JEDDAH: The third season of Red Bull X-Fighters world tour kicks off with the start in Mexico City next month. Mexico City was the starting point for the tour in the past two seasons.
The competition, which kicks off on March 27, will next move to Canada for the first time with the second stop of the season in Calgary on May 30 before moving back south to Texas for a return to Dallas/Fort Worth on June 27. The European leg of the tour starts with a double event in Madrid on July 16-17 and ends in London on Aug. 22. The successful format last year “Rookies against Heroes” has been developed further this year, according to Tes Sewell, the tours’ sports director. “Instead of four top-seeded riders we’ll have eight this year who will duel it out with the local challengers,” he told the media yesterday.
The top eight are: last year’s champion Mat Rebeaud (SUI), X-Games victor Jeremy Lusk, Jeremy Stenberg (both USA), world record jump holder Robbie Maddison (AUS), Dany Torres (ESP), Eigo Sato (JPN), Thomas Pagés (FRA) and Andre Villa (NOR).
The expectations of defending champion Mat Rebeaud are high. “The sport is growing fast,” he said, adding that he looks forward to the challenge in 2009 with confidence. “We’ll know more after the first training session in Mexico, but I would think it’s going to be Dany Torres. No one improved as much as he did over the course of the last season,” he said.
The competition was previously held across six countries in three continents, with 170,000 spectators witnessing 1,130 jumps. The second year of the competition in 2008 marked a milestone in the history of freestyle motocross. The World Tour became the sport’s undisputed Number One event last year. “There will be new highlights in 2009: stops in Calgary and London,” he said.
The aim is to take sport to the ultimate level and combine it with creative orchestration at iconic locations. That is the concept implemented in the worldwide series first in 2007 before the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour climbed to new heights in 2008 with spectacular contests in the bull fighting arenas of Mexico City and Madrid, the stone quarry of Wuppertal in Germany, the Sambadrome parade ground in Rio de Janeiro, a rodeo arena in Texas and a gigantic historic stadium in Warsaw.
