Nate Adams extended his Red Bull X-Fighters championship lead with victory in the penultimate event of the year in Poland. The American finished top in four of the five categories to claim his third win of the year, denying title rival Dany Torres in the final.
A total of 440 truckloads of dirt had been used to turn the home field of Poland's perennial football side KKS Lech Poznan into a freestyle motocross playing field. The 35,000-seater City Stadium produced a spectacular event, seeing some of the longest and highest jumps all year, with 12 of the world's best FMX riders leaping up to 15m high and distances of up to 36m.
But it was Adams' Honda CR450 that came out on top despite a few nervy moments along the way. “The bike was under-rotating on the long jump and I came down on the front wheel. But I'm really happy to beat Dany”, he commented.
Adams holds a 40 point lead heading into the final round on Cockatoo Island in Sydney six weeks from now. But Spanish rider Torres is still confident he can turn the tables in the final round. “I wasn't 100 percent fit so I'm happy to get second place. I'm going to train hard for the next six weeks and fight back in Australia”, he added.
Eigo Sato of Japan took third place ahead of Chile's Javier Villegas, Spain's Maikel Melero and Petr Pilat who took sixth in front of his home crowd.
Norwegian rider Andre Villa trailed Adams by just ten points before travelling to Poland but saw his hopes destroyed by a crash in qualifying when a failed attempt at a backflip left him with a broken femur. Australian trio Robbie Maddison, Blake Williams and Josh Sheehan also missed out after injuring themselves in the build-up to the event and will look to bounce back on home turf in six weeks.
