Ranch Style 2011 Finals - Video Highlights

May 15th, 2011 5:08am

In just a couple of short years, Matt Bollig, the owner of Grassroots Cyclery in Grand Junction Colorado has taken a dream, to reality. With the input of some friends who gave him the idea to have jump contest, Matt took the ball and rode with it. Developing his peronal 50 acre ranch into his own bike play ground with wood features, dirt jumps and a sick dual slalom course, Matt took a small competition with lots of hard work and some serious sweat equity from friends, put Ranch Style on the map with the 2011 Ranch Sytle Jump Contest.  An official FMB silver event, this years contest did not disappoint.

The jumps were perfect for tricking without any hokie stunts and the riders had two options on almost every feature.  Even mother nature cooprated by delivering near perfect conditions after teasing everyone with a bit of a cross wind earlier in the day.

The kick off to the weekend of cycling mayhem, started with the $1000, winner take-all best trick competition.  Separating the best trick from the actual jumping competition is always a great idea to the riders and to the fans because riders can let it all loose in the best trick without having to save their energy and focus on the competition run. This year, the winner of the costest was voted by YOU the voters on-line on Pink Bike. A great idea on paper, the execution of it was pretty poor as video wasn't posted for viewers until 4 am the next morning and for those of us there to see it live, the on-line votiing had the strong feel of a high school popularity contest. While the voting on-line was a landslide victory for Mike Montgomery, the jumping was much closer than that. Many thought that the super technical tricks of Greg Watts should have claimed the prize. Either way it was a super sick competition and kudos to the organizers for trying something a bit new to get the fans how couldn't be a part of it. That's the only way we are going to progress the sport.

With all the great jumping, I would be remiss without mentioning that Joe Perizzo was the highlight of the evening as he went after a double back flip. Just barely missing on his first two runs, Perizzo missed the landing on his third also taking a brutal fall. After staying down for several minutes, Joe, got up under his own power - no doubt seeing a few stars - and would go on to compete in the finals on Saturday.  He definitely entertained the crowd with his cavalier approach. I never get tired of seeing a double backflip.

Watch the dirt jump video of Friday nights best trick competition shot on my Iphone while  I waited for my camera gear to arrive. 

Location: News >> Ranch Style 2011 Finals - Video Highlights