Tom Pages riding the high after winning the final Redbull X-Fighters round and overall championship in Madrid. Photo: Jorg Mitter/Redbull
UNIT rider Tom Pages of France won the 2013 Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour on Friday 19th July in front of a frenzied Madrid crowd of 23,000 with what was probably the most electrifying runs ever in the season finale. Japan’s Taka Hagashino finished second on a thrilling night of FMX in Madrid’s famous Las Ventas bullring with Javier Villegas of Chile taking third place. Pages took the World Tour Championship with 360 points with the 2011 champion, Dany Torres of Spain, in second with 260 points.
Pages took FMX to new heights in front of the big Madrid crowd, the most enthusiastic on the calendar each year. He dug deep into his big bag of tricks on the tight but technical Las Ventas course and threw down a heavy run of tricks no other rider has ben able to match consistently throughout the series.
Executing a Flair on a dirt-bike is insane, throw in a Tsunami on top is genius! Photo: Flo Hagena/Redbull
Reflecting how close the world’s FMX elite has become, the Frenchman became the fourth different World Tour champion in the last four years. Pages epitomised consistency all season, getting on the podium in all five events. On Friday he gave what was probably his most brilliant performance ever in the final against Higashino, nailing his exciting Flair (a 540-degree turn off a quarter-pipe), his Special Flip (a mid-air back-flip above his seat) and the Volt (a mid-air 360-degree spin off his bike) and then sending the crowd into amazement with his new trick, a Flair Tsunami - where his legs stretch out off the bike midway through his 540 rotation.
“This is more than a dream, it’s just amazing”, Pages said, clearly delighted to get his first victory in Madrid. “This is the best crowd in the world!”
The Volt is one of the hardest tricks in the sport of FMX, and Tom has it on lock!. Photo: Flo Hagena/Redbull
Tom Pages plan now is to celebrate and let the win sink in before hitting the foam pit with the aim of learning an arsenal of new mind blowing tricks that will see him continue to be the rider breaking boundaries heading into the 2014 Redbull X-Fighters series.
Madrid results: 1. Thomas Pages (FRA), 2. Taka Higashino (JPN), 3. Javier Villegas (CHL), 4. Maikel Melero (ESP), 5. Dany Torres (ESP), 6. Levi Sherwood (NZL), 7. Rob Adelberg (AUS), 8. Josh Sheehan (AUS), 9. David Rinaldo (FRA), 10. Clinton Moore (AUS).
Final 2013 Wold Tour standings: 1. Pages 360 points, 2. Torres 260, 3. Higashino 245, 4. Adelberg 240, 5. Sherwood 225, 6. Villegas 150, 7. Rinaldo 125, 8. Adam Jones (USA) 120, 9. Melero 115, 10. Sheehan 115
Source: http://www.unit.com/united-states/blog/2013/7/22/tom-pages--2013-xfighters-champ/
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