If you watched this years X Games -16 Speed & Style then you saw one hell of a showdown between Faisst and Twitch.
Ronnie Faisst met up with ESPN’s Ryan Leyba and gave him the break down on what happened, and how he took home a medal! If you are wondering what kind of glasses Ronnie is rocking, they are his new signature Metal Mulisha “Fizzle” glasses that come out November 25th 2010!
X Games 16 wrapped up on Sunday in true Mulisha style with the Speed & Style event, ghost rides and all! Even though Travis Pastrana took Gold, and Nate Adams Silver, Twitch, Ronnie Faisst and Brian Deegan stole the show. The Mulisha vs. Mulisha racing was by far the most exciting of the night, and possibly of the whole X Games!
After the timed qualifying round, the head-to-head match ups were next. Twitch qualified 3rd and Deegan 6th. Which meant Twitch vs. Deegan in the head-to-head quarter finals! Twitch beat the General straight up, but the are no hard feelings and the two finished it off with big side-by-side whips. Twitch moved onto the semi final vs. Nate Adams.
Ronnie Faisst beat Kevin Johnson in his match up, thanks to a much higher style score, taking him to the semi final vs. Pastrana. In the semi Pastrana was hauling ass and was able to beat Faisst to move to the finals.
Twitch was matched up against Adams in the semi. This was set to be a solid match up as Twitch and Adams were both really fast and both have huge tricks. But Twitch got hung up on the starting gate and was behind from the start. He was able to make up some ground on Adams while throwing a big no handed flip for style. Then the whoops happened. Twitch was taking the far left line and got a little too far left in to the soft dirt and swapped out. Twitch was out of the finals, but there was still a Bronze medal up for grabs…another MM vs. MM battle! Twitch vs. Faisst!
This is where things got crazy! In the first carpeted corner, Twitch slid out! Faisst was way out front and it looked like he was cruising to an easy win for Bronze. But then the whoops happened…again! Faisst clicked 3rd gear going into the whoops, but he stalled his 450!!!! Twitch passed him through the whoops and went on to take the checkered flag and ghost ride his bike off the landing for the Bronze medal.
Then, out of nowhere, Deegan came running out to let them know that they had only finished 3 laps and the race wasn’t over! The flag guy messed up and waved the checkers too early. Because of all the confusion, the mistake by the flagger, the fact that Twitch’s bike was weeded and he couldn’t race anymore, the X Games people decided to give both Twitch & Faisst Bronze medals!
Congrats to all on a good show and bringing home some more X Games hardware!
In case you lost count, that’s a total of 10 X Games medals this year for the Metal Mulisha! Domination!
Check the X Games Speed & Style video below and the full X Games Speed & Style photo gallery!
Download (QuickTime 15.1MB)
This years X Games 16 Rally competition was both dominated by Deegan and Tanner Foust, both with podium wins in Rally and Super Rally.
Deegan and Tanner both drove the 2010 Ford Fiesta’s with engines pumping out 600 horsepower and hit 60 mph in 2 seconds. For the qualifier Deegan went head to head with Travis Pastrana, Ken Block and Kenny Brack.
It was a close race when Deegan took on Pastrana. Deegan was in the lead by a few seconds, but Pastrana pushed his car to it’s limits trying to catch up to Deegan, and got caught up on the top of the Coliseum pillars.
Brian has been looking forward to taking on Pastrana all year so the qualifying win which led him into the finals was huge for the General!
As the finals kicked off, Deegan was running a fast lap time in the Rally finals and missed his corner turn which placed Deegan into second place as his team member Tanner Foust took first!
Deegan’s Rally crew prepped his car for the next battle of Super Rally. Travis Pastrana’s and Sverre Isachsen’s cars needed new engines and Dave Mirra’s required a new rear differential. All of these racers could not get their Rally cars fixed in time for the Super Rally race.
As the engines started and the Rally cars took off from the start line, Deegan got the jump off the line ahead of Foust and Stephan Verdier in the final. Foust had the inside and forced his position to make the pass into second and pushed Deegan into third. As race fell to the last lap Deegan moved his way into second trailing his team member Foust for the finish which gave Brian his second Silver Medal of the day!
The Metal Mulisha media team kicked ass this weekend and we have nothing but photos from the Rally Race along with plenty of other photos and videos from the event. Check back soon for the full video of Deegan Racing Rally and the on-board camera footage.
1, 2, 3…that is what place Metal Mulisha riders got in X Games Best Trick! That’s right, a Metal Mulisha sweep of the podium! An international sweep to boot, with 2 Ausies and a our boy Taka from Japan.
The man of the night was by far Cam Sinclair. Cam came out and stomped the double backflip, the same trick that almost ended his riding career about 1 year ago in Spain. X Games Gold is a HUGE accomplishment by itself, but it was even more impressive because of what Cam overcame in such a short time to get to where he is now. We’re proud of you bud! You earned it! Congrats!
Robbie Maddison stepped up his already sick body varial to break a tie for 2nd with Taka by keeping it old school 1999 style and adding in a side saddle lander. That did the job and earned Maddo sole possession of the Silver medal. Yet another story of bouncing back…Maddo crashed on the body varial, injuring his wrist, just the day before in the FMX semi finals. He is gnarly. Congrats Maddo!
Taka Higashino is pretty much the only guy I can think of consistently pulling the double grab backflip right now. He had it in his FMX run, and threw it down in his first run of Best Trick. In his second run, Taka stepped it up even more with a HUGE double grab indian air flip to nail down the Bronze medal.
That’s what went down. 1, 2, 3…Gold, Silver, Bronze. Goodnight.
