Moto X Freestyle: FULL COMPETITION | X Games 2021

welcome everyone to the hills of southern california we are just outside the town of ramona it's x games 2021 and we are at axel hodges compound that he calls slay ground as it plays host to moto x freestyle hello everyone i'm jimmy coleman sitting in the booth alongside mike mason we've got jack matrani out in the field and well mike i'm excited about the return of moto x freestyle here to the x games but coming into this let's talk about your defending champ from 2019 rob adelberg it took a nine starts but he finally walked away with x games gold there in minneapolis yeah rob's been one of those guys just progressing non-stop and you know 2019 in minneapolis finally paid off for him there you can see huge front flip no footer i mean front flips were a you know not even a thought there when we first started freestyling for him to throw a couple on his run land everything clean walk away with the gold not only did he have the front flip but he also had three different variations of it in that run but another big story is that we are here outside again it's been a minute since we've had freestyle motocross outside you got to go all the way back to austin x games in 2016. and what an absolutely surreal setting it is out here at slay ground and with the ability to be outside that means you can make a much bigger course and actually course designer matt mccall estimates this course here mike is almost twice as big as what we saw the years that we had moto x freestyle contested when we were inside u.s bank stadium in minneapolis but we have a field of eight out here in moto x freestyle we talked about your defending champ rob adelberg who else do you like in this field mike i'm gonna go with the my sleeper pick taka higashino he looked great in practice yesterday we know he has a ton of big tricks this course is going to benefit some experience and yeah like i said taco looked great yesterday yeah we actually also have a massive jump there's 105 foot gap out there on this course we haven't seen something that big in a moto x freestyle course of x games in about seven years so we started off with an x games rookie this is benny richards from australia says x games 20 21 is actually his first real competition oh not a good start not a good start for benny man that's hard you know we sat around we had just a minor delay there and you know he's got the nerves he's 20 years old and disappointed but he looks like he's okay he'll have another stab at it so gets up from that virtually unscathed but see what happened here in the replay yeah just not enough juice came up a little short a little under rotated like i said that crash could get really bad for him to just kind of get bucked off the front there and give it another go is gonna be all right uh brutal way to start your x games though yeah that could have been a lot worse but it was good to see him get up and uh walk away from that one so uh some issues there with the bars and the flip levers getting bent up a little bit there so do some tweaking on that hopefully we'll get him back in round number two you do get two runs out here in moto x freestyle it's the better of your two runs of the count those runs are 75 seconds in length well mike let's talk about what are the judges going to be looking for in the span of that 75 seconds they're going to be looking for first things first the biggest tricks the front flips the double back variations but then you also have some jumps on this course you know the 105 ramp we got two super kickers uh 75's coming down the hill i'm sure these guys are going to want to see a little bit of use of course as well so we move on to our next competitor who hails from france this is david rinaldo now david ronaldo was an x games minneapolis in 2019 lit everybody up by walking away with best trick gold at that event yeah ronaldo's got so much style you know right side up tricks he's probably one of my favorite guys nice vario right there he's coming out swinging you know he was a little nervous when i talked to him after practice said it was a fun course to ride but a really challenging course to put a run together but so far he's looking great so just under the one minute mark here he's got 50 plus seconds to go here so far so good looking pretty solid out here in this first of two outings and we got to remember these guys haven't been in this situation in a couple years now you know so for for all these guys to come out just start throwing down the runs i'm sure the the adrenaline is going there trying a little rock solid backflip um it this is one of those times where dave's got a good run going he's just really got to control his breathing calm down and stick the rest of his run he's got 30 seconds left excellent shot there on the overhead cam of the rock solid just under 30 seconds left to kill here one thing i did notice i i don't know if he ever got to it but david didn't hit the 105 ramp yesterday and you know like i said the judges are definitely gonna to favor that ramp a little bit i mean if you're flipping 105 feet compared to 75 feet and doing your tricks you know that's that's a big deal so i'd like to see him get that ramp in before this runs over coming down to the final couple of seconds here looks like he's gonna have time for one more hit if he's able to get under power and get on the approach here with the one-hand takeoff here i like that that was pretty creative there one-handed take-offs uh nate adams actually used to do those a lot next games but never with a seat grab back flip to follow it up so you said it earlier david ronaldo coming out swinging he came out with some heat and some fire there early on in that run puts together a full 75 seconds all of this after time here i don't know if he realizes the clock has expired but let's take a look at some replays for mr bronaldo's first outing yeah right there an awesome body burial um i can't tell you how technical that is to spin around and as you could see actually when he was going up to the ramp there it was there's a shadow on that ramp and that'll mess with the guys a little bit too you can't really see the transition of the ramp so you're kind of just more or less going off field at that point so again it's two 75 second runs it's the best of your two runs that counts out here we'll hopefully put you on the podium out here at x games 20 21 david ronaldo that's a great spot to start off with that'll put him in 88.33 put him in that top spot you got harry coming your way next another australian we actually have uh several aussies in the mix out here perry is stoked to be here at slay ground but let's have a look at his own personal setup he has back home in australia in this monster energy athlete profile hi my name is harry 27 years old and i live on the gold coast