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X-Games

ESPN had dedicated part of their Web site to the X-Games, including bicycle stunt. The site includes stories, interviews, pictures, audio, and video. There are some errors here and there (spelling flair "flare", for example), but overall it's not bad. Still, I expected more from a company like ESPN (maybe that was my mistake).

For one thing, the video clips aren't the best. There's one of Jamie Bestwick's topside no-footed can-can on vert which is rad, but most of the others are pretty weak: Trevor Meyer pulling a "flashy and improbable double-decade", and a Dave Mirra 540 where they don't even show the takeoff. I know they have better footage -- I watched it!

Most of the stories are written in a newspaper sports page style by non-riders, so you can imagine what you get. (It's hard enough for a rider to write a good contest story.) Sometimes it comes off sounding dumb: I know it's hard to write for flatland, but even the worst flatland coverage in Ride is better than this:
  • "He also expects to make a bike dance under him"
  • "And while he doesn't have the most powerful tail whips among the field, they are the smoothest. He keeps the bike spinning at the same RPM, rather than yanking the bike around an axis."
Then of course there's Xplained, explanations of riding that's sometimes outright wrong. The glossary page can be informative to non-riders, but the "slang" section is pretty dumb (although "Pullin' a McCoy" was pretty funny -- and correct). "Yo Madd Phat"? 'Nuff said. I think this whole page is the result of some riders yankin' ESPN's crank...


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