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Photo by Ian Hylands |
Zink (USA) had tried the 360 drop on his first run and almost managed to land it – almost being the key word. It was pretty unbelievable that he went back to the starting area at all after such a heavy crash on his first run. Landing the trick on his second try at the “Icon Sender” also landed him the overall win as well as “best trick”. Truly deserving, Zink won’t only leave Utah with the Red Bull Rampage victory in his pocket, but also with the title of FMB World Champion. Obviously, he was super stoked: “It feels totally awesome to be the first FMB World Tour Champion in mountain bike history! This weekend I was wearing Ryan Dungey’s signature goggles. Ryan has recently become the youngest AMA supercross champion ever and his goggles just always win championships. And it worked out perfectly for me! Red Bull Rampage, best trick and FMB World Tour Champion; I still can’t believe it!”
After a knee injury forced him to take a long time off, Zink could only take part in a few selected events. “For a while I was doing really awful. There is nothing worse than having to put your entire life on hold. But that’s what it was like for me – because biking is my life and until I couldn’t ride again, it wasn’t a life for me”, he says. All the more impressive is his comeback! After a third place at the Chatel Mountain Style, Zink is the first rider ever to win the Monster Energy Slopestyle at the Kokanee Crankworx in Whistler and the Red Bull Rampage in the same year. Together with an 18th place at the Crankworx Colorado, his excellent rankings helped secure the World Champion title of the FMBA.
Before the Red Bull Rampage, it was clear that only Cam Zink and the Commencal-rider Yannick Granieri could take the first place in the FMB ranking list away from Canadian Brandon Semenuk with a win in Utah. When Yannick Granieri, who had been ranking second in the FMB World Tour until the Red Bull Rampage, did not qualify for the finals last weekend, it was clear that the decision would be made between Zink and Trek-rider Semenuk. Unfortunately, Semenuk was out with an injury so it was up to Zink to score enough points and take the lead. Because of the high degree of difficulty, the world-class riders and other factors, the Red Bull Rampage was a FMB World Tour diamond event. Which meant that with a good rank the riders could score a lot of important points in one event.
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Photo by Ale DiLullo |
In the end, Zink came out on top as the first FMB World Champion. On his second run, Darren Berrecloth seized the opportunity to kick Granieri off the FMB World Tour podium and sent the new Mondraker-rider Andreu Lacondeguy to 4th place at the Red Bull Rampage. For Berrecloth, this was definitely also a great season finish.
At the end of a really successful FMB World Tour, Cameron Zink emerges victorious as the deserved world champion and winner of the Monster Energy Slopestyle in Whistler as well as the Red Bull Rampage in Utah. Until the very end it was not clear who would come out on top since just a single event can reorganize the entire ranking list – as Brandon had to experience himself at the last minute. Next year, some of the best riders in the world will once again travel around the world from one event to another trying to climb up the ranking ladder. We would like to thank this year’s riders to for making the FMB World Tour such a success! In particular, the top ranking athletes:
Join the association, transfer your small one-year membership fee and represent with your official FMB Better Bottle™. From then on, you will get updated about all the freshest FMB World Tour and FMBA news as one of the very first.
Get things going on:
www.fmbworldtour.com/2010/member
The current FMB World Tour ranking is available on:
www.fmbworldtour.com/2010/ranking-results
The detailed list of 2010’s FMB World Tour events:
www.fmbworldtour.com/2010/events
Follow the FMB World Tour on facebook or twitter to get the latest news:
www.fmbworldtour.com/facebook and
www.fmbworldtour.com/twitter.
Watch a video of the finals here:
http://www.redbullusa.com/cs/Satellite/en_US/Video/Red-Bull-Rampage-Finals-021242911842873
The FMBA and the FMB World Tour want to thank all their supporters in 2010: adidas eyewear, Alexrims, Avid, BigBike Magazine, Bikepark Leogang, Bike Magazine (USA), Bike Magazine (Spain), CamelBak, Clif Bar, Decline Magazine, Easton, Freeride Magazine (Germany), Freeride Magazine (Spain), GT Bicycles, Manitou, Mavic, Mondraker, Mongoose, Mountainbike Magazine (Germany), Mountainbike Rider Magazine, Mountain Biking UK Magazine, RockShox, Rocky Mountain Bicycles, Scott, Specialized, SR Suntour, SRAM, Trek, Truvativ, TSG and Tutto Mountainbike Magazine.
General information about the FMB World Tour:
The goal of the Freeride Mountain Bike (FMB) World Tour is to help develop the sport of Freeride Mountain Biking - which includes: big mountain, slopestyle and dirt jumping - providing athletes and event organizers with a tangible world ranking system and guidelines for course design, judging and safety.
The FMB World Tour is run by the Freeride Mountain Bike Association (FMBA), a non-profit organization following the goal to push the mountain bike freeride sport into a more professional direction and establish it in the world of sports through the raise of media and public attention.
The FMBA advisory board is an alliance of core scene members consisting of professional athletes, event organizers and opinion leaders: Aaron Chase (pro rider / USA), Todd Barber (event organizer “Red Bull Rampage” / USA), Alex Dörr (CEO & founder EIM Solutions / GER), Tarek Rasouli (athlete manager & event organizer, “Big in Bavaria”, “26TRIX”, “Vienna Air King”, “White Style” / GER), Vincent Saccomani (judge of international events, journalist & filmer / FRA), Jeremy Roche (General Manager, Crankworx Events Inc. / CAN), Darren Berrecloth (pro rider & event organizer “Bearclaw Invitational” / CAN) and Grant Fielder (pro rider & course builder / GBR).
After an internal voting in March 2010, FMBA’s Board of Directors consists of the 1st President: Tarek Rasouli, Vice-President Todd Barber and Principal: Jeremy Roche
Video de regalo des crack en qüestió! (cortesia den Toni Morell)