Matt Wilhelm said being
from the Midwest gave him an advantage in yesterday's 20-mph wind.
C-J photo by Pat McDonogh
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He ignored a steady 20-mph wind and used a flashy, flawless first run to win. Wilhelm had a score of 98.00, beating out Martti Kuoppa of Helsinki, Finland, who had a 97.67.
"I'm real happy," said the 22-year-old native of Lisle, Ill. "I've been practicing a lot, and it paid off today. I've been riding around in the wind, just trying to get used to it. Louisville is in the Midwest and I'm from the Midwest, so I kind of had the advantage over a lot of other riders."
Wilhelm said the wind wasn't the worst he has competed in.
"(The wind) bothers you a lot," he said. "It blows the bike around and blows you off your balance point. It's pretty tough, but it wasn't that windy today. Last week I was riding in 45 mph winds in Decatur, Ill."
The B3 games -- which also include skateboarding and in-line skating competitions -- will run through Sunday at a temporary site on River Road. Louisville is the second of two B3 stops that lead up to ESPN's 2001 X Games this summer in Philadelphia.
On Wilhelm's first run, he received a rousing ovation from the crowd after a series of spins he executed in a quicker pace than his competitors. His run was so good that he tried some riskier stunts in the second and final round. He fell three times, but the best score of the two runs determined the final outcome.
"The first run I was real excited about," Wilhelm said. "There was one thing that went wrong, but I countered that with something else, so I thought that went pretty well. . . . The second run was kind of sloppy because I tried some harder stuff."
The victory took some of the sting out of last year's last-place finish at the X Games. That time he pulled only one trick and got lost on the course.
Yesterday he seemed confident.
"You could tell that he was a lot more calm," said Steve Swope of the Hoffman Sports Association, which deals with bikers. "He had his moves down. They were really refined to the point where he could do all this hard stuff. He put it all together, didn't put his foot down and didn't crash."
The competition had an international flavor. Of the 11 finalists, only four were from the United States. There also were competitors from Canada, Japan and France. Swope said the flatland competition normally brings out people from very diverse backgrounds.
"Flatland is a pretty easy sport to get into because you don't have to have a ramp and you don't have to pay to get into a park to ride," he said. "All you need is a parking lot, a bike and your own creative expression."
Biker Jamie Bestwick of Heanor, England, said the postponement was done with safety in mind.
"The wind plays an important part," he said. "We only have a margin of about 12 inches. If we pull more than 12 inches out of the ramp, we're going to drop to the floor. It's a huge thing. Also, the wind can blow you over the deck of the ramp, causing you to catch your wheels, and you can crash that way."
The forecast calls for similar weather -- 15-25 mile mph winds with gusts up to 30 mph.
Final results: 1. Matt Wilhelm, Lisle, Ill., 98.00; 2. Martti Kuoppa, Helsinki, Finland, 97.67; 3. Dan Rigby, Spruce Grove, Alberta, 96.25.