australia 2021 x games i will be competing in freestyle motocross and best trick as soon as the downtime hit i knew there was no better time than to rebuild my whole compound i used all my saved money and i spent every cent i had including borrowing money to build my dream set up i purchased a big airbag got all the ramps there concrete run-ups generators it did absolutely everything it was massive commitment it took me four months to build but now i have my dream freestyle compound to perfect my tricks and work towards my dream runs to do it x games and harry is always a wild one to watch you never know what to expect out of this guy he settled for a fifth place finish in freestyle at x games minneapolis back in 2019 so here we go harry in for his first of two attempts yeah nice one-handed knack backflip there to start off i kind of always like when you haven't competed in a while starting with you know two or three tricks that you know you're comfortable with you don't want to come out with something big mess it up blow your whole run so harry getting started here kind of wasting a little bit of time right here i'd like to see him jumping back down the hill to get that extra one or two jumps in oh that was massive massive double back can can he's looking great he's you know he's putting that compound that he rebuilt to good use right now doing that one early in the run too he's still got 40 seconds left to go here and i like what he's doing right here like i said he's got some tricks that he's comfortable with mixing it up and then you know you got to throw your big banger tricks in there as well this once again is my only downfall harry's run is you've got to maximize all these jumps you know with 75 seconds out here this course is so big you don't really have time to to kind of gap jumps like that also plays into that use of course factor as well with the judges so another double backflip so you get two double backflips coming in hot coming in hot oh no he's out in the poison oak off course oh man he he had a good run going there just a little under rotated on the double flip grabbing his back a little bit that's this course is i mean it's a massive course but the run outs are tight on it and as you can see they're just that little little bit off on the landing and send them out in the bushes well again good to see him get spring up from that one rather quickly and walk it away yeah right here starting his run good extension grabbing the boot there like i said he started his run perfect you know just get a couple tricks in there you're confident with huge double backflip can i can't tell you how hard double backflip variations are i mean to spin a 250-pound motorcycle twice is already hard enough and then as you throw you know a limb off the bike that's when it kind of slows down right there under rotate it couldn't get stopped axel's got jumps out on the back of the property there and the bike's gone he hit that little kicker right there he could have launched a lot further into the weeds over there it's good that he hit the eject button when he did but again hopefully he's okay and be able to take his second run right there over there talking to x games medical right now but good to see him get up and walk away under his own power however even with the slip up at the end that's still going to give harry in 85 flat so that'll put him in that number two spot right now behind david ronaldo as the comp crew has to go fish that bike out of the weeds over there and this goes back to what i just said earlier is you know two out of three guys so far have crashed and you know when you don't compete for two years then all of a sudden you're thrown into an x games environment man that's a lot of pressure for these guys um harry did look solid it was that was just a small error with no run out but you know i'd expect some minor mistakes from these guys in these first runs you know i also have to talk about the travel time too for a lot of these guys i mean you're flying halfway across the world to get here from australia plus you have to travel with all this gear so how much does that factor into practice time that you actually have on course once you get in country that's huge you know and harry had to come here build a bike uh same with benny richards you know like harry said he built his compound he was practicing there every day and then you come here you're jet lagged you're not sleeping well you're on a kind of a different motorcycle even though it's the same bike you're hitting different ramps so for these australians europeans to come over here and you know start to stick some runs is pretty impressive so he seems to be okay for the most part over there just kind of wincing a little bit and grabbing the backside as he chats it up with x games medical but again i mean even with that slip up at the end a little bit of time on the clock i mean that still nets him in the mid 80s right there and slides him into that number two spot behind mr ronaldo yeah as long as he's all good for a second run that should give him some confidence knowing that you know missing a couple jumps he's still right there well hopefully uh his bike will be okay and he'll be able to continue we'll have to see if that holds true for both him and benny richards but we move on to a german competitor here this is luke ackerman as you see harry walking off right there he's going to go sit in the ryder staging area and wait this one out for the rest of round one and hopefully he continue into can continue into round number two i wonder if he wishes he had a jersey on right there it is really really hot out here so interesting choice right now uh i mean you got pretty sun when you're out here watching practice yesterday interesting selection to go shirtless out here for that run now he's like hey that's harry style it is wouldn't be harry if he didn't wear if he wore a jersey you can see he's definitely feeling that one by the facial expressions there as he walks that one off so yeah talking about the temperature out here it's already 79 degrees early on the wind isn't a factor as of right now which is a good thing wind is not your friend when you're out here doing freestyle motocross so let's talk about luke ackerman he missed x games minneapolis in 2019 due to injury so it's been a couple of years since we've seen him in competition out here at the x games he was the youngest to land a double backflip on a motorcycle he did that in october of 2017 at the rifled age of 19. [Music] luke's such a fun rider to watch he's still a young kid he goes for it this is exactly what everyone likes to watch about the flattest 360 that's ever been done it's it's not such a flip style three he kind of just slides the bike off the ramp and so far looking solid just calm cool and collected two hits and here