Scope the video below, and the X Games Moto X Best Trick photo gallery that has photos of every trick, and plenty of sequences…if you click through the gallery fast enough it’s just like a movie.
Download (QuickTime 15.1MB)
Well, not much to say about Best Whip. You all saw it. 52% of you texted in to vote for Todd Potter. And for good reason…Potter cracked the whip on everyone for the win! With his traditional upside down whips, the 180 degree turndown whips, and the ass end down anti whip, Potter had every whip style covered and hucked them bigger than anyone else. Congrats Potter!
Twitch and Josh Grant were going huge too! Twitch came back from his dislocated ankle he got on Thursday during the FMX elimination round, and scored a Bronze medal in best whip!
Check out the X Games 16 best whip photo gallery and the sick video below!
Download (QuickTime 15.1MB)
You can get the Mulisha Nation tee right here.
We had Todd Potter and Jeff Ox Kargola representing the Mulisha in step up this year. Deegan was supposed to ride in step up, but he wanted to be fresh for Rally and Speed & Style later on in the week so he gave up his spot, and Ox was lucky enough to fill the spot as 1st alternate.
In practice Ox was airing it out bigger than anyone. Everyone was picking him for the win…even Twitch as you’ll see in the video below. Potter was doing good in practice but you could tell he was holding a little back for the finals.
Come the step up finals, Ox was clearing the bar by a lot! Maybe too much, because he crashed twice in a row after clearing the bar. Unfortunately, if you crash even when you clear the bar it doesn’t count, so Ox was out.
Potter stepped up his game in the final and made it to the top 3 before hitting the bar. I’m not sure if he got a medal for that…I think they just give Gold. Anyway, congrats to Buyten on the win, and congrats Potter on 3rd place, or bronze, or whatever the hell you got.
Check out a ton more step up photos in the X Games Step Up photo gallery and scope the video right below!
Download (QuickTime 15.1MB)
Download (QuickTime 15.1MB)
Congrats to Josh Grant for his X Games, Super X Gold Medal Win! Last year Grant suffered a crash at X Games 15 breaking both his feet in his heat race. With a fresh start this year Grant was looking for redemption in the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Both Grant and his teammate Justin Brayton qualified easily for the main event. When the gate fell for the final, it was two-time Super X Gold Medalist Josh Hansen in the lead with Grant and Brayton pushing hard to be in the top spot.
Grant closed in and made his move for the lead on lap 11 and led for the remainder of the race smoking Hansen on the back section of the track. When the checkered flag flew it was Grant took the X Games 16 Gold Medal! Check out the full photo gallery of Grant from this years Super X!
The first day of competition at X Games 16 was an interesting one for the Metal Mulisha. The boys came in confident and ready to take their share of medals in the Freestyle Moto X event. Unfortunately the elimination round early Thursday at the LA Coliseum was just that…the round where a lot of guys got eliminated! Ya, it sucked.
Jacko crashed HARD while coming up a little short on a backflip, swapping out and slamming. He was slow to get up and was carted to the med center. Jacko messed up his shoulder and got a pretty good concussion. He is out for X Games Best Trick.
Jeremy Twitch Stenberg had a disappointing heat. On his first of 3 runs he had a dead sailor which got him a low first score. Twitch was ready to come back and nail the next 2 runs in order to qualify for the finals. Unfortunately Twitch dislocated his ankle midway through the run. Check out this video of Twitch explaining what happened. Bummed. But he should be good to go tonight for Best Whip!
Todd Potter had some bad luck in his qualifier. Seems like every run Potter had a small mistake that messed up his flow, and after that he just started throwing some of his Gold Medal winning whips for fun. BTW, Potter is guaranteeing Gold in Best Whip…I believe he can do it. But Twitch and JG33 want it bad too! Definitely some friendly shit talking and side bets going on in the pits all day.
Jeff OX Kargola made it into the Freestyle competition as an alternate and he was ready to make the most of it. Ox was riding well, but just couldn’t quite link it all together for the score he is capable of.
Taka Higashino was killing it. I’m still not sure how he didn’t make it into the next round. He was smooth, throwing big tricks on every jump, and was the only guys to throw the double grab flip! Tons of photos of Taka in the X Games FMX photo gallery.
The man of the hour was Rob Adelberg! Rob is the newest Metal Mulisha recruit and an X Games rookie, but he rode like a vet and a bad ass! Rob made it to the next round no problem. Check out some of his HUGE tricks in the photo gallery….
Robbie Maddison was on point in the qualifying round. Maddo was throwing down the “Volt” body varial consistently in every run and qualified 2nd, just 1 point behind Travis Pastrana.
So, the two Ausie Robbies in the Mulisha Family advanced to the round of 8 for a chance to make it to the 4 man finals. Adelberg rode consistently and well enough to get 5th place! He didn’t get to the 4 man final, but 5th place in his first X Games is awesome! Congrats Rob!!!
Maddo was on track to challenge Pastrana for the win. In his 1st run he nailed it and scored a 40. In his 2nd run, Maddo slammed hard on a body varial. Just like that he went from a contender for the win to watching from the sidelines in pain. Sorry Maddo…tough luck. But there is a chance Maddo could be back for best trick, so wish him better luck tonight!
Check out the X Games Freestyle photo gallery for all the goods! Keep checking back for updates on every event the Metal Mulisha competes in at X Games.
Download (QuickTime 15.1MB)
A hard charger with no hesitation to his riding style, Metal Mulisha Brandon Dosch was going big in BMX Super Park! Check out the video and more photos of Brandon ripping it up at this years X Games 16 Elimination!
