Teenage kicks: Just 18 years old, Sherwood has worked hard this year to deliver bigger and better flips than ever
PHOTOGRAPHY: JOERG MITTER/GLOBAL-NEWSROOM (2), BALAZS GARDI/GLOBAL-NEWSROOM (1), PREDRAG VUCKOVIC/GLOBAL-NEWSROOM (1)
“I’m always trying new things.
I’ve got one idea I’m 90 per cent sure I can do, but 10 per cent think is impossible” thing, just being able to feel the bike and work with it. Feeling nimble on the bike. You’re riding it, it’s not riding you. “The other thing is that if I don’t do some of the backflips for a while I’ll get scared,” he adds. “So now I make a point of doing those. It happened after Egypt this year. I just knuckled down and did them. There were a lot of flip tricks I was uncomfortable with so I just went out and did 10 in a row.” With the series now in its 10th year and firmly established as the sport’s premier competition, the pressure to deliver newer, bigger and better tricks is intense, tantamount to an arms race in which riders spend weeks testing new ideas in specially constructed foam pits in a quest for any kind of edge at the next round. Sherwood admits that the pressure to deliver is there but that the development of wilder tricks is part of progressing the sport. “When you ride you get bored with doing the same stuff,” he smiles. “I’m always trying to come up with new things. At the moment I have got one idea, which I’ve seen a lot of BMX riders do, but I’m really not sure if it’s possible. It’s just an idea. I’m 90 per cent sure I can
do it but 10 per cent think it’s impossible. I’ll get back to you on it…” Before that, though, there’s the small matter of round three in Moscow. Before now, Sherwood’s return to competition had been a case of steady, but low-key progress. Seventh in Mexico became fifth in front of Egypt’s pyramids in round two. On that form he could be expected to climb onto the podium for the first time in Moscow. In qualifying, it becomes rapidly clear that Sherwood’s post-Giza grind has paid off. There’s none of the nervy stiffness he showed in the opening rounds. Instead there’s a fluid confidence to his tricks, coupled with a verve and aggression missing from the dog days of Sherwood’s 2009 season. The performance is repeated on Saturday night. In the final, Sherwood meets Nate Adams. The 2009 tour champion and one of the sport’s biggest stars up against an 18-year-old kid with see-sawing form and a long comeback trail behind him? Foregone conclusion. Except that Sherwood is on fire this time, matching the aggression and brio with a crowd-pleasing showmanship that he has previously regarded as a
sideshow to the business end of the sport. Adams folds, his run a pale shadow of his usual ultra-focused style. Sherwood is back, and how. “I do think I’ve changed a bit in the last year,” he reflects. “What I’ve noticed the most is how I feel at these competitions. I’m just a lot more relaxed. Last year I think I’d waste the whole week before a competition worrying about it. I’d worry about the course and how it would be set up and whether I’d be able to compete well. Now I leave all that behind. “I don’t care who’s watching me, who I’m up against. I won’t even watch the other rider’s run. I just go out and do my own stuff.” The sport, though, moves on. Madrid follows in mid-July: a two-day competition that this year features a wild-card competition for young stars trying to break into the big league – just as Sherwood once did. Now though, he’s established, a 2010 winner and looking for more. London beckons. “London was my favourite contest last year,” he smiles. It had everything, the atmosphere, the people. It was just incredible. I think I finally cracked it there. It was the first time I really felt comfortable with the competition. I realised in London that this is quite a special thing for me. Not too many people get the opportunity to do the sport they love, ride all the time and travel a lot as a job. It’s pretty special.” Moscow highlights at nz.redbulletin/print2.0 Find Red Bull X-Fighters news and info, tour dates and tickets at www.redbullxfighters.com
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