Travis Pastrana won the gold medal in Moto X Speed and Style in the final event of X Games 16 in Los Angeles, USA, yesterday.
The final event went off without a hitch inside Staples Center, and who better to collect the final gold medal of the games than the legendary Pastrana – his gold on Sunday night was the eleventh of his career, and the 17th medal of all colours since first entering the X Games back in 1999.
Originally touted as the ultimate 'crossover' event to challenge the talents of the two major MX disciplines of FMX and Supercross, most would expect a rider with Pastrana‘s credentials to be the heavy favourite, but as previous years have shown, anything can happen in Speed and Style! Combining stretches of Supercross-style rhythm sections with huge metal freestyle ramps, riders are ultimately placed after some slick mathematics combines the points assigned from the timed laps with those of the judged tricks. And though the field in this year’s event was heavily FMX-based, the Los Angeles crowd were treated to a tighter competition that most would have forecast.
'I had a great time this year at X, and I’d like to thank all the fans for coming out!' – Travis Pastrana
After bullying his way through eliminations, Mike Metzger in the quarter-finals and Ronnie Faisst in the semis, TP199 rolled his RM250 to the line for the night’s final with swagger and confidence. Matched against fellow FMX hero Nate Adams, last year's Red Bull X-Fighters champion, Pastrana quickly grabbed the holeshot down the Staples Center start drop, and wasted no time as he methodically dissected the course’s rhythm sections before going nuts off of the metal FMX ramps. Lighting fast laps, a no-footed nac indy, double heel-clicker flip, and a nac-nac flip would seal his fate, as TP motored on to an impressive win for an even more impressive 11th X Games gold medal.
"I feel so lucky to have done well in this competition,” Travis commented from the podium. “I’ve never won this, so it was a priority to do well. I knew Nate had bigger tricks… He was doing the 360s and lazyboy flips, but my gameplan was to focus on the speed, and it paid off. I had a great time this year at X, and I’d like to thank all tha fans for coming out!”
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