This weekend’s Red Bull X-Fighters in the Oettelshofen Quarry close to Wuppertal looks set to become a revenge match after American Jeremy Lusk snatched the X-Games Moto X Freestyle Gold Medal in Los Angeles from Swiss rider and Red Bull X-Fighters leader Matthieu ‘Mat’ Rebeaud.
Rebeaud’s defeat came as a shock. Until now, Rebeaud had been on top form with his KTM bike, dominating the season and winning 3 of 4 stops of the Red Bull X-Fighters World Series. His success has pleased the Swiss so much that they even produced a golden Swatch watch in his honour.
One single mishap – completing a jump without a trick – cost him the X-Games title in the final against Jeremy Lusk. It’s a mistake that he’ll be looking not to repeat at the fifth stop of the Red Bull X-Fighters World Series this weekend in Oettelshofen, Germany.
Lusk, however, is increasingly coming into his own. Next to the X-Games Gold Medal, he has been on the podium at every Red Bull X-Fighters stop he started in 2008.
After Jeremy “Twitch” Stenberg’s forced retirement from this season with a complicated hand injury, only Australian Robbie Maddison stands a chance of catching Rebeaud in the championships. The 27-year-old literally jumped into the record books earlier this year when he leapt a length equivalent to a football field on his motorbike.
RIDERS RED BULL X-FIGHTERS WUPPERTAL 2008
Mat Rebeaud / SUI / KTM
Robbie Maddison / AUS / Yamaha
Dany Torres / ESP / KTM
Ronnie Renner / USA / KTM
Dustin Miller /USA / Suzuki
Taka Higashino / JPN / Yamaha
Busty Wolter / GER / Suzuki
Fabian Bauersachs / GER / KTM
Fredrik Johansson / SWE / Suzuki
Nick DeWit / RSA / KTM
Jeremy Lusk / USA / Yamaha
Petr Pilat / CZE / KTM
