BMX Vert Finals Rank Athlete Run 1 Run 2 Score 1. Jamie Bestwick 94.33 95.00 95.00 2. Chad Kagy 92.00 90.00 92.00 3. Kevin Robinson 89.33 91.00 91.00 4. Dennis McCoy 84.66 86.66 86.66 5. Jay Miron 86.33 84.33 86.33 6. John Parker 86.00 79.00 86.00 7. Dave Mirra 85.33 DNF 85.33 8. Koji Kraft 85.00 85.00 85.00 9. Jay Eggleston 83.00 80.66 83.00 10. Tim Wood 82.00 79.66 82.00

BMX Vert is an unforgiving event and the vert ramp is an unforgiving structure. In Thursday's BMX Freestyle Vert contest, the real competition took place between the riders and the ramp. Sometimes, the ramp won.

The first rider to drop in on the massive 13-foot-tall ramp was Jay Eggleston, who did high, smooth airs, tailwhips and 540s. His second run was cut short when he slammed on an alley-oop 540, hit his head and knocked himself out for a moment.

Aussie Tim Wood, refinanced his house to pay his way to the Asian X Games earlier this year, where he qualified for a ticket to L.A and a chance to compete in his first U.S. contest. The 30-year-old rookie convinced everyone that he belonged by pulling a past-clicked turndown flair over the channel to another flair. He later landed a 900—the trick that won him the Asian X Games—but was blown off his bike by the force of his rotation. When his score of 82 flashed, the crowd booed. He finished 10th.

The old man of BMX is 38-year-old Dennis "The Real" McCoy. DMC was almost out before he dropped in. He went down in practice and hit his head just minutes before the contest began. Despite being a bit detuned, DMC carved corkscrew flairs over the channel. He crashed on a barspin 540 in his first run, but redeemed himself by pulling it clean in his second.

Chad Kagy broke his neck two years ago and is only now riding at full strength. He's probably even better than he was before the injury. Kagy blasted 12 feet out of the pipe, landed a double tailwhip, a barspin to tailwhip and, for the first time in competition, pulled a triple barspin, grabbing the bars between each turn. Following his first run, he sat squarely in first place.

Kagy's friend and State College neighbor Kevin Robinson rode away from flairs of all stripes to finish third.

Toward the end of his first run, John Parker missed his bars on a tailwhip to very-late barspin, crashed and knocked himself out for several minutes. It was the scariest moment of the competition. He was carted off on a spine board, taken to the hospital and kept overnight for observations.

The winningest rider in BMX history, Dave Mirra was the picture of confidence and consistency during this week's practices. On his $6,000, 24K gold-plated bike, Mirra dropped in and blasted huge airs but fell headfirst and knocked himself out when he misjudged an opposite air over the channel. He was forced to pull out of the competition.

Jamie Bestwick was one of the few riders who delivered two runs, and both were off-the-chart unbelievable. He clocked airs in the 14-foot range and unleashed a barrage of tricks with style and liquid smoothness. He flair-whipped the channel in his first run, then finished his second with a turndown flair over the channel to a 540 to a tailwhip to a flair to an opposite fastplant-flair. Victory sealed.

Quotes

"Tonight was a knockout."—Rick Thorne

"The double flair is happening Saturday. I'm not leaving 'til I pull it."—Kevin Robinson

"I crashed on an opposite air ... not a flair. An air?" Dave Mirra

"This is a WTF contest."—Mat Hoffman

"Gold bikes get extra points."—judge Leigh Ramsdell

"I landed that first air and it was like, boom. It's on."—Jamie Bestwick

"When Parker went down, I felt physically sick."—Jamie Bestwick

- Moto X Best Trick Finals Rank Athlete Run 1 Run 2 Score 1. Jeremy Stenberg 92.20 88.60 92.20 2. Travis Pastrana 66.00 91.20 91.20 3. Nate Adams 88.60 90.40 90.40 4. Kenny Bartram 69.00 89.40 89.40 5. Ronnie Faisst 86.40 86.40 86.40 6. Dustin Miller 86.40 85.20 86.40 7. Nikki Danielson 83.80 84.80 84.80 8. Ailo Gaup 81.00 84.60 84.60 9. Beau Bamburg 66.60 77.00 77.00 10. Chuck Carothers 71.20 69.20 71.20

The beauty of the X Games Moto X Best Trick competition is that you never know what you're going to get. It doesn't matter how good the rider is because what counts is one perfect never-before-seen hit. Even though Travis Pastrana stole pre-event headlines with rumors of a special bike for bar spins, Jeremy "Twitch" Stenberg landed Thursday's money trick: a 90-footer backflip on his first of two runs. It was the longest backflip in X Games history, and for extra sauce Stenberg added a no-footed turn down to a one handed landing. The gold was Twitch's first at the X Games.

