need time to cool off, the source added, as it has been a rough year. In May he had surgery to fuse two vertebrae in his neck.

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Rally cry: Less than 24 hours after the double back flip, and moments after driving his Subaru to victory in the inaugural X Games rally car race, Pastrana was asked which gold medal meant more. Surprisingly, he chose the rally car triumph.

“I’m still on cloud nine over that,” he said of the freestyle motocross trick. “But the rally car race meant the most because I proved that I don’t flip the car every time I get behind the wheel and that I’m able to run with the best drivers in North America and the world; whereas in freestyle, I’m already established.”

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That smarts: Nate Adams, Ronnie Faisst and Ailo Gaup suffered violent crashes and became victims of Saturday’s Moto X freestyle elimination round.

Adams, the 2004 gold medalist, brought the crowd to a hush when he crash-landed while attempting a no-handed back flip. He lay motionless for 15 seconds before rolling to one side. He suffered a concussion and was being held for further observation by on-site medical staff.

Faisst crashed after spinning his bike in midair and landing backward. He suffered sprains to his right shoulder, ankle and wrist. Gaup suffered a moderate ankle injury.