Bases loaded, two outs, bottom of the ninth and Nate Adams stepped up to the plate with a big ass bat. Nate won in Louisville and Travis won in Denver; the scores were tied.
In what proved to be controversial preliminary scoring, Adams had the luxury of going last in the Vans® Invitational FMX Finals. The bottom line is that both riders were close, maybe too close to put a score on, but you don’t pay your mortgage in Prelims - Nate and Travis’ careers can vouch for that. One thing was for sure, win or lose, one rider would take over the lead in the points chase, edging just a little bit closer to that $75,000 year end bonus.
Beau Bamburg | Tsunami |
But this wasn’t an FMX duel; there was the spoiler - Beau Bamburg. The local boy was backflipping like mad and had the screaming crowd on his side, even louder than we heard for Travis Pastrana; that’s some powerful stuff. When Beau finished his run he slid into second behind Adam Jones as if to say, 'not in my neighborhood.' His run was packed with backflip combos like a backflip cordova, a no handed backflip and heelclicker backflip. Then there was Pastrana. Even at less than a week off of knee surgery, no one could tell by his amazing riding. |
The fans were jolted out of their seats and the place went bananas when Pastrana laid out a huge superman backflip. The crowd didn’t stop until the buzzer went off as Pastrana threw down a Lazyboy backflip, a backflip nac-nac, and a backflip saran wrap to one-hander lander, earning him a score of 96.17.
| Adams had the luxury of going last in the first round and it resulted in a smooth outcome, just like Prelims. His tricks here were dialed like the day before, and his combos were clean, but he wasn’t igniting the crowd like Pastrana, and would have to work hard to match Pastrana's ridiculous backflip superman; who can follow an act like that? Nate tried with a huge backflip Cordova, an extended backflip Lazyboy, a cliffhanger to no hander lander, an off-axis backflip, and a no handed flip to can-can to one hander lander. When the exhaust cleared Nate was in second, but he still had the last run of the comp to pull a rabbit out of his hat. |
Pastrana | Lazy Boy Backflip |
Bamburg made a final charge in his second run to a standing ovation by the hometown Oregon crowd and put on a post-run backflip demo for his fans. He didn’t diverge much from his first run and he was left in 5th place when all was said and done.
Adam Jones | CrackNac |
Just when you didn’t think it could get any better, just when you thought a 96.17 was too high of a score, Pastrana one-upped himself, scoring a 97.50 by pulling off a gigantic superman Indian air backflip, as part of an equally amazing run as he had in his first round.
Adams' last run was stellar, but it couldn’t match Pastrana's electricity and flip combos from his second run and Pastrana was crowned king of Portland -- until they meet again in San Jose. |
These guys have turned the Dew Tour into a two man grudge match with Pastrana winning this stop at the Vans® Invitational and taking the overall points lead away from a tie with Adams.
The lesson from Portland is that Travis Pastrana puts his money where his mouth is... and he has a voice to be reckoned with.
FMX Finals, Vans® Invitational Portland
1st Pastrana, Travis 97.50
2nd Adams, Nate 96.17
3rd Jones, Adam 94.33
4th Lusk, Jeremy 93.50
5th Bamburg, Beau 93.50
6th McNeil, Jim 93.33
7th Mason, Mike 93.00
8th Maddison, Robbie 90.67
9th McElroy, Drake 90.10
10th Foster, Brian 88.33
11th Richmond, Myles 88.00
12th Burlew, Derek 86.67
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