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Coming into the Wendy's Invitational in Portland, Mike Spinner
had an idea in his head of a dream run that contained two of his most
incredible moves, the 1080 and the quadruple tailwhip. He got them both
done in a clean first run, posting a 92.67 score, taking over the lead,
and putting some serious pressure on his main rival, Daniel Dhers had taken wins at the first two stops of the 2008 Dew Tour, but it was Spinner who won last year in Portland. When Dhers dropped in for his first run, he was looking for revenge.
Although the Park Finals here in Portland essentially boiled down to
the rivalry between those two riders, that doesn't mean there weren't
plenty of other great performances going down. Rob Darden did his part to make the podium match the one we saw in Cleveland,
taking third with a killer 720 transfer and a full 60 seconds of
back-to-back tricks peppered all over the course. Steven McCann placed fourth with a no-hander to turndown 720, a huge truckdriver to tailwhip, and a no-handed 720 over the spine. Dennis Enarson rounded out the top five with triple whips in both runs and a barspin to tailwhip up the Nike 6.0 step-up gap.
Ryan Nyquist pulled single and double barspin 720s over the box, but crashes in both
runs held him to sixth. It's worth noting that rather than pulling out
after the crash in his first run, he rallied back to pull a string of
big moves like a barspin 540 and a suicide no-handed flip before his
time was up. Ryan is the definition of pro. Anthony Napolitan was smooth as glass on his truckdriver to tailwhips, but couldn't land the triple whip 360 as cleanly as he had in Prelims.
Dhers knew he needed a perfect run to top Spinner's, but he's certainly
used to dealing with the pressure. "I think I was a little nervous," he
said after the contest. "I was just trying to take it easy, take a few
deep breaths and get my mind clear."
It must have worked, because he unleashed one of the best runs of his
career. He did a 720 up the step-up, a 360 whip transfer into the box
landing, a huge double tailwhip on the 10-foot quarter, a no-handed
720, and a brand-new can-can 720. He's been leaking out new 720
variations little by little this year, and the can-can was a definite
banger.
Dhers bested Spinner's first run by more than a point, and Spinner was
unable to answer in run two. That makes Dhers three for three on the
'08 Tour, and puts him in contention to be the first Dew Tour athlete
to win all five events in a single season.
He goes into next month's Toyota Challenge in Salt Lake City 55 points ahead of Spinner in the race for his third consecutive Dew Cup, but he's not ready to go into cruise control mode just yet. "Spinner's
always there," he says, "so I can't really take it for granted; you can
never underestimate your opponents." Dhers will certainly stay in
attack mode for the rest of the season, and he'll most likely have a
few more surprises up his sleeve. "I still have a few tricks saved up
for the next few contests. I saw the course design for the next stop
and I like it a lot. I'm definitely looking forward to Salt Lake City."
Results
1. Daniel Dhers
2. Mike Spinner
3. Rob Darden
4. Steve McCann
5. Dennis Enarson
6. Ryan Nyquist
7. Anthony Napolitan
8. Diogo Canina
9. Craig Mast
10. Garrett Reynolds
11. Brandon Dosch
12. Seth Klinger
(AST.com)
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