Ryan Nyquist brings out a new trick in Dirt Finals while Napolitan maintains his series points lead. As the sun set on the Pepsi Center Friday night, Dew Tour fans migrated to the BMX dirt jump area after being treated to the Skate Park Final event, pumped up for the final round of Dirt in Denver. Unfortunately, Diogo Canina went down in practice less than an hour before start time and had to withdraw from the comp, leaving eleven riders to battle for the prize money and Dew series points.

Things got off to somewhat of a slow start, with many riders either crashing or missing their planned tricks in their first runs. However, as is often the case at dirt-jumping contests, most of the riders had Cinderella-story comebacks in their second runs. Here’s how the riders placed, along with the runs that got them there:

12. Diogo Canina. As we already mentioned, Diogo wasn’t able to ride in the finals, which is a shame, because his double-whip 360s and 720s in prelims were perfect. Hell be back in action at the Portland stop.

11. TJ Ellis. TJ fired out the biggest frontflip of the comp over the first set in his first run, but landed low and blew off the bike into the face of the next jump. Amazingly, he recovered from the resulting knockout in time for his second run, but still couldn’t get past the second set. His fourth place finish in qualifying was no fluke, though; well definitely be seeing more of him.

10. Corey Bohan. Corey laid out a one-footed invert 360 over set one, a no-handed opposite 360 on set two, then set up for a barspin to whip over set three, but ran out of time to throw the whip. Corey’s usually higher in the standings, and he’s consistent enough to still be in the running for the year-end title.

9. Gary Young. 360 whip on set one, barspin to table on set two, 360 turndown to table on set three. Gary’s got great style, and he can tabletop out of just about any trick you can name.

8. Michael Clark. Hucker went for another double flip in the finals, and despite blowing off a pedal when he landed, it was enough to send the crowd into a frenzy.

7. Allan Cooke. Allan put a good run in the can right off the bat, firing out a one-footed x-up flip, a double tailwhip, and a clean 360 whip. That didn’t stop him from breaking out a wild superman seatgrab backflip in run two, though.

6. Ryan Guettler. Ryan slightly missed the landing on a frontflip over set one in run one, but returned in run two with a big frontflip, a double tailwhip, and a 720. He was happy enough with that to throw his gloves and shirt to his fans in the crowd.

5. Chris Doyle. Chris was one of only two riders to deliver two complete runs, and he was pretty darn happy with both of them. A huge 360 turndown, a mid-rhythm 720, and a stretched suicide double-truckdriver put a big smile on his face.

4. Dave Dillewaard. Dilly had the pump on set one wired, blasting higher than anyone else. A cannonball to x-up, a double tailwhip, and a 360 whip to barspin proved he was no slouch on the other sets, either.

3. Luke Parslow. Practically all of Luke’s practice runs brought cheers from the crowd, and his first contest run did the same. A first-set flipwhip, second-set frontflip, and third-set barspin to x-up backflip brought some cheers from Luke himself, as well.

2. Anthony Napolitan. The surprise winner of the Panasonic Open looked poised to win in Denver as well after his second run the one he wanted to pull in Louisville - vaulted him into first place. Frontflip no-hander, double tailwhip, and a double tailwhip 360. It looked like he was going to pull another big upset, but one rider had other plans.

1. Ryan Nyquist. Ryan pulled a barspin 720 well over a year ago for a video part, but had shelved the trick since then. During practice Thursday night, he unexpectedly fired out his second-ever barspin 720; number three soon followed, and they just kept coming. He obviously found his 720 groove in Denver; his winning run consisted of a barspin flip, a mid-rhythm 720, and the barspin seven that now firmly resides in his bag of tricks. Winning a contest with a new trick is icing on the cake for any rider, prompting Ryan to jump around like a little kid, claiming that it felt like it was his first contest win. Well let him tell you how it felt:

It was awesome, Ryan said with a smile. The pressures on, everybody’s doing wild stuff. Anthony’s crazy, Luke’s crazy, so you have to go crazy. The relief of getting the win was one thing, but pulling the trick I knew I could do (the barspin 720), but it just came down to whether or not I could do it when the pressure was on. I didn’t get it in the first run, and I knew exactly what I did wrong, so I had to go back and get it done. I’m stoked, man; I’m just so, so happy!

Napolitan, Nyquist, and Parslow have a healthy points lead over everybody else going into Portland, so well have to see how the battle develops between the three of them. That only means that everybody else will have to keep stepping up to try to catch them, so well continue to see some unbelievable runs on Dirt for the rest of the Tour. Can it get any crazier? It can, and it will.

Results:

1. Ryan Nyquist 96.25
2. Anthony Napolitan 94.00
3. Luke Parslow 93.25
4. Dave Dillewaard 91.00
5. Chris Doyle 90.50
6. Ryan Guettler 89.00
7. Allan Cooke 87.25
8. Michael Clark 86.50
9. Gary Young 85.75
10. Corey Bohan 84.75
11. TJ Ellis 80.75
12. Diogo Canina 0.00