New Faces and Old Friends: They're all coming out for the LG World Tour

Sep 02 2006 / Los Angeles, CA

Last summer a hand grabbed my shoulder while I was walking down a crowded street late at night in Rimini, Italy. Immediately, I went into American city-boy reaction mode, and was ready to get harassed by, or possibly in a fight with a drunken European Tourist. Instead, the hand was attached to the completely sober, smiling face of Alesandro Barbero, a rider from a small town in Italy, who I had met the previous winter at Woodward.
 

PHOTO GALLERY Check out the action from last year's Paris stop on the LG Action Sports World Tour. View Gallery>

Walking down the street that night made me realize that a tour like the LG Action Sports World Tour is more than a show at the beach. The World Tour brings out excited local talent like Alesandro, a rider with amazing skill, whos local scene has little in the way of major BMX contests. In the States and some parts of Europe, we become jaded with major contests every weekend. Alesandro and his group of friends drove several hours (a long drive by European standards) to ride this contest. “Alex” as he is known, won the contest and earned himself a spot at the Championships in Manchester, UK last October. Since then, Alex has been a fixture at many of the big contests in Europe, placing in the top ten regularly and making sponsors like Red Bull happy.
 
BMX, like all the action sports, has grown and spread well beyond Southern California. Even the industry itself has spread itself all over the world. Some of the most popular BMX brands are now based out of the UK and Spain, and other popular brands come from as far away as Japan, Australia and South America.
 
Bringing the LG World Tour to obscure spots like Rimini exposes some of the amazing talent in the world. Take the Berlin stop last weekend. You won’t find a serious BMX rider who doesn’t know who Tobias Wicke is, but how about the contest’s fifth place finisher Bjorn Mager. How about ninth place finisher Sergey Geyer, or tenth place finisher and Berlin local Sven “Sprosse” Lehmann? Those are names you may not have heard, and now you have. In addition to local talent, you’ll also find some of the biggest names in the sport on the tour, including Steve McCann, Dave Dillewaard, Ryan Nyquist, Baz Keep, and Koji Kraft.
 
On occasion the LG Tour even brings out some big names that we don’t see at contests very often. Sergio Layos and Axel Jurgens showed up at the event in Spain last year. Northwest US street shredder Kurtis Elwell showed up at the Sacramento, California event. You never know what you’ll get at the Action Sports World Tour. Even Dave Osato showed up at the Birmingham event a few weeks ago. What? That’s right, I said Osato. Respect!
 
If it’s vert you like, the LG Action Sports World Tour totes around one of the best portable vert ramps on the contest scene today, a huge 14 foot-tall halfpipe that is quickly become a favorite of many riders, including Simon Tabron, John Parker, and Tom Haugen. Tom may have just started focusing on vert competitions on other tours this year, but he’s been a fixture on the LG World Tour vert scene for a few years now.
 
With all the show and star power these events bring to exotic locations, they still manage to keep a fun, low-pressure vibe. Don’t be surprised if between events Haugen and friends have their Badminton net set up on the bottom of the vert ramp or next to the Eiffel Tower. These guys are all about having fun.
 
With the Paris event just hours away, you might be out of luck if you haven’t booked your plane ticket yet, but don’t be discouraged. There are still events coming up in San Diego and Dallas later this year. Pack your bike and your badminton racket and come check out the action.
 

-Jared Souney