again two runs there's 75 seconds in length it's the best run that counts that's going to hopefully put you on that x games podium out here at axel hodges playground already seeing great commitment out of luke going up the super kicker right here massive double flip a little squirly on the landing there but i mean you know i don't think the judge is going to dock much after seeing what we saw just just get through a run everything he's done so far has been really good first got to utilize the quarter i'm just about to say we have not seen that quarter pipe come into play here so throwing the flare into the mix with just under 30 seconds left to go here for luke awesome to see the flare but you can see the quarter pipe kind of shoots him off the side of the course there and he's losing a lot of time right here i mean he's got he's gonna have to make up for a little bit i want to see a little more charge out of him [Music] nice neck double backflip you see his levers are up there that that'll keep him on the bike he did that with the the kod flip earlier can you get back under power and squeeze in one more interesting to see if this last one counts but again you got double backflip and a double backflip combo in this run a really nice flat 360. these are all after time here a little messy on the landing there but that was our uh first pretty complete run with a lot of gnarly tricks look at the three right there that i can't tell you how hard that is those bikes don't spin that easy that's just pure muscle out of luke and like i said the flattest three in the business right now look at the extension there yeah and i want to talk about too those ramps going back down like that they're blind you know you're going up to the ramp and you can't see it landing it's all downhill like kind of stepped down and and so for him to commit on that kiss of death flip pretty amazing we mentioned first to use the quarter fight however coming out of that kind of spits you into a weird area and you have to get quick to reset to line back up for another hit yeah such a give and take there you know you do get lose a little bit of time but the judges might also reward using that quarter pipe as well well they definitely did he's the first rider to score into the 90s the best possible run score you can get is 100 and luke ackerman finds himself at the top of the leaderboard with a 92.33 so that is an excellent first run for luke ackerman right there we've gone through four riders in the rotation here in round number one still four more riders to go it's luke ackerman that's sitting in that top spot as of right now as we get set to take a little bit of a break and we will come back with the conclusion of round number one here in moto x freestyle but wait we're not actually going anywhere we're just teasing you guys this one is being brought to you commercial free by our friends over at monster energy so the party keeps on rolling here mike mason i like it i'm just getting going i'm ready to watch some more freestyle so is everybody else that is everybody else that is lucky enough to attend in person out here at axel hodges slay ground so luke ackerman in that top spot we move on to taka higashino out of japan he has three x games freestyle gold the only other rider than travis pastrana to win x games freestyle gold more than twice he has five x games medals total and he was actually the first japanese moto x competitor to win gold in the next games when he got his first gold medal in 2012 in freestyle [Music] there's the first rider to hit our 105 ramp as you can see how much more commitment that takes he has to shift third off the first double i believe he did a rock solid flip there i couldn't really catch it all but still a nice double double indie flip and and this is why taco was my sleeper yesterday he came out and this is how he looked right when practice started some of the guys were struggling to figure out the course a little bit and taka's got a good line going misses the ramp right there i think looks like that was planned but i would have liked to see him hit that and kind of keep the flow going there's taka throwing a clean body varial in the mix here is he's working his way towards the 32nd mark you know and taka has the experience some of these guys haven't ridden a course like this and when you got to throw hard tricks the hard tricks usually weigh into your mind more than having to uh plan out a run so watching talk kind of flow around this course you can definitely see that he's been around a long time nice no hand to flip coming in he's landing everything real smooth too which is what i like i'm sure the judges will reward that a bit coming down to the final 10 seconds here probably be able to squeeze in one more hit here luke ackerman your current leader with a 92.33 and he's actually gonna squeeze in two more so line it up and end it on the cordova flip right there and that is going to do it for japan's taka higashino yeah awesome first run there i'm sure taka has a little more i think he's still double backflipping but like i said these guys haven't competed in so long get that first run out of the way get the nerves out of the way and then you can let it all ride in the second run as you can see there he had to heal clicker flip and actually click third going up to the 105 ramp here's the blind ramp i was talking about where these guys just full commitment you know jumping down the hill i love seeing this course man it's giving the guys so much more options it's given us as viewers more to look at than you know your basic circle track so it's fun to watch these guys dissect the course a little bit yeah i agree with you being outside you've got a lot more options and i mean having to go out there and think about it you talked about use of course earlier on and some time management for some of the guys that we've seen prior so taka is going to check in with an 87.33 so that'll put him in podium contention as of right now just behind david ronaldo so again this is being brought to you commercial free by our friends over at monster energy here at moto x freestyle taking a look at jackson strong right here he's been extremely dominant when it comes to best trick competitions but he's never found himself in freestyle gold before could this possibly be the year mike five freestyle starts and no goal for jackson strong i sure hope it is you know i want to see jacko attack this course i've never really got to see jaco ride a full-blown course like this starting off with a nice cliffhanger once again start with uh and there's there's a miss jump already um this course is hard for these guys you know and here's a lot of wasted time i mean i want to see jaco attack this course i know he has all the tricks to win i just want to see him put it all together on this course what does