The Best Trick field was stacked, as Pastrana, Nate Adams, Kenny Bartram and Chuck Carothers were all riding in good health. "I didn't know if I had a chance," said Stenberg. "I've been on the Boom Boom Huck Jam for the past two months so I haven't practiced. I've been doing backflip whips and no-footers, so I thought I'd try a one- hander-lander."

Heading into the start of the competition, Pastrana had everyone guessing what he would try. During construction of the course, he climbed into a Bobcat and carved out a special lip into the backside of the landing. Later in practice, Pastrana took turns flipping the landing lip and the 45-foot ramp. Occasionally during the flips he would give his handlebars a twist. Even though it was obvious he was planning to pop a surprise, his bike looked normal and he said it was is regular Cernic Suzuki. Travis's only hint of his plan was his explanation for why he carved out the lip in the landing: "I probably would have a better chance of landing the trick over the super kicker, but I have a better chance of not being injured on the lip jump." So what could he be planning?

When it was time for his first run of competition—Travis was the eighth of 10 riders to go—he screamed to the top of the ramp with a new setup. The front end of his bike was built so it could spin 360 degrees, opening the door for bar spins and tail whips. Pastrana got his signal, dropped down the ramp and rolled slowly toward the lip. Unfortunately, the force of rolling up the steeply cut kicker wasted the front end. Even before he landed, the welds broke and the front wheel and forks separated from the motorcycle. Pastrana yard-saled down the landing. On his second run, on a new bike, Pastrana landed a 75-foot backflip with a candy-bar saran-wrap to no-hander lander combo. It landed him a silver medal.

Although Pastrana's routine was a mystery before game time and Stenberg was a question mark, Chuck Carothers and Nate Adams, first and second in 2004, said they planned to duplicate their runs from last year: Carothers would attempt to replicate the body varial he created, called the Carolla, Adams would do a 360, a safe trick designed to keep him healthy for Moto X Freestyle.

"Nobody else has done it," said Carothers. "Nobody else has even done it into a foam pit from what I understand. Until someone steps up to beat me I'm going to keep doing what I do. My new tricks are going to come over a slow amount of time."

In his first run, Carothers aborted the trick early. In the second run, he overcooked his rotation and couldn't get back on the bike. Part of his body landed on the bike and his head slammed into the landing. After several minutes he got up and walked off the course with the assistance of a few members of the Red-Shirt Crew. He earned 10th place points, but the admiration of the crowd. A few moments later, he peeled off his top and gave a shirtless interview to ESPN's Jamie Little. (We'll leave the joke making on this one up to you.)

Adams pulled off two clean 360s from the 75-foot ramp to win bronze.

Notes and Quotes

Kenny Bartram threw a surprise when he landed a side-saddle backflip off the 45-foot kicker on his second run. On his first attempt, Bartram crashed trying the same trick, but if you weren't paying close attention, it was difficult to see what he trying to do in the first place. It looked like he did a flip with a can-can and never got his leg back to the other side.

As stacked as the lineup was, it was still missing Brian Deegan and Mike Metzger. Both guys were on the Staples sidelines, but neither felt well enough to ride. Deegan says he's just happy to be alive after a near-fatal backflip crash at Bam Margera's home a couple months back. "The day before I got here, I decided that I wasn't 100 percent and I didn't want to take up an entry from someone who really deserves it," Deegs said. "I only ride to win, so I decided to take it off. It's hard to sit this one out, but I'm stoked to heal up." Deegan will be compete in Step-Up Friday night, but Metzger will not.

Funny story: Chuck Carothers may have an accidental business on his hands. Chuck has developed quite a freestyle riding area at his 70-acre Texas home. He and his buddies nicknamed it "Camp Chuck." When Carothers appeared on a local radio station, the DJ found out about Camp Chuck and played it up heavily. "Then I started getting all kinds of e-mails from people asking when they could send their kids to Camp Chuck," Carothers said. "I thought, 'Whoa! This could become a business."

What did Nate do to pass the time while he healed his broken femur? "I played a lot of videogames and I read Lance Armstrong's books, It's Not About the Bike and Every Second Counts. I learned that breaking a femur and dislocating a shoulder is nothing compared to testicular, abdominal and brain cancer. If he can come back from that, I can come back from this."

Travis Pastrana on what it takes to win Best Trick: "There are the Deegans, the Metzgers and myself who were made for this one-off event. Then you have guys like Bartram and Adams who are better Freestyle riders than most of us. But when it comes to the X Games it's about a show and who can get the crowd on their feet."