Tommy Clowers Gold Medal/Moto X Step Up/X Games 11 © Tomas Zuccareno/Shazamm/ESPN Images

Raising the Bar in Step-Up

In the world of Moto, it's all about the air. From boosting huge in FMX to soaring past the competition in SuperMoto, the ability to go big is what distinguishes top riders from the rest and puts them on the podium.  In an effort to see who the top airman is this week in Los Angeles, the MotoX Step Up competition at X Games 12 pits rider versus gravity and lets them battle it out to see who can go the highest and who needs a bigger pair of cajones.  Regularly getting over 30 feet above the lip, riders must clear a horizontal crossbar and set the standard those after them.  If you hit the bar, you have one more chance until you're out.  If you clear the bar, be prepared to take it up a notch and go bigger in order to survive and advance to the next round.

Saturday's Step Up competition at the Home Depot Center features an insane matchup of Moto's best riders and will surely be a sick event to say the least.  With X Games 11 Gold Medalist Tommy Clowers, Carson City, Nevada's Matt Buyten, Metal Mulisha madman Brian Deegan, big air Godfather Mike Metzger and motocross legend Jeremy McGrath, saying that there will be some stiff competition doesn't even begin to do things justice.  If you don't remember, the last few years of Step Up saw an unreal shifting ranks between Clowers, Buyten and McGrath; and with Buyten narrowly missing victory last year to Clowers, you better believe he's coming in hot in 2006 to get revenge as well as the Gold. Always ready for battle, all bets are on Buyten to take it as he had the longest-ever Step Up competition with McGrath during X Games 10; proving he has the stamina and drive to persevere and come out on top.

With only 25 feet of runway between the riders and the vertical dirt wall, the MotoX Step Up will force these guys to stand and deliver if they want to come out on top.  Cheating fate and risking life and limb on every jump they take, Step Up riders are some of the craziest of the Moto bunch and these guys are no exception.  So can Buyten reclaim the Gold that he won at X Games Nine?  Will Clowers continue his reign and be Buyten's nemesis?  Until we get a crystal ball, no one knows for sure.  So be sure not to miss a second of the intense Step Up Finals action and find out what X Games 12 has in store for this intense moto rivalry!

-Glen Braunsdorf