Specialized BMX Pro racer Brandon Meadows showed up ready to
race the craziest BMX track ever built.
Specialized BMX Pro racer Brandon Meadows showed up ready to race the craziest BMX track ever built.
The track was set into a mountainside. The jumps were alien to any regular BMX racer. The shear speed the hill generated would scare anyone, let alone the jumps squeezed in at every opportunity.
The skill and fear level was evident when even some of the top pros packed it up without a complete run.
Going 40 miles an hour over a 45 foot gap without suspension was pretty scary to watch.
The gnarliest part was a 40 foot step down to a nearly 50 foot hair raising step-up into a hard left 25 foot berm.
This section was the part that Meadows thrived on with his skills. He is no stranger to the downhill scene after winning this event in 2001 and had to sit out last X Games with a broken wrist.
Meadows was running his super-light S-Works aluminum frame. People suggested using a heavier frame since the format was crazier than even the biggest jump contests most people have ever seen.
Meadows had tons of confidence in his bike.
“I want to be out front,” Meadows said.
Brandon went down once in practice by over jumping the 50 footer to flat (if you came up short you could have broken your neck).
He felt like someone threw him out of a car and was stiff when the Time Trials came around.
Saturday’s Time Trial was so important for seedings and lane choice throughout the races.
Brandon was hauling for his run and posted the fastest time by 2-10this of a second.
He would use his lane choices wisely for the event to be run.
On race day Sunday, the format was 32 riders (4 gates of 8) would run a quarter main.
Meadows snapped out of the gate and rode to a win to transfer him to the semi.
He was next to Kyle Bennett and after being neck and neck into the first turn he settled into second and qualified to the main event for all the marbles.
The main event had Meadows picking lane choice and settling in next to the super fast Bennett.
Bennett kept on Meadows waiting for a mistake that would never come.
Meadows could hear the charge down the last straight, but kept on the gas for the win,
Meadows is now a two-time X Games Gold medalist. The kid from Sacramento did what he set out to do – repeat as former champion.
