Luc Ackermann wins World Tour Championship | Team Czech Republic takes national victory at the big NIGHT of the JUMPs season finale in the Hallenstadion

On Saturday, Zurich experienced a gigantic finale to the  NIGHT of the JUMPs 2023 season. The 8,000 spectators in the Hallenstadion were treated to a freestyle motocross spectacle that left them breathless and slumped in their seats after three hours of extreme sport. This was only the second time that the world's most extreme freestyle motocross sports series had brought its extreme athletes to Zurich. In 2019, the FMX athletes celebrated their premiere in the Hallenstadion. For its comeback, NIGHT of the JUMPs brought the Freestyle of Nations to Switzerland's largest city for the first time. Team World competed against teams from the Czech Republic and Spain in various freestyle motocross disciplines.

The visitors' sympathies were clearly with Team World, which featured Mat Rebeaud, the Swiss FMX hero, as well as Australian Nitro World Games winner Harry Bink and German FMX World Champion and X Games winner Luc Ackermann.

FMX 2006 World Champion Rebeaud was also the first from Team World to enter the freestyle contest. He put in a solid run on his electric bike, finishing with the Switchblade Flip. This earned him 46 points. Rebeaud's old World Championship adversary and 2010 World Champion Libor Podmol started for Team Czech Republic. With Supercan Flip or the Cliffhanger Flip, the older of the two Podmol brothers collected 70 points and won Freestyle Heat 1 ahead of Spain's Pedro Moreno, who scored 51 points with Superflip or 1-Hand Nac Underfip.

Czech whipmaster Matej Cesak then had to warm up first. Together with Luc Ackermann, he flew in by helicopter from the Nürburgring, where they both jumped for Red Bull at lunchtime. However, the helicopter landed late and so Matej was unable to train.  But no problem for the Czech, who was also invited to the Best Whip Contest at the X Games. With four test jumps, he went into the competition cold, pulled off the sickest whips and won the trophy.

Team “Espania” got off to a furious start in freestyle heat 2. Marc Pinyol set off FMX fireworks with a tsunami flip, front flip and California roll. He won this round with 74 points. Cesak scored 64 points with Lazyflip, Clicker to Superflip and Seatgrab Flip without having practiced a single one of these tricks here in the Hallenstadion beforehand - amazing. Finally, Australian Harry Bink finished a run without falling for the first time at NIGHT of the JUMPs. He scored 61 points with Tsunami Indy Flip and Hartattack Indy Flip.

Bink then triumphed alongside Luc Ackermann in the Synchro Contest. They won it with massive tsunami flips and good synchronization ahead of Team Czech Republic with the Podmol Brothers. Spain only came 3rd here.

In freestyle heat no. 3, five-time FMX world champion Maikel Melero from Spain put in a spectacular run. Tsunami flip, California roll, front flip, seatgrab Indy flip plus a no-hand front flip as a double up trick. This earned him the highest score of the day so far with 78 points. Filip Podmol wanted to defend his third place in the overall standings with massive tricks and extensions. He succeeded with tricks such as the Cliffhanger Flip, Switchblade Flip, Tsunami Flip, Clicker Indy Flip and Hartattack Flip. However, things got exciting once again as he was unable to pull off the double grab flip as his final jump. But with 70 points he secured bronze in the World Tour Championship.  

Next up was the German FMX World Champion and X Games winner Luc Ackermann. And he had already had a long day, with the Nürburgring and helicopter journey behind him. But the spectators pushed him so hard that he didn't even notice the exertions. Holygrab, 360, Clicker Superflip, Tsunami Flip, Frontflip, Cliffhanger, Seatgrab Flip and to top it all off, the Double Backflip. The Swiss went completely crazy and celebrated Luc, who also received the highest score with 86 points. The German freestyle terminator was thus also crowned World Tour Champion 2023. With five wins in five contests, he scored the maximum points of the NIGHT of the JUMPs season (100 points). Maikel Melero secured second place with his run (86 points) ahead of Filip Podmol (66 points).

Finally, Luc Ackermann also won Best Trick together with Harry Bink and Swiss MTB star Lucas Huppert.

However, the day's victory in the Freestyle of Nations went to Team Czech Republic ahead of Team World and Team Spain in third place. This meant that the team from the Czech Republic led by Filip Podmol, Matej Cesak and Libor Podmol also took victory in the Nations Cup.

The 2023 NIGHT of the JUMPs season is now over. After the winter break, the new tour starts on April 13 with the NIGHT of the JUMPs in Munich. Swiss fans can also look forward to this. The athletes will return to the Hallenstadion on September 7, 2024.

 

Zürich – 09.09.2023

Results

 

Overall

1. Team Czech Republic                         386 Points
2. Team World                                        360 Points    
3. Team Spain                                         348 Points

 

Freestyle Motocross Run 1

1. Team Spain – Pedro Moreno                    51 Points
2. Team Czech Republic – Libor Podmol      70 Points
3. Team World – Mat Rebeaud                     48 Points

 

Freestyle Motocross Run 2

1. Team Spain – Marc Pinyol                        74 Points
2. Team Czech Republic – Matej Cesak        64 Points
3. Team World – Harry Bink                          61 Points

 

Freestyle Motocross Run 3

1. Team World – Luc Ackermann                   86 Points
2. Team Spain – Maikel Melero                     78 Points
3. Team Czech Republic – Filip Podmol         72 Points

 

Whip Contest

1. Team Czech Republic – Matej Cesak           100 Points
2. Team Spain – Marc Pinyol                            80 Points
3. Team World – Harry Bink                             65 Points

Synchro Contest

1. Team World – Ackermann/Bink                      100 Points
2. Team Czech Republic – F.Podmol/L.Podmol   80 Points
3. Team Spain – Moreno/Pinyol                          65 Points

 

Best Trick

1. Team Germany –Ackermann/Bink/Huppert      85 Points
2. Team Czech – F. Podmol/Cesak/Zielinka          67 Points
3. Team Spain – Melero/Pinyol                             49 Points

 

Final NIGHT of the JUMPs World Tour Single Ranking 2023 (after 5 Contests)

1. Luc Ackermann (GER) 100 Points
2. Maikel Melero (ESP)   86 Points
3. Filip Podmol (CZE) 66 Points
4. Marc Pinyol (ESP)                     60 Points
5. Matej Cesak (CZE) 50 Points
6. David Rinaldo (FRA)   48 Points
7. Petr Pilat (CZE) 33 Points
8. Dany Torres (ESP) 32 Points
9. Libor Podmol (CZE) 21 Points
10. Kai Haase (GER) 18 Points
11. Harry Bink (AUS) 17 Points
12. Brice Izzo (FRA) 10 Points
13. Pedro Moreno (ESP) 8 Points
14. Pepa Aaron (CZE)   7 Points
15. Mat Rebeaud (SUI)   7 Points

 

Final NIGHT of the JUMPs World Tour Nations Ranking 2023 (after 5 Contests)

1. Czech Republic 85 Points
2. World 70 Points
3. Spain           70 Points