Rinaldo strikes back

Saturday produced an incredible end to the 10th round of NIGHT of the JUMPs FIM Freestyle MX World Championships, and like the previous day, the 10 World Cup opponents from five nations faced off again in the Shenzhen Sports Centre, but with an air of confidence going into the second day of competition.

Unlike the first day of competition, most riders changed their Freestyle runs in the hope of picking up a place in the final 6 showdown. Brice Izzo took advantage of his new Barhop to SuperFlip combination to make it through to the final, while the newly crowned NIGHT of the JUMPs European Champion Petr Pilat arrived with a completely new qualifying run to stamp his authority on the top 6.  Libor Podmol, Maikel Melero, David Rinaldo and Rob Adelberg rounded out the final in similar fashion to the first night in Shenzhen.

One of the riders missing the top 6 was the previous night’s surprise 3rd place finalist, Germany’s Hannes Ackermann, who had a Volt the day before, but with a bent clutch lever and missing second gear he wouldn’t make it to the final.  Worse still, another of the finalists from the previous day was Dany Torres.  The Spaniard failed on his Cliffhanger Flip to Lazyboy Flips in the double-double line and only finished in 10th position. However Torres held his head high by taking out the LifeProof Best Whip competition for the second day in a row.

The Maxxis Highest Air was like a blue print repeat from the previous day.  Massimo Bianconcini beat Jose Miralles again at the 9.00 metre height when he breezed over on his first attempt and Jose requiring two attempts to get to the next height of 9.50 metres.  After both failed at 9.50 metres, Massimo won on the countback of completed attempts.

The final 6 started with Rob Adelberg, who was frustrated with the outcome of yesterday’s final.  Today Rob had extra motivation to produce the cleanest run he could, and after extending every trick as perfectly as possible including the California Roll to finish the Double Up.  With his extra push, it was enough for Rob to improve his position by 3 places to third place and reaching the podium.  

Petr Pilat opened with a solid run, however the Double-Double line would claim a victim in Pilat, when he hesitated on landing a side-saddle flip, and then putting extra pressure on the next jump when he made an uncharacteristic mistake of accomplishing only a Heelclicker to save an otherwise dead sailer. Brice Izzo was also unable to capitalise on his Top 6 final and couldn’t improve his position.

After a setback on Friday in 4th position, the reigning World Champion, Maikel Melero was able to battle his way back to close to the top spot with his Double Grab Flip and ‘Melero Roll’ to make 2nd place. But it wasn’t enough to fend off his main challenger to his title, David Rinaldo. After his luggage finally arrived in the afternoon, David was able to throw down a much better run than last night when he was borrowing parts and gear from a handful of his fellow competitors. With the California Roll, Volt and Double Hart Attack flip, Rinaldo secured his spot on the hot seat by only a few points.

With only one rider left who could crash the party, Libor Podmol was set to turn Shenzhen on fire after his previous night’s win. But as quickly as the hype was built for Podmol, the wheels fell off the wagon and he could only complete one trick before retiring due to mechanical problems.  On his first jump of the run, as he stood upon his seat for the Surfer take-off to Tsunami Flip, his subframe cracked and wrecked any chance of repeating his win.

David Rinaldo took the victory on the second night and now leads with 12 points with 172 points in total. Followed by the reigning FIM World Champion Maikel Melero with 160 points and Rob Adelberg in 3rd position in the overall standings.

It won’t be until the 7th of November before the next World Championship points will be awarded, when the FMX riders will meet again in Caraguatatuba (Sao Paulo), Brazil to push for the final run at the overall World Championship title.

FACTS 
NIGHT of the JUMPs/FIM Freestyle MX World Championship
Shenzhen, 17. October 2015 – Runde 10
Results NIGHT of the JUMPs – Final
1. David RinaldoFRAFFMYamaha408 Points
2. Maikel MeleroESPRFMEKTM399 Points
3. Rob AdelbergAUSAMAYamaha396 Points
4. Brice IzzoFRAFFMYamaha377 Points
5. Petr PilatCZEACCRKTM354 Points
6. Libor PodmolCZEACCRYamaha 20 Points

Results Qualification
1. Libor PodmolCZEACCRYamaha364 Points
2. Maikel MeleroESPRFMEKTM361 Points
3. David RinaldoFRAFFMYamaha349 Points
4. Petr PilatCZEACCRKTM344 Points
5. Brice IzzoFRAFFMYamaha342 Points
6. Rob AdelbergAUSAMAYamaha341 Points
7. Hannes AckermannGERDMSBKTM318 Points
8. Luc AckermannGERDMSBHusqvarna303 Points
9. Jose MirallesESPRFMEKTM302 Points
10. Dany TorresESPRFMEKTM299 Points
Lifeproof Best Whip Contest
1. Dany TorresESPRFMEKTM
2. Maikel MeleroESPRFMEKTM

Maxxis Highest-Air
1. Massimo BianconciniITAPZMKTM9,00 Meter
2. Jose MirallesESPRFMEKTM9,00 Meter
3. Luc AckermannGERDMSBHusqvarna8,50 Meter

FIM Freestyle MX World Championship
Ranking (after 10th contest)
1. David RinaldoFRAFFMYamaha172 Points
2. Maikel MeleroESPRFMEYamaha160 Points
3. Rob AdelbergAUSAMAYamaha148 Points
4. Libor PodmolCZEACCRYamaha138 Points
5. Remi BizouardFRAFFMKawasaki  90 Points
6. Jose MirallesESPRFMEKTM  85 Points
7. Hannes AckermannGERDMSBKTM  82 Points
8. Brice IzzoFRAFFMYamaha  75 Points
9. James CarterUSAAMAHonda  52 Points
10. Luc AckermannGERDMSBHusqvarna  47 Points 
11. Petr PilatCZEACCRKTM  32 Points
12. Dany TorresESPRFMEYamaha  30 Points
13. Filip PodmolCZEACCRYamaha  23 Points
14. Taka HigashinoJAPYamaha  16 Points
15. Davide RossiITAPZM KTM  14 Points
16. Kai HaaseGERDMSBSuzuki  12 Points
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