FMX… A Look Back
This weekend some of the best FMX riders on the planet will open the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour 2010 with a spectacular event in Mexico City (MEX). The 2010 season is a very special one for the Red Bull X-Fighters: the biggest FMX tour on the planet, which started in 2001 in Valencia and became a World Tour in 2008, is celebrating its tenth birthday.
We take a look at the highlights of the past ten years and find out how Red Bull X-Fighters has shaped the modern freestyle motocross scene.
The legendary story of the Red Bull X-Fighters begins in a small bullfighting arena in Valencia on a warm summer’s evening. The tricks on show back then in the beautiful Spanish coastal city may not be comparable with those being thrown in 2010, but the riders in the arena on that evening laid the foundations for what is today the biggest FMX tour on the planet.
Two years later came the breakthrough: two riders in Valencia whipped the crowd into a frenzy as they pulled the first ever Backflips in the history of the Red Bull X-Fighters, raising the FMX bar considerably. From now on, any rider wanting to win a Red Bull X-Fighters event had to have the Backflip in his bag of tricks.
One rider who most definitely had the Backflip – and later the Double Backflip – dialled is Travis Pastrana. The American rider burst onto Red Bull X-Fighters in 2004 and thrilled crowds around the world for years with his enormous trick execution and smooth style. The fans’ favourite combined daring Backflip Combos with a unique interaction with the audience to become one of the living legends of Red Bull X-Fighters history.
Just as spectacular as the trick progression over the last ten years is the list of the locations the Red Bull X-Fighters have visited: Rio de Janeiro (BRA), Texas (USA), Calgary (CAN), Dublin (IRE), London (GBR), Mexico City (MEX), Madrid (ESP), Oetelshofen (GER) … This season the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour 2010 is set to add three new locations to this list: Rome (ITA), Moscow (RUS) and the spectacular Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.
Looking at the way the Red Bull X-Fighters have developed over the past ten years, one thing is for sure: the next years are going to be insane.