that do to your mindset when you have a slip up right out of the gate i mean how about i mean yes it's a physical game but there's also a mental aspect to it as well massive front flip down the hill yeah it's it's hard when you start with the mess up because it kind of throws your you can see right now he almost looks a little lost you know you want to get a run going if you do mess up in the middle rebound you know have the judges see what they say but right now he just kind of looks like he's lost and just trying to maybe practice for run number two he just kind of throws off the whole cadence so just going through the motions in his head right here using this as a drive run remember two runs it's the best run of your two that counts so he knows that those judges are looking for perfection with a slip up right out of the gate and with all due respect you know these guys started early this morning they really only got a five minute warm up to get on the course i mean they practiced yesterday but you know we're used to in our backyards we go out and you know you ride for 30 minutes and then start going through all your hard tricks and kind of work from there but five minutes on this course you know first thing in the morning that's going to be pretty tough for these boys yeah it's definitely an early one to be out here throwing your hardest tricks in a 75-second run so that is gonna do it right there for jackson strong so we will see him in round number two he is a six-time x games moto x best trick gold medalist but as we mentioned before freestyle has eluded him over the years yeah right there he started off with a good cliffhanger and i you know i don't know if he was going for the 105 ramp and that's why he maybe backed out but quick thinking he could usually went left or right got a 75 in there and kind of kept his run going but i think that kind of threw his whole run off he got a little lost so go ahead and shake that one off he's got a little bit of time to kind of walk through this one in his mind and uh hopefully make that happen in that second and final run as we move on three two riders left to go here in the run order another australian this is joshi and he took freestyle gold but last year it was contested at x games austin back in 2016. josh ian is an absolute powerhouse yeah sheen's one of those guys i really feel like he can attack this course he did look great as well yesterday nice no handed superman into a three that's a good combo you know pack both those jumps in there maximize your time right here [Music] huge kiss of death flip coming back down the hill you can see him adjusting those levers up for the kod flip down to to line up what maybe a double and you foot it here it comes once twice around so puts that one he makes those look effortless he really does you know and here we go again using the using the quarter getting the flare and boosted that flare up right quarters nice and comfortable yeah awesome combo really trying to get back to that ramp but see he didn't waste time there he gets right back into it [Music] and that's what i'm talking about like a whip and a today's freestyle run might not be classified as a huge trick but he's he's maximizing efficiency you know he kind of probably had to improvise a little bit there when he spun around and just keep it going man the judges are going to be looking for full runs here that's the thing you don't see a lot of time wasted there he gets reset quickly he's trying to maximize to get as many jumps as he can in here in that 75 seconds we're down to the final five here he's lining up for what will be his last attempt [Music] nice double back variation there i really like what she did you know he's a smart rider he's been around a long time he probably saw some of the guys first runs and kind of understood what he had to do you know get out there throw run one down and then and run two you can throw it a lot more maybe not do that run too right well that one's after time yeah that's the good news that one was for everybody over there at athlete staging but i like use of course i like this run he he pieced it together well cool to see some you know old school tricks in there the no hand at superman not a lot of guys still do that to this day so cool cool angle of a double backflip right there these guys are insane you know they make it look so easy now check out the pop that he gets right here on the flare and after that he gets a quick reset to line up for his next hit huge lazy boy flip right there those still scare me to this day i know they're an older flip trick but i believe that was over the 105 as well so i wouldn't say that was over the big gap yeah anything over the big gap i think deserves a little extra credit so he's going to settle for an 89.66 so no one's been able to best that luke ackerman scored so right now your top three it's luke ackerman joshian and david ronaldo now slides to third taka higushino drops down to fourth right there so things are heating up here think it's uh there's some pressure on rob right now he was confident yesterday you know he looked great and he knows he can win this thing well next up you've got your defending gold medalist from minneapolis rob rattleberg but before we drop him let's learn a little bit more about him come on hey i'm rob adelberg i'm from vanilla in australia and i ride freestyle motocross this is my humble abode i've got 50 acres here and i'm a bit of a country boy so it feels good to be back in the country while covered was around and there was no event so i decided to buy a skid steer and get into the earth moving game it was okay i made a little bit of money but it's not where my passion is so i'm so stoked now we have these events coming back i can finally get back into what i love [Music] so i've been working on a new combat front flip finally back competing in world stage biggest thing i've missed about x games is the pressure pressure i put on myself the pressure to just be at the top of the sport well as we mentioned at the top of the show he comes into this your defending gold medalist from minneapolis i said that it took nine attempts to get that goal that was his first freestyle goal he had a couple of gold medals one in moto x best trick and he had two in snow bike best trick but that was his first freestyle goal and he is in for his first of two attempts here yeah i really want to see rob navigate this course he looked so good in practice yesterday hung up a little on a burial there that's that's not going to hurt him though he'll keep it together and he's got a minute left yeah left ankle surgery at the beginning of the pandemic and was off the bike for close to 12 months oh man look at that and i've been trying to explain it it's so hard to tell you guys how scary that ramp is because you know the ramps 10 feet