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New Addition to Vert Finals-Vince Byron

9/4/2009 •

Mongoose Australia's Vince Byron placed 6th in the Vert Finals at the Portland stop of the AST Dew Tour. Check out what he had to say about getting into finals and riding with vert legends.

Training: I had been practicing pretty solid for the previous two weeks making sure I had the base of my runs planned out like so well, it felt like second nature. I think I was fairly confident going into this stop, having alot of my stuff dialed and all of my bigger tricks down on the resi ramp. All I needed to do was to put it together in one smooth run and keep the height to make it to finals.

Feeling going in: By the time I got to the contest I was feeling pretty good. The only thing that worried me was getting used to the ramp. It was bigger than what I'd been practicing on; a 14ft compared to about a 13ft one I had been riding. I pretty much missed practice the day before as the only flight I could afford got in after practice started, which left me about 10mins of warm up by the time I got to the ramp that day. The next day I was there for practice as soon as it started. By the time Prelims came around I was feeling good on the ramp and had everything down in my head for what I wanted to do. The only thing I hadn't done on the ramp, were a couple of my bigger tricks that I only previously had done on resi. I was going to put one in each of my runs.

I made it through prelims and into the final! I was stoked.... never had a I made it into a final for such a big competition. I couldn't get over the fact that I'd be competing with guys like Jamie Bestwick, Chad kagy, Steve Mcann and Simon Tabron. But I had to keep my head straight and keep everything rubber side down!

Thoughts during my run:
By now I was feeling a little nervous. I didnt think the crowd and the atmosphere would really change that much or have an affect on me, but it did! After we got on the ramp the lights went dark in the arena, and we were individually introduced. It definitely felt like I was part of something big! Almost a new competition. But I had to keep it together. I decided I'd do just as I did in Prelims and put in the stuff I knew I could do. The only difference was that I wanted to put everything in one run. For me, that was the only way I knew I could get the highest score. So when the announcer called my name I took a deep breath, head down and pedaled towards the ramp. Then my riding took over, with literally no conscious thought between tricks. I did my run pretty much flawlessly, and I stayed on my bike which was the main thing.

Thoughts afterwards:
I was even more stoked! It was my first final and I just placed 6th. At the start of this year I didn't think I had it in me to ride this well in vert riding. But at least now, I have a bit more money to help me travel to the next competitions and stay over in the US a bit longer. Now my goal is to make the finals the rest of this season and maybe even a podium finish. That would be amazing....!

Cheers,
Vince

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