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Red Bull Imagination: Bereman’s 185-footer jump helps Team Maddo to victory
Tyler Bereman’s massive 185-foot hit helps capture Red Bull Imagination 4.0 win.
A massive 185-foot hit, a backflip over trees, a brand-new format, the first draft in Red Bull Imagination history, and an all-new course. The action in Fort Scott, Kansas, site of Red Bull Imagination 4.0, featured tons of storylines before the competition even began.
Guillem Navas & Kohl Denney hit a jump at Red Bull Imagination
© Chris Tedesco / Red Bull Content Pool
Two teams captained by legendary freestyle stars Jeremy “Twitch” Stenberg and Robbie “Maddo” Maddison were set to take on a new format featuring five categories: Best Whip, Big Dawg, Creative Line, Speed and Style, and Team Line. Three judges will determine the winner of each category, culminating in an overall team win based on the most category wins.
Team Maddo was down a rider after an injury to Brian McCarty during practice and would only feature four riders: Patrick Evans (Speed and Style and Best Whip), Tom Parsons (Best Whip), Kohl Denney (Creative Line), and Tyler Bereman (Big Dawg and Best Whip).
Team Twitch included a full roster of five riders with Josh Hill taking on Evans in Speed and Style. Newcomer to the team, Julien Vanstippen, was set to go head-to-head with Bereman in Big Dawg and would also be in Best Whip. Vicki Golden was selected to compete in Creative Line while Guillem Navas and Christian Dresser rounded out Team Twitch’s roster in Best Whip.
Red Bull Imagination 2023 rider teams
© Chris Tedesco / Red Bull Content Pool
01
Creative Line
Kohl Denney (Team Maddo) vs Vicki Golden (Team Twitch):
Format: One rider per team will be judged on the most creative line they can find through the course.
In another tightly contested battle, Golden took on Denney in Creative Line. Golden hit a bunch of transfers and then went through the woods to hit the tree jump. Denney was feeling it early on and nailed his custom container set up and then landed his only backflip of the week. His run was perfect until he cased a jump at the bottom of the course and crashed hard, which helped Golden get Team Twitch on the board.
Vicki Golden hits a jump at Red Bull Imagination 2023 in Fort Scott, Kansas
© Christian Pondella / Red Bull Content Pool
Winner: Golden
“My line was a little bit different than what I originally planned for,” said Golden. “This morning I had to do three or four extra jumps to make my line complete. To go in here and find something that's outside of a box that's already outside of the box, it's actually really challenging. So, to be in that, it definitely challenged me beyond my abilities.”
02
Speed and Style
Patrick Evans (Team Maddo) vs Josh Hill (Team Twitch):
Format: One rider per team will take a timed run through a predetermined course to decide a winner based on a combination of speed and style.
Josh Hill had the speed, but Patrick Evans had the style. Hill had the speed advantage and used it. He was certainly quicker than Evans but didn’t quite bring the same style as Evans landed a big backflip in his run which gave him the slight advantage.
Patrick Evans hits a jump at Red Bull Imagination 2023 in Fort Scott
© Chris Tedesco / Red Bull Content Pool
Winner: Evans
“I mean, the whole week is a highlight reel for me,” said Evans. “My first dirt to dirt backflip. Just getting into the category… that to me was really awesome. And then to win is amazing.”
03
Big Dawg
Tyler Bereman (Team Maddo) vs Julien Vanstippen (Team Twitch):
Format: One rider per team will be scored on the biggest hits they can land.
One for the ages. Bereman and Vanstippen traded off massive hits in a battle of titans. Bereman tied together three massive jumps which included a big whip over the 185-footer. Vanstippen responded by throwing out a double grab Superman on the 185-footer and a backflip over the 90-footer. In the end, Bereman took a slight win to score one category for Team Maddo.
Tyler Bereman hits a jump at Red Bull Imagination 2023 in Fort Scott
© Chris Tedesco / Red Bull Content Pool
Winner: Bereman
“The middle jump section, there's three massive jumps,” said Bereman. “There are two 155-foot jumps and then a 180 foot. Got all three of those, which I was super stoked on. A little bit breezy today, but you got to block that out and do it for the fans that are supporting the cause.”
04
Best Whip
Tyler Bereman, Tom Parsons, Patrick Evans (Team Maddo) vs Julien Vanstippen, Guillem Navas and Christian Dresser (Team Twitch):
Format: Six riders, three per team, will do one run each and then one rider from each team will be dropped until the final two riders take a run to determine the winner.
Evans was the first rider to go and absolutely threw down with every style of whip in massive fashion. In an upset, Tyler Bereman was eliminated in the first round. Tom Parsons was throwing upside down whips for the fans, but it wasn’t enough to get him into the finals. The win would come down to Evans and Vanstippen. Vanstippen was getting backwards on his whips and throwing down some massive hits. But Evans was too strong, throwing every whip in his arsenal to take the win.
Tyler Bereman, Julian Vanstippen and Patrick Evans
© Chris Tedesco / Red Bull Content Pool
Winner: Evans
“First Best Whip win of the year,” said Evans. It's been a little dry spell for me, so I'm stoked to come out on top and also get the win for Team Maddo.”
05
Team Line
Team Maddo vs Team Twitch:
Format: Each team will coordinate their “best team line” during a three-minute run to determine a category winner between Team Twitch and Team Maddo.
Team Maddo was down to only three riders in this one with Evans, Bereman and Parsons. Both Bereman and Evans hit some big dog jumps with Bereman finishing it off on the 185-footer. But Team Twitch was moving all over the course hitting different lines and captured the win.
Josh Hill hits a jump at Red Bull Imagination 2023 in Fort Scott, Kansas
© Christian Pondella / Red Bull Content Pool
Winner: Team Twitch
Overall Team Winner: Team Maddo 3-2
In the first ever team format, it was Team Maddo taking the win 3-2 over Team Twitch.
“Today was the best year yet by far,” said Bereman. “We made a lot of changes to this whole thing, and everyone stepped up to the plate for their team. The vibe was really high today and the energy was through the roof.”
The full show of Red Bull Imagination will air on ESPN2 on October 8 at 4:00-5:00 pm EST and will be available to stream on Red Bull TV afterwards.
Julien Vanstippen & Tyler Bereman at Red Bull Imagination in Fort Scott
© Christian Pondella / Red Bull Content Pool