The big event of the San Francisco Bike Expo is Andrew Taylor’s freestyle MTB comp, known as AT’s Showdown. This year, the emphasis on slopestyle was taken down a notch and in it’s place, the focus was on a head-to-head dirt jump format. Or, as I was calling it, “watchin’ dudes on bikes hitting big-ass jumps, going really-really f*cking big.” The jumps were huge, and tricks were being thrown down left and right. And the crashes were even bigger.
How’s this for perspective? The jumps were rather large, with nice big dirt landings.
No write up this time, check Pinkbike for Tim Zimmerman’s coverage and photo documentation as well as video edits that just hit.
View from the top of the hill.Andreu Lacondeguy flies like superman. He got a lot more stretched out with his feet much higher than his head, but I personally liked the frames I had before that, and the look of the classic man in flight.I know more than a few dudes in the NW that would talk shit about the stem and bar set up on Benny Phillip’s bike, but I think he would tear them up and piss all over what was left over. Seriously, this new arrival on the slopestyle scene has tiger blood.Benny ate shit over and over trying to stick this inverted flip-tail-whip-I-don’t-know-what-the-f*ck-he’s-doing.Seriously, this kid is a tough mo-fo. Just one of many hard hits to the ground he took. And he kept trying to stick it. If he had, he probably would have taken best trick.All of the riders were throwing down, and there was a significant amount of carnage witnessed.“I got this, I got this…. nope.” And yes, my camera totally missed the focus on this shot. Which is why it is currently on it’s way back to Canon for a serious tune-up.The riders pushed back up this hill dozens of times. I imagine many of them were feeling it come Monday morning.AT shredding at his name sake event. As is the norm with so many mountain bike events, you couldn’t take a photo without 2 to 3 photographers and videographers getting in the composition. I even had a few people step right in front of me and block my view. Politeness is not always a trait found amongst MTB photographers.I’m not even sure what this guys trying to take a photo of.A rider whose name currently is escaping me, whipping with some seriously rad style. James Visser?
And one more of the local slopestyle hero from Santa Rosa, Andrew Taylor; Super-flip.
If you were curious about who won the comp, here’s the top 6 line up copied and pasted from Zim’s write up on PinkBike:
1st Greg Watts
2nd Ryan Howard
3rd Andreu Lacondeguy
4th Linus Sjöholm
5th Martin Söderström
6th James Visser
for best trick:
1st – Andreu Lacondeguy – Double Backflip
2nd – Anthony Messere – Tuck No Hander Frontflip