taller than the than the landing so you're stepping down back into the valley you can't really see nothing going blind and when you're front flipping you can't see nothing anyway so he's really just committing on that one coming up on 30 seconds left here for rob adelberg still luke ackerman the top spot with a 92.33 a couple mess-ups there that i i'm telling you these guys aren't used to these courses it's been a long time since we've had a full course and you know you're outdoors there's there's glares on the ramp there could be a little breeze we don't know of and you know it's going to give these guys fits that's why i was kind of saying earlier in the broadcast i think the guy who can and stick somewhat of a solid run has a good chance here it looks like he's waving off the rest of this run you don't see any urgency here well nope he's gonna call it right there his time winds down so a couple of slip-ups there for rob so he too gonna have to get it done in that second final run and you can see him kind of rehearsing his varial there i don't know if maybe that that first little slip up even though it wasn't massive maybe it just got his head a little bit threw him off his rhythm here you can see reaching back to the seat throws his feet through the bars grabs his grab again foot just hung up on the side plate a little bit but i don't think it was enough to to really damage the confidence at all and then right here it kind of started going south a little bit the straight back flip's not gonna not gonna get you very far in 2021 so he'll settle for a 73 so you're defending champ at the end of round one finds himself in that number six position but how about luke ackerman with a 92.33 followed by josh ian and david ronaldo that is your one two three as of right now however round one is in the books we still have round two to go here and moto x freestyle being brought to you by our friends at monster energy take another look at your current leader here luke ackerman with that 92.33 who's gonna get the gold here we'll find out will we come back here to moto x [Music] freestyle jackson strong it is an x games mode and we are trending on tick tock to all of our fans out there if you want to join in check out the x games mode hashtag challenge and show us what happens when you're on x games mode so some shots of jacko having a good time out here in practice earlier in the week taking a look at him right there had a little bit of a slip up there in that first run so we look to see more of him here in round number two but you see by that sweeping shot right there it just gives you an idea the scope and size of this course out here at slay ground mike yeah this course is awesome and and as we can see it's testing the rider's ability to to the t you know it's gonna be the guy that's the most consistent right now well we have not heard from jack matron yet let's check in with him right now jack how are the riders feeling after that first round of runs well i've been down here from practice hanging out and basically what i'm what i got to say is that the nerves are real it's been the first time in a long time since they've competed since they've competed there you guys are and so yeah the nerves are real and from what i've heard they haven't had too much time to practice they flew in from australia maybe a little jet lag and so look if you haven't competed in a long time that first run is intense there's a lot of nerves and so i think the first run they shook the nerves off a little bit i had to get the first one out of the way and i think i'm optimistic about run number two but the vibe is intense right now that's all i got to say it's been pretty nerve-wracking just even hanging around these guys what they're going through right now is serious it's gnarly so respect to all these guys let's hope they put it down in row number two yeah that goes back to what you were talking about or we both talked about earlier mike with you know just what goes into traveling over here just to compete at this and just all the gear that you've got to haul over here the jet lag the practice and then on top of that when these guys go home to australia they have to quarantine for 14 days when they get back to their home country yeah there's a lot going on right now with the travel and you know and then you add the pressure of x games like that's already pressure and then you know you add all this stuff they haven't got to compete next games in two years and and you can see it uh working its magic right now on the riders well you mentioned this earlier talking about the oval courses that we typically have in the past when we're inside the stadiums and whatnot let's talk about the different features and some of the ramps that uh they're able to put outside here on a much bigger outdoor course yeah i like i said i like this this is an old-school course you can see three ramp options right there and you're coming off of a double inn so sometimes like we saw jacko he might have landed and wanted one ramp lined up and he was off to the side or something had to to back out of it and you know you get the the minneapolis courses where it's kind of a circle track you have your super kicker right there the shorter ramp for the double backflips but out here you have multiple options and you really have to think of all your tricks think of the the order you want them in and then if you do mess up one of your jumps coming into those ramps that's when your run can uh really go stale quick yeah and that goes into that whole use of course situation that we were talking about earlier i mean you think 75 seconds it's a lot of time but once you come outside i mean that that's a whole different ball game right there and how you plan out your run yeah definitely and like i said too this is something that gets overlooked a lot is you know the sun's kind of coming up over those those ramps jumping over the quarter pipe so some of these guys might be looking at basically like a black wall you can't see the transition can't really see the top of the ramp and you know we have seen some mess-ups on those ramps going that way so that could play play a factor into their runs taking a look at rob adelberg there talking things over with david ronaldo david ronaldo sitting in the bronze medal position as of right now so that is your freestyle gold medalist and your best trick gold medalist from x games minneapolis standing right there having a chat but here we go we go back up to the top of the order mic we go into round two remember it's two runs best run that counts x games rookie here this is benny richards out of australia and uh he went for it right out of the gate there on that first trick and got a little stacked up there it was able to get up and walk away so looking to shake this one off put something together here in round number two [Music] so x games rookie bendy richards coming back into the mix he had a crash in that first run looking for redemption here run number two oh that jumps again he's got it he saved it i really want to see if benny just throw down a good run here i don't care if it if it's a life-changing run but this is his first x games this is what x games does to you right here and of course his first x games is one of our gnarliest courses we've had in probably the last six years so poor dude's got his work cut out for him i mean that was two saves in a row right there and freestyle's so weird it's you know i did it for so long it kind of became second nature to me at the end but i remember my first runs it was like you're confident you're at home you're practicing everything's smooth but then all of a sudden the starter tells you to go and it's like everything's happening at warp speed you know the ramps are coming up quick everything and his boys are stopping him now don't know if it's a bike issue maybe a rear flat or something he did hit yep a real flat yeah that's probably from uh uh coming up short a couple times and that's a bummer but this is a good first experience for him he's gonna have a lot to go on back to australia and work on i know he works with jacko a lot and i'd like to see him back next year i know he's got the tricks to to make it happen yeah jackson was out there flagging him down right off the bat tell him to cut that one short right there but again you know like you were talking about i mean coming out here it's your first time ever in the x games and the nerves are definitely a factor and come bouncing back after that big first crash yeah and you know this is this is proof of the nerves that's just your standard 75 foot comp ramp you know these guys hit that every day but like i said when the starter tells you to go and you got to roll in sometimes you're thinking so much about the trick and in the moment of being in x games there's cameras around there's a drone flying over his head there next thing you know you're going off the ramp and you know you're not making it nice cordova flip there but just just had an issue with getting over the the jumps right now you know and these ramps are a little bit different than ozzy comprehensive so maybe it was he was a little out of his element so tough break there for benny but uh maybe we'll see him in the future here in x games competitions here in moto x freestyle so we're being told that uh david ronaldo and harry bank are not taking their second runs so that brings us up to your current leader luke ackerman said earlier you missed minneapolis in 2019 with an injury so looking strong here only rider to score in the 90s thus far here at the slay ground in moto x freestyle [Laughter] like i said you know luke's a loose cannon he's so much fun to watch he's young he goes for it um i'm stoked he's still throwing down a run right here you always want to huh or as i say that you say there's uh maybe hurt his wrist a little bit but you know when you have a first run out of the way it kind of you can just relax for your second and go for it but he might have something happened on that three there and he's probably gonna be done favoring that left wrist for sure right there but yeah again you know with that solid first run score of 92.33 and given what we've seen here i mean you know just had two guys drop out of round number two yeah my thing is though is you you always want to push it because you know rob and jacko messed up i think taka has a little more in the tank as well and you know you want to up that score as much as you can but if it's an injury there's not much you can do there as he jumps everything one-handed yeah so say you think you just call it quits right there but no he's just gonna go through an entire run and land one-handed maybe the judges will give him a couple extra points for that either way a great performance missing minneapolis in 2019 so he's really been at x games for almost three years you know to come out and be on top of the leaderboard and by the way just throwing this out there no rider from germany has uh meddled in a freestyle moto x discipline before i think he's looking pretty good for a medal i think he's looking really good for a goal it's gonna it's gonna be up to these next couple riders here to throw down runs and get up there and compete with him tough break there for luke ackerman however with a first run score of 92.33 he's still in that top spot so we're halfway through the run order here in round number two with some riders dropping out of the field however we still have jackson strong and rob adelberg still to go who's walking out of sleigh ground with x games moto x gold we'll find out when we come back oh let's go summertime well that was our geico music mix giving us a look at everything happening here at x games here in moto x freestyle though at axel hodges slay ground we've had a rough kill here looking at benny richards there taking a crash in his first run there it's luke ackerman sitting in that top spot as of right now we saw harry pink kind of launch off course there into the weeds mike yeah harry had a rough go of it and you know a lot of these guys are having a rough go but there's a couple riders out there sticking runs and we've got a couple of heavy hitters that still need to prove themselves so you had harry pink and david ronaldo had dropped out of round number two here like i mentioned luke ackerman your current leader with a 92.33 followed by josh ian and david ronaldo but we're down to our final four here you've still got taka higushino jackson strong joshian in your defending gold medalist from minneapolis in 2019 rob adelberg yet to go so it is far from over out here at moto x freestyle but again i mean just look at where we're at out here yeah what a beautiful piece of property you know and they've done such a great job converting this into a freestyle course i mean there's probably so many options it was hard for the course designers to figure out where they wanted to go with all this and like i said i mean this is almost twice as big as what we had in minneapolis in 2019 but great job to these guys in the job that they've done and what i mean you can ask for a better setting out here for moto x freestyle but we welcome back in taka higashino for his second and final run yeah taka coming out solid again that was a rock solid backflip over the 105 footer i can't tell you how scary that is i mean you're hitting that thing third gear pretty much wide open and to do a rock solid backflip he's he's going forward a little little mess up on the indy flip there but i think talk can still prove himself here he's just outside of the podium right now he's got an 87.33 i mean he's knocking on the door of david ronaldo you need an 88.33 or better if you're gonna jump into that top three [Music] [Applause] good burial there he looks great i just i i want to see a little more intensity i mean he keeps kind of turning at the bottom of that ramp he is getting the 75 back in but you know i don't know maybe the judges are kind of looking for a flow around the course and when you're kind of taking your time and and dodging a jump you know it's just kind of got to maximize everything he's riding great though taka you know like i said in the first run he's a he's an experienced rider he's out here he's not messing up like some of the other guys have almost getting a cameraman there well you can see the paces right here with this last bit of time here coming down just under 10 seconds left to go here it looks like he's gonna pretty much do the same run as run number one i did see the one little mess up with the indy flip i don't know if the judges take that into consideration i don't think this will pop him into the top three but a great ride you know he's always a nice solid guy so that last hit there after time with two solid performances out here at axle hockey ground by tucker let's take another look nice heel click i know hill clicker flips are a thing of the pass but when you're going into a double double and right here he's shifting third and setting up you gotta you gotta kind of make sure you're set back on the bike and there's what i was talking about not the greatest extension there that that will probably hurt to score a little bit [Music] shaolin flip there using those flip levers to keep him on the bike so he doesn't go off the front huge cordova flip over the 105. i like how he did utilize the 105 a lot that's cool because it is a newer ramp and you can tell some of the guys are kind of trying to avoid it so for him to hit it twice in his run i think that was some bonus points looks like he's going to stick with that 87.33 so still ackerman sheena ronaldo you're one two three as of right now our final three left to go here one of those guys in the podium as of right now two of them on the outside looking in we've got jackson strong coming your way right now he had that slip up there in that first round and kind of throw off his cadence can he put it together here in the second final run he over jumped that first ramp there and it kind of threw him off you can see his head move a little bit and going for the 105 though you know he's still went for he knows this is his run it doesn't matter if he has a little slip up there he's got the front flips in the bag just get a clean run out get a score try and you know get in that top three i think if he he pushes through this run he could pass ronaldo um maybe she we'll have to see but that's that's not going to cut it there yeah with the double can there and again just slowing things down right here just under 40 seconds left to go man i wanted this so bad for jacko too because this is this is the run that kind of proves your worth you know the course is hard everyone's struggling on the course as you can see it's not like it's just jackal that's having a hard time with it you know every riders have their issues with it but it's the guy that can persevere the best kind of put the best run together and right now that's luke ackerman so we're down to the final 15 seconds his first run scored a 63.66 got him down in seventh place yeah you know and and that's the thing with with judging is you know people might wonder what separates luke from cheney from ronaldo and it's you know luke he's not front flipping but he had two double backflips in his run he had one of the flattest 360s we'll probably ever see he used the course pretty well minus the 105 and i think that's why he's sent up front right now he had a good little combination of everything right there you can see the over jump just threw him off his timing a little bit here's going with the mike mason 2009 well actually i did that in 2018 too i can't lie but that kind of made me proud i had a proud moment did you just give yourself a plug right i had to it was the one time in the broadcast i was not knocking it man but yeah it's you know when you start you run with those little mess ups like we said earlier it's the the end mess-ups and the middle mess-ups you can get away with but starting it just kind of throws you throws your confidence all off so not the runs that he wanted here in freestyle however he still has best trick yet to go we're down to our final two riders josh ian you see his uh hardware account right there he has 11 at total moto x games medals he uh you see that freestyle gold and three silver that freestyle gold goes back to x games austin in 2016. he's looking at a silver medal as of right now i love sheeny's first run i think it was the perfect first run to get him into second and take you know take some of the weight off his shoulders i think he's gonna he's gonna really go for it here and go for that goal yeah he's got the skills to do it he's meddled in both best trick and freestyle at the same event on three different occasions did it minneapolis 2019 sydney 2018 as well as austin 2016 when he got that three-stop goal right there throwing a nice three you can see the difference his three was a little more off axis where luke's is just flat but they're the only two guys out here three in right now so that's saying something with how hard that trick actually is another massive kiss of death flip getting those levers set up he just he has such great extension i mean he gets so far off the bike you know he has he has great extension and he has a lot of confidence you can see him he doesn't look lost in his run he doesn't look you know notchy he's going good he's getting everything he wants using that quarter one of two riders to use it i don't think the judges would penalize him for you know maybe taking a little bit of time right here that's awesome that he's using pretty much every feature on the course [Music] 130 seconds left to go he had that 89.66 first go-around that put him in that number two spot david ronaldo still holding on to the bronze spot as of right now with one rider left to go after josh here and you can just tell josh he's comfortable in this course and he was one of the guys yesterday that said it was kind of confusing him too it's it's not like he's superior to the other guys it was messing with all of them but that's what i'm saying is when the when the starter tells you to go it's whoever can just zone into that mentally the best and put together a complete run so there is the buzzer oh foot there but that one almost a little over rotate on the double flip you don't see that too often that was after time or not once again loved his run good variety had some right side up tricks in there some huge flip tricks the 360 the double bags i i'm gonna guess scores pretty similar to first run i didn't see too much that would would differentiate each run but you know he he looked great one of the few riders right now putting a full run down scores good pop on that flare traversed across the border pipe landing i can't tell you how good him and luke probably feel right now too just knowing that those runs are done because i know these guys were pretty stressed and then five minute warm up going into the contest this morning's probably weighing on all well with one rider left to go we know that luke ackerman's gonna get a medal we know that josh sheehan's gonna get a medal david ronaldo sits in the bubble your defending champ from minneapolis 2019 he is the last rider to go he finds himself in the number six position it all comes down to this final 75 seconds for rob adelberg rob's just got to believe in himself right here he has all the tricks he knows he has the run get that varial off clean that's one trick that's probably weighing on his mind and now just let her rip man he's got it yeah just a little rough on that one in the first run he's he's past that stage here in round two huge front flip coming down the hill you know there's there's probably only a handful of tricks that he knows he has to stick and so far he's stuck both on the front flip the burial that ramp's been giving him a little bit of fitz i don't know what's going on with it i know it's a little uphill and they didn't get much time on it they had to kind of rework that part of the course so could be messing with them just a tad [Music] awesome link right there kiss a death flip into a uh indie flip heel clicker you know that's pretty hard he's linking two combos together shifting gears and hitting 105 foot ramp front flip no hander second front flip in his run good front flip combo there at the 15 second mark here for rob adelberg again you got david ronaldo on that bubble spot rob sitting at six pre-run if i had to guess i think this is probably gonna knock dave off even with the the straight backflip huge cliffhanger flip right there that everything has been perfect except for just a straight flip in his run that might be the difference between second and third i think luke might still have a lock on this but stoked for rob to put down a run on this course these guys like i said aren't used to it the last three to four years they've just kind of had a circle track so this one definitely weighed into him a little bit nice front flip now back down the hill his run and there we go let's see he's excited right there you can kind of see what i'm talking about he's almost jumping back down in the valley and with the front flip you can't see as it is so he's just going off here trust that that he has that trick dialed a huge kiss of death flip which you won't expect this to be that gnarly but going into a double double like that he has to land this perfect he has to get into third and then hit the 105 foot ramp right here 105 foot ramp third gear pin nice indy to heel click combo in one combo there into that line yeah that was a great run for rob i'm stoked to put it all together one little mess up which could be the difference in score but i mean that's got to feel good for him it's gonna bounce out that 73 that's got him down in six for sure that is your current leader there luke ackerman what is it going to be here for mr adelberg in the second and final run score and it is going to get him an 89.33 that's gonna bounce david ronaldo out rob adelberg is going to make it on to the podium he's going to get a bronze but that means that gentleman right there luke ackerman is going to walk out of here with moto x freestyle gold the first german to ever medal in moto x at all dis in any discipline here at x games so a big day there for luke ackerman joshian with the silver rob adelberg walking out of here with the bronze let's take a look back at luke's first run here mike yeah what an awesome run you know like i know yesterday he was really struggling on the course this is a way bigger course than he's ever been used to seeing and he came out first run stuck everything clean and road perfect man i'm stoked for him so a big day for the german rider let's send it down to jack matrani right now lou congratulations your first gold medal first gold medal for germany how big is this moment for you you know i've been dreaming all my life to get gold and uh i've had a hard crash on monday and i was really sore and um i wasn't even uh yeah thinking to write here because i was really in pain my shoulder was so in pain and uh the first one worked out so great and i just can't describe it we're so excited for you what was it like riding out back in the elements not under the stadium in minneapolis looked like a lot of people were struggling out here but not you man you're holding it down you know um this place is insane you know it's just an another another level um we don't have something like this in europe and it was kind of tough for us europeans for david and me to ride here and um yeah i just can't descr describe how good it feels to ride here and i had so much fun and it just it's amazing thank you so much respect we're so happy for you luke ackerman thank you so much congratulations sending it back to you guys yes how about all that mace after a big crash on monday still comes out here in that first round and puts down a score in the 90s to walk out of here with gold yeah it's awesome and you can just see how much this meant to him you know he's been working really hard he had all the tricks to do it this is the one course where i might not have picked luke just because of how big it was but he came out and stuck that run man good job on the gold well that's a wrap for moto x freestyle here at the slay ground some slip ups here but again it's been a long time since we've been outside your final thoughts on the corsair mic awesome course you could see it some of the riders struggled with it limited practice but you know i think some of the best riders showed what they had today so rob adelberg gets it done in round two with the bronze joshie in with the silver but luke ackerman takes home x games gold [Music] so

Channel: X Games

Views: 674,275

Rating: 4.8976336 out of 5

Keywords: yt:quality=high, x games, x-games, x games aspen, watch x games, x games highlights, x games moto x freestyle, x games moto x, x games motocross, x games motocross freestyle, x games fmx, x games 2021, x games live stream, x games 2021 live, freestyle motocross, fmx, x games freestyle motocross 2021, luc ackermann, luc ackermann fmx, x games luc ackermann, x games rob adelberg, x games jackson strong, x games taka higashino, x games dirt bike, trending, xgames mode, dirt

Id: KY1l_JpT9NA

Length: 51min 18sec (3078 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 15 2021