Melero holds his nerves

The Finale of the Night of the JUMPs Globe Championships went down in front of a sold out Armeec Arena in Sofia and delivered the most exciting final ever witnessed. Just before the final round of the FIM Freestyle MX Globe Championships the two adversaries David Rinaldo (FRA) and Maikel Melero (ESP) were separated by a mere two points. The result would come down to the last seconds of this year’s World Cup.

For the two rivals, they have been once again protected to qualify into the final. This was especially important for Rinaldo who had the even far more challenging task of overcoming his continuing shoulder injury. In spite of the battered shoulder he would sit in second location soon after qualifying. Maikel Melero’s nerves held out, as he performed the California Roll, Flair and Double Grab flip which place him at the head of Qualification. Rob Adelberg, Brice Izzo, Remi Bizouard and Petr Pilat also fought off the challengers to make the final six.

Opening the Final round, Rob Adelberg required to push for a podium position after his sixth location qualification. Adelberg accented his best run by landing his very first ever California Roll to No Hand Landing mixture with no a bar verify. Rob’s run was adequate to make it to the podium, but he also benefited from the crashes from fellow competitors Brice Izzo who crashed on his Flair in the Double Up and then Remi Bizouard who also landed challenging from a Volt body varial.

The riders and crew from Night of the JUMPs now go into a effectively-deserved Christmas Vacation. The new Night of the JUMPs season starts again on 23rd/24th of January 2015 with the two European Championship competitions in Linz / Austria. The FIM Freestyle MX Globe Championships will commence the week later at Night of the JUMPs in Basel / Switzerland on 29th/30th January, 2016.

Then the large moment arrived to the ten,000 spectators in the Armeec Arena with the final showdown amongst the very first and second placed qualifiers, Maikel Melero and David Rinaldo. The Frenchman had to show his cards and rode 1st. Opening his account with a spectacular Volt and then straight into a California Roll, it appeared that Rinaldo was about to put with each other an impressive run. Till David suffered from nerves and didn’t extend by way of his Cordova Flip and then subsequently didn’t execute the Clicker-SuperFlip Combo with the usual precision the fans expected. David fought back and showed an added trick to aid his score and then the Double Hart Attack Flip in the Double-Up. His mistakes price him the lead and he identified himself behind Adelberg on the hot seat. It was enough to maintain the pressure on Melero to execute a best run if he was to nevertheless win the World Championship.

The little Spaniard nevertheless didn’t disappoint the Bulgarian crowd as he held his nerves and to retain his Planet Championship title. After landing his personal version of the Cali-Roll, Double Grab Backflip and the Flair with Nac-Nac combo in perfect fashion, Melero would his onto his lead until the really end. With the victory he landed two points ahead of Rinaldo in the general final results and defended his Planet Championship success and grow to be only the second rider to win two consecutive Planet Titles in the FIM Globe Championship history.

Night of the JUMPs/FIM Freestyle MX Globe Championship
Sofia, 12th December 2015 – Round 12
Final results Night of the JUMPs – Final
1. Maikel Melero ESP RFME KTM 423 Points
2. Rob Adelberg AUS MA Yamaha 390 Points
three. David Rinaldo FRA FFM Yamaha 388 Points
four. Petr Pilat CZE ACCR KTM 369 Points
5. Remi Bizouard FRA FFM Kawasaki 334 Points
six. Brice Izzo FRA FFM Yamaha 312 Points

Results Qualification
1. Maikel Melero ESP RFME KTM 363 Points
2. David Rinaldo FRA FFM Yamaha 352 Points
3. Remi Bizouard FRA FFM Kawasaki 351 Points
four. Brice Izzo FRA FFM Yamaha 348 Points
five. Petr Pilat CZE ACCR KTM 338 Points
six. Rob Adelberg AUS MA Yamaha 338 Points
7. Jose Miralles ESP RFME KTM 322 Points
8. Hannes Ackermann GER DMSB KTM 287 Points
9. James Carter USA AMA Honda 244 Points
ten. Fred Kyrillos BRA CBM Yamaha 186 Points

FIM Freestyle MX Globe Championship
Ranking (soon after 12th contest)
1. Maikel Melero ESP RFME Yamaha 200 Points
two. David Rinaldo FRA FFM Yamaha 198 Points
three. Rob Adelberg AUS AMA Yamaha 172 Points
four. Libor Podmol CZE ACCR Yamaha 138 Points
5. Remi Bizouard FRA FFM Kawasaki 118 Points
six. Hannes Ackermann GER DMSB KTM 97 Points
7. Brice Izzo FRA FFM Yamaha 97 Points
eight. Jose Miralles ESP RFME KTM 95 Points
9. Petr Pilat CZE ACCR KTM 72 Points
10. James Carter USA AMA Honda 64 Points
11. Luc Ackermann GER DMSB Husqvarna 47 Points
12. Dany Torres ESP RFME Yamaha 37 Points
13. Filip Podmol CZE ACCR Yamaha 23 Points
14. Taka Higashino JAP Yamaha 16 Points
15. Davide Rossi ITA PZM KTM 14 Points
16. Kai Haase GER DMSB Suzuki 12 Points