Dhers Wins BMX Park

Jul 16 2006 / Denver Dew Tour fans came ready for a grand finale show at the BMX Park Finals, the last event in the 2006 Right Guard Open. This whole weekend has taken its toll on these guys. Most of the big guns were involved in major crashes resulting in some surprising upsets. But, that opened up the Finals for anybody to win.

The riders had two 60-second runs to impress the judges and they gave it all they had. At the end of Round 1 the standings had Daniel Dhers, Ryan Nyquist and 15 year-old Garret Reynolds in the top three spots. Daniel Dhers, who placed third in Louisville, blasted out a 93.0 on his first run which was good enough to keep him in 1st place until the end. The excited Venezuelan took home the $15,000 grand prize saying, “Everything just worked out for me. This is so crazy!”

Ryan Nyquist treated the park like it was dirt – and I mean that in a good way – going bigger than anyone else in the competition. As a result, he took 2nd. And Alistair Whitton, who came into the Finals in 1st put together two powerful runs but still lost a couple of places and finished in 3rd place.

Dave Mirra, who dropped out of Vert to concentrate on Park, crashed big at the end of his first run. At first he appeared to be fine but later announced that he would forfeit his second run. Scotty Cranmer, the winner of the Panasonic Open leg of the Dew Tour in Louisville didn’t even make it into the Denver Finals. The same thing happened with Tour favorite Ryan Guettler. Guettler was expected to rank high this weekend, but was plagued with crashes and injuries. He finished 21st in the Prelims.

Finally, major props go out to Allan Cooke who crashed big time during Saturday’s practice knocking out several teeth and treating him to a trip to the hospital. Then during Sunday’s Prelims he blacked out because he wasn’t able to eat anything all day. He crashed again on his first run in the Finals hitting face on the ground hard. And despite the agony he was going through he still got up and rode his second run.

And that concludes the Dew Tour coverage of the Right Guard Open here in Denver. Go check out the photo gallery pages for the complete picture of this weekend. And then go out and ride.