The final BMX Vert contest of the 2008 AST Dew Tour went down on Friday night in Orlando, the culmination of the season-long back-and-forth battle between Chad Kagy and Jamie Bestwick. The closely-matched riders sized each other up one final time at the PlayStation® Pro, with Bestwick taking a well-deserved win.

The two riders came into the final stop with only 30 points separating them in the chase for the year-end Dew Cup. Bestwick already has three of the Dew Cups in his trophy case, so Kagy was looking to get his hands on his own for 2008. They weren't the only two riders on the deck, however; eight more of Vert's best were also up for the challenge.

Francisco “Coco” Zurita ended up in fifth with some of his smoothest airs ever, including clean double whips and perfect flairs. His whip to x-up and whip to turndown combos are getting dialed, as well. It was looking like Dennis McCoy might end up in a podium spot for much of the night; he dropped a barspin 540 and a 900 in his first run to earn his highest score of the Tour so far.

Simon Tabron wasn't going to relinquish a podium spot at the last contest of the year, though, and made up for a crashed 900 in run one by landing one of the most picture-perfect 900s in run two. Add invert and turndown 540s and a flair over the channel, and Tabron leapfrogged over DMC to land in third.

Once again, it came down to Kagy and Bestwick, two of the gnarliest riders to ever grace a Vert ramp. Kagy dropped a full run with a barspin to tailwhip, a double tailwhip over the channel, and a perfect flatspin flair tailwhip. Bestwick answered with x-up to turndown and barspin to turndown combos, an alley-oop superman seatgrab, a topside no-footed can-can, and a silky smooth 540 invert. He topped it all off with a killer opposite flair to fastplant opposite flair, and he landed in the top spot for the fourth time on the '08 Tour.

Kagy and Bestwick enjoyed a great rivalry on the ramp this year, and we got to witness some of the best Vert riding in history. Progression happened on all fronts; Jimmy Walker came close to his first 900 at this contest, and Zack Warden landed his first 540. That's just a small sample of what's going to go down in training sessions this winter; everyone will emerge next June with new tricks in the bag for the 2009 AST Dew Tour, and the bar will be raised once again.