It’s visit number two to London, and five of six on this year’s Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour, this weekend. We look at some flipping wonderful figures to whet your appetite for the two big nights ahead...
5...
Red Bull X-Fighters comes to London’s iconic Battersea Power Station for its second visit in 2010 and stop number five on the World Tour, though the difference this time is that it’s not the season-closer as it was last year – a sixth round in Rome on October 1 awaits the intrepid field of FMXers after the excitement of London. And make no mistake – though they won’t be crowning a champion here like they did America’s Nate Adams in 2009, there will still be all kinds of awesome thrills and spills by the banks of the River Thames for the two nights of August 14 and 15.
310...
When we came to London last year, Norwegian FMX star Andrè Villa finished in ninth place on the night and 10th overall for the season. This time around, Villa tops the standings with 310 points after a win in Mexico (100pts), second in Egypt (80pts) and two third places (each 65pts), in Russia and Spain. Can he make it 410pts with another win? Who can stop him? Well…
11...
Eleven other riders will be planning to ruin Andrè’s Saturday night out in London. The key players include last year’s champ Nate Adams, currently third in the standings (225pts), other crowd favourite Robbie Maddison, second in the 2010 shake-up (265pts), winner last time out in Madrid and famed for his Tower Bridge jump in London last year, former champion Mat Rebeaud, who suffered a crash in London 2009 that he’ll want to make amends for, and Cam Sinclair, the popular Aussie who also had a nightmare accident, in Madrid last year, that left him with life-threatening injuries. Sincs has stormed back this year, and successfully completed a double backflip at the 2010 X Games in Los Angeles, winning the gold medal for Moto X Best Trick.
1,000,000...
The venue hosting Red Bull X-Fighters London is the world-famous Battersea Power Station, though it’s not been generating much power of late, unless you count the powerful spectacle of X-Fighters! Originally completed in 1935, the station eventually closed in 1983 as the UK capital moved to reduce pollution from such a central location in the city – at one time, it burned 1m tonnes of coal per year. It remains the largest brick-built structure in Europe, measuring as it does 160m (520ft) by 170m (560ft) by area, with a roof 50m (160ft) high and the impressive four concrete chimneys reaching 103m (338ft). Londoners remain fiercely loyal to the largely derelict Grade II-listed building, with any suggestion of a change of use causing huge controversy – except when Red Bull X-Fighters comes to town…
18,000...
Yes, that’s how many people packed into Battersea last August to roar their approval of every flip, Nac-Nac and Lazy Boy. Not surprisingly, perhaps, Saturday night is already sold out in the standing area for this year, too, but at the time of this article (August 9), there are still some Saturday seated tickets at £45 each + fees and Friday qualification tickets left if you’re able to get to the UK capital and join in the fun. Click here to visit Ticketmaster if you want to find out about availability on these last precious tickets!
20:15...
Twenty-five riders are on this year’s Red Bull X-Fighters roster, but only 12 can compete for glory in London, and each qualifying session involves two 90-second runs to impress the judges. The power station’s gates swing open to fans at 7pm on Friday, August 13 before the action begins at 8pm sharp. Then on Saturday, August 14, the fun starts again, this time with the gates open at 5pm and the action starting a little later, at 8.15pm. Bring it on!
Read more at our Red Bull X-Fighters London event page
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