Spring has sprung in Switzerland, and the World Championship series was heating up inside the St Jakobshalle arena when the riders battled again at the 6th round of NIGHT of the JUMPs.
Before the event kicked off, many of the riders were affected by French Air-controller strikes which stopped all flights going through French air-space, consequently forcing riders to miss their flights and find alternative transport, but the most affected rider was none-other than the current World Championships points leader, Maikel Melero.
Melero‰Ûªs flights were cancelled not once, but twice and was then forced to drive 1,900 kilometres through the night to arrive in Basel 2 hours after practise had begun.
Qualification was filled with drama, and a very close battle between the two Italian‰Ûªs, Leo Fini and Davide Rossi who showed they have stepped up their riding since the European Championships qualifier in Linz. Also Germany‰Ûªs Hannes Ackermann, USA‰Ûªs James Carter and Jose Miralles, however the Spaniard, Miralles, would go through to the final and piece together a smooth run and secure 5th place.
Miralles had a busy night after making the Final 6 by also taking out the win in the Maxxis Highest Air competition over fellow Spaniard, Maikel Melero, with a final height of 9.00 metres. Jose‰Ûªs victory has now catapulted him to the overall leader of the Maxxis Highest Air series in front of Massimo Bianconcini who wasn‰Ûªt able to compete in Basel. USA‰Ûªs James Carter also came away with the victory in the Lifeproof Best Whip competition, with the undisputed best whip, easily turning his bike down past 120 degrees.
In the final, the crowd witnessed the only crash of the night from the Czech star, Libor Podmol, who took a dirt sample when over-rotating his Surfer Take-off Flip to Tsunami on only his second jump of his run. Podmol had pushed through from a mid-week training injury and was lucky to avoid any further injury in this mishap.
