The first stop on the 2009 Dew Tour series was held at a new location in Chicago, Illinois June 24th– 27th 2009.
Long time Premium Products rider Josh Harrington made it through the open qualification in 1st place against 50 other open competitors, to try out in the preliminary rounds the following day where he joined previously qualified from last years points Rob Darden and Garrett Reynolds and they would all compete for a shot at the finals.
Josh may have rode a little better in the open qualifier, and managed 23rd place with tricks like bar-spin to bar-spin back drop in off the 8ft wall, and a seat grab bar-spin move over the box jump.
Rob Darden continues his focused goals in BMX with a great 2nd run in prelims after going down hard in run 1. Rob killed it and did nothing wrong in his 11th place finish that included more flow than most riders on the course and a dialed 720 truck-driver over the box. Rob was unlucky not to make the final in Chicago, but I’m sure the next stop in Portland will be a different story.
The freshly graduated from high school Premium Products rider that makes everything look really easy, Garrett Reynolds killed prelims in 2nd place, and into the finals he continued his mix of ramp and street skills to finish on the podium in 2nd. Garrett is on top of his game and is probably the only rider that has no foam pit experience that can dominate a Dew tour stop. He packs probably twice as many tricks into his run that other competitors and includes tricks that he can only do including a massive start with a bar to bar 360 drop in of the wall, manual to no hander held stretched the whole drop, curved wall ride to no-hander, and a 360 no-hander drop like it was over a dirt jump. The kid is on fire and its great to see.
Rob Darden was the only Premium Products rider to compete in Dirt and with 720’s in both runs on different sets in the final; he managed an impressive … place finish against a tough final.
Garrett Reynolds was selected to pick a 3 man team to compete in a new Street class that the riders utilized a course designed with rails and ledges and the 3 teams had to film over 2 days and the chosen winners were based on the video part that came out at the end. I got to see first hand a demo that was 30% based on the judges decision and It looked like Garrett’s team was going to take the win, but after the
video was revealed, Garrett’s team come in 2nd.
The Premium Products team looks forward to the 2nd round in Portland Oregon, August 13th-16.
Colin